Wednesday - Dumaguete

We woke early in order to ready ourselves and make the ship for Dumaguete.  This is actually a decent hotel that is catered to the western taste.  They even had pancakes at breakfast.  It's phenomenal that it was setup as a mission to provide employment for the deaf.

We had a very bumpy ride back to Dumaguete and arrived 30 minutes behind schedule.  A few of the team felt a little ill.  We weren't as adventurous with card games as we were on the way out.  Too bumpy and too many people.  We were just glad to finally be back in Dumaguete.

We immediately headed for the mountains after arrival.  We visited the LCP community in Tikala.  It was another rough journey due to the terrain.  It is a beautiful area.  So lush and rich with fauna.  There were fruit trees everywhere.  We had a bible study lesson led by one of the members of the team.  It was great meeting the people and seeing the children and how they have benefited through the actions of LCP.  I found one of the plants I remember playing with as a kid.  It closes up on touch.  I always thought it was the neatest thing.  I showed this to all the teenagers on the trip.  They call it the shy plant.  I don't recall the Cebuano name for it.

After leaving the Tikala, a few of the team visited in the home of the sponsored child of one of the teens.  It was a great trip up there.  It was like traversing through the jungle.  We even had to cross a bamboo bridge over a river.  Yes, Megan experienced all this as well.  We saw many fruit trees including those for star apple, lanzones, papaya and the ever present coconut.  I was taken to see a cacao tree.  I recognized the type of tree due to the funny fruit.  I just never knew it produced chocolate until then.  It was neat to see one of the future livelihood project trees in person.  Such a weird looking fruit.

It was touching to see the house and land the family lived in.  There was no way to easily make it to the house except by walking.  The house has electricity and running water but lacks many of the amenities we take for granted.  A humbling experience.

We then returned to the rest of the group as they finished the bible study.  The ladies gave us cassava cake and biko.  Check biko and cassava off the list of foods to definitely eat while in the Philippines.  They were both excellent.  Mala, the cook, also prepared an excellent lunch for us that included siopao.  Check siopao off the list.  Megan also loved the siopao

After lunch I worked with Rosalie in the office going over their computers and suggesting a few improvements that would help with the speed and connect-ability as well as provide for a better backup of the environment.

I spent the rest of the afternoon resting and the rest with the kids playing basketball and badminton.  It was great although a little painful to play with them.  Basketball got to be a little much so I started to hit the shuttlecock with one of the little boys.  It was great handling a badminton racket again.  It has been a while.

That night I was interviewed on one of the Dumaguete City radio stations.  One of my classmates from Silliman has a program every night from 7-9PM.  It was an interesting experience and a lot of fun.  We talked mostly about the changes in Dumaguete and what LCP is as well as what they are doing in the community.