Oasis Hotel Angeles

... I am sitting with a 12 year old girl who was sexually trafficked by a 65 year old man. I only learned the details of the case through the girl the night before. So we were sitting there and I was not sure what to expect but soon the guy who was accused is escorted by police into the same court room and he was seated just two rows in front of the girl. It was so surreal. There was also another girl who is 16 and pressing charges ...

... I really do have the site of my dreams!.
Well this weekend we have a college from Manila here for an immersion project. Here in Olongapo City there is a very large night life with GRO's (guest relations officers) so in order for about 20 college students to pass they have a street immersion project. It began on Friday with gender sensitivity training and a discussion of the laws that support women. It was a pretty normal Friday until we went bar ...

... Ni(2) Cor(corinthians) shi(4) indicates 2Cor. chapter4 related to a verse, ".. treasure in earthen vessel". Senzin means saints in Japanese. We had a sweet time in the fellowhip of life which was very refreshing.

Not often we meet a person leaves you with sweet impression and today we met those kind of people by the Lord's arrangement. we will remember them and pray for them that we run the race together.

... faced the Superman Ride. First you go feet first then head then the other way. It was like a flying fox but you were attached onto the wire. It was a like being an acrobat. First I was scared so we screamed. But it was fun afterwards.

Then we went on the Treeking Adventure. A guide told us that a jungle was a pharmacy and a market. He told us to be careful for snakes, wild boars and poisonous ivy.
Olongapo day2, Luzon, Philippines macnee

... saturdays we had a practicum site at a local orphanage. The orphanage had about 100 kids who were abandoned or runaways. I wish we could have spent more time at our practicum site because it was one of the best parts of training. Training was mostly about culture and our specific jobs as children youth and family specialits. It was also a time to get used to the culture. We had two teachers who were Philippino and were able to answer all of our questions no matter ...

... 1700 pesos for a room, so we simply walked to a nicer looking place next door and found a room for 1000 pesos. It was called the Ramada Hotel, and it had an attached (but expensive) Korean restaurant and a large clean pool beside it. The standard room that we got included a fridge, an air-conditioner, cable TV, hot-showers and free Wi-Fi so we decided to stay there for our stay in Angeles. Unfortunately they did not have any available standard ...

... in "that" hotel will NOT be an option. I quickly got dressed and went to a secondary hotel I researched before leaving Hawaii....the Pacific Breeze. It was right around the corner and after walking into the lobby, I knew I'd stay here. This place is freaking great! marble floors, everything new, restaurant/bar next to a great pool, a/c and ceiling fan in room, etc ...

... ago. The farm was featured and we had over 45 visitors that day. Wonderful exposure!! As my projects are beginning to take shape I am realizing the difficulties of trying to implement programs without funding. That being said we have been looking for grants and outside funding available for environmental projects. My host aunt and I just turned in a funding application to the Philippines Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation in the hopes to get funding for ...

... aka: old manila. This was a very old part of town, and we went to Casa Manila (An Old Spanish House), and we took a tour there. There were some students there that got a picture of us because they thought that we were the backstreet boys. They also began shooting a movie at that house while we were there. On Wednesday, we went to Megamall which is 1 km long and 6 stories high. They have absolutely crazy amounts of malls here. So we shopped there all ...

... said a little bit dangerous they kind of meant it. Were we impressed, yes it was worth it. I've never seen anything like it and I can't imagine what it must have been like to go from a normal village field, track, church to having 60 feet of ash fall and wipe almost all trace away. We were told that most people were evacuated but as even today they don't exactly have an upto data census I'm sure that there were a few unfortunates who didn't escape.