Exploring Manila

These kids were so cute. I snapped their photo as they walked past and they were so excited that a few minutes later they returned with friends and asked for more pictures.

Our first ride in a pedicab.

Addy with a cool drum we found in one of the little junk shops.

Last week some friends invited us to meet them at the museum. It was a beautiful day and the museum is nearby so we decided to walk. Once we arrived we discovered our friends were at a different museum at the other end of the city. Oops! But it was still a nice walk and it's always fun taking pictures of the girls. They spent the rest of the afternoon acting wild as they played and made messes together.

Mt. Samat & Mission

A couple weeks ago we drove to Mount Samat National Shrine. This was our first outing with Torah walking and it was fun to watch her happily chase Addy around. It was also nice to not worry about her becoming filthy by scooting around the ground! Here is a little historical background of Mt. Samat from Wikipedia "At the start of World War II in 1942 after suffering heavy losses against the Imperial Japanese Army all over Luzon, the Filipino and American soldiers retreated to Bataan Peninsula to regroup for a last valiant but futile stand. After three days of fighting, the 78,000 exhausted, sick and starving soldiers under Major General Edward P. King surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942 known as the the fall of Bataan. It is the single largest surrender of U.S. soldiers in history and Mount Samat was their last stronghold after which, together with the Philippine soldiers, they were led on to the 80-mile (130 km) march to Capas, Tarlac known as the Bataan Death March. The Mount Samat National Shrine shrine was erected as a fitting memorial to the heroic struggle and sacrifices of those soldiers who fought and died in that historic bastion of freedom."

On the way home we drove through Orani, one of the areas James served on his mission. It was exciting for both of us. Since marrying James I've wanted to see his mission, and for him it was fun to see how the town has changed in the past 13 years. The beautiful chapel that when he was living in Orani was just a modest little building. We were going to stop for a picture but the gates were closed so I just snapped this photo as we drove past. I wanted to see the house James and his companions lived in (James served in this town the longest out of anywhere in his mission. He was there for six and a half months and had 4 different companions during this period) so we went exploring some of the little side streets in an attempt to find it. Unfortunately the roads were so narrow we reached a point we couldn't fit through and had to turn around. We did however find this little courtyard where they would play basketball on their P-days.

Beautiful scenery on our way home.

Painting Birdhouses

Before we moved here I researched different charities within metro Manila and found a shelter for young girls who had been sexually abused/exploited. The shelter requests donations such as toiletries, clothes, food, and school supplies, but what caught my was that they also want volunteers to teach the girls arts and crafts, introduce them to sports or as stated on their website: "anything that will help them recover from their dark pasts and transform them into renewed citizens and children of God." Before our move I found some little birdhouses on sale at the Michael's craft store and thought they would be fun to bring to the shelter for the girls to paint. A couple days ago I went to the shelter with Addy, Torah, and also a friend and her three children. It was a wonderful experience. The girls at the shelter seemed a little shy at first, yet by the end they were smiling and playing with our kids, some of them asked us to take their picture, and they requested we stay a little longer so they could do a dance performance for us. They did two cute dance numbers and then they asked us to join in and dance with them for the third. Torah enjoyed the dancing while Adelaide was hungry by this point and ready to go home. She refused to watch them dance at the time, but I filmed them (you can watch the video at end of this post)and now she asks to watch it again and again. Seeing them smile and giggle while dancing you would never guess they have been through so much. The director mentioned how it is sometimes very hard for the girls to even stay in the shelter because they are used to living on the streets where they have the freedom to do whatever they want. It is an adjustment for them to suddenly have so much structure and even simple things such getting up early in the morning and cleaning up after themselves can be a challenge. Anyway, I look forward to going back. Please let me know if you have any arts/crafts ideas that we could do with them. Addy's colorful birdhouse. Addy heard me compliment a girl about her birdhouses being beautiful and a while later I noticed her walking from girl to girl pointing to each birdhouse saying "I like your roof," or "Wow, that's pretty."