I don’t even know where to start about these final weeks in this beautiful country. It was definetly my favorite country thus far due to the ministry that we did and the people that we made connections with along the way. I’ll try to give you a picture throughout this blog!

So as you probably know, my team and I were in Cainta, a suburb of Manila and worked at a local school called Cuatro. It was the most rewarding experience. We sat in classrooms for most of the time either helping the teachers out, leading some activities, or just being there to build connections with these students. I was mainly in the high school which meant a lot of the students I met were around my age. It was so amazing being able to make such beautiful friendships. I loved seeing these students every day, talking with them, joking around with them, helping them, and just hanging out!

^ this is Marky and Gwyn! They are in 10th grade and were some of the first people to greet me. They are so kind and gentle and so talented! Marky is very respectful and so talented at dancing. Gwyn is her class president and is very skilled in leadership.

^this is Niña, one of the 10th grade students! She stuck by me a lot and taught me a lot about filipino culture. She was a great friend to me! She gave me the nickname, 'Elliepie"

^this is Ashely! She's in 9th grade and was involved with youth group. Saw her everyday at school and afterschool too!

^this is Andrea, a 7th grader! She is so so sweet. I was having a rough night at youth group and she came over and brought a huge smile on my face. We also have a handshake together!

There were many things about the students that suck out to me, but their joy and unity blew me away. Seeing these students interact with each other on a daily basis was so refreshing. They approached each other with a lot of kindness, grace, and love. Whether it was common conversation or joking around, they kept love at the center. This kind of environment, from what I noticed, led to so much unity as a class and student body as a whole. Especially the classrooms I were apart of, everyone was each others friends and treated everyone with the same respect. They also were so kind and loving towards me, welcoming me in to their space, translating some lessons for me, and other things as well. Looking back on my high school experience, this was really not the case. My school lacked in a lot of love towards each other and definitely struggled when it came to unity and school spirit. These students modeled such a beautiful christ centered community filled with people who delighted in each other’s presence. I had never seen any school setting truly embody that.

Besides the students, the teachers were also so amazing to us. They made us feel so cared for and appreciated. Our schedule manager for the schools, Roxy, took us out to lunch and indoor ice skating one Saturday which was such a blessing. Also, the last day of ministry some of the students and the faculty put on a special program for us as appreciation. We did some Zumba, played games, gave testimonies, had yummy filipino food, and learned a traditional dance. It is called ‘tinikling’ . This dance consists of 4 bamboo poles, 2 longer and 2 shorter. 2 people on either side clapping the 2 longer poles together in rhythm against the 2 shorter poles that rest on the floor. Then the dancers dance in between the poles as they move in and out. It is very similar to jump rope. They taught us the dance and also provided traditional clothing for us to wear! The whole program was so so much fun and a great way to close up our time at ministry.

below is one of my best friends that I made here, Divine! She shines so bright for Jesus and has so much love to give. She was in my 10th grade class and also was involved with the youth group so I saw her a lot!

Before that program, the day consisted of lots of goodbyes, going from class to class and giving hugs, taking photos and .5s with students. Another thing that stands out to me about these students is their generosity. They are constantly giving you bracelets, food, or little trinkets as a show a love. And this day was no exception. I was given many tulips hand made out of pipe cleaners, a book, little toys, and many notes. It was so sweet of these students. The teachers say that they save up a lot of money to buy those flowers and it was very special that they gave them to us.

Many tears were shed this last day, but I got to come back to that school 2 weeks later after PVT and hang out for a couple hours for final goodbyes. That was so much fun! Lots of surprised and happy faces when we walked in unexpectedly, I am so grateful for the opportunity to go see them all a few more times.

Another ministry opportunity included going to Tondo! This town/community is in the middle of Manila and is considered the most rough and impoverished area in all of the Philippines. One of our girls teams was stationed there and I got to go one day as an overseer of a short term mission team that came. Mieko and I were 2nd in charge, making sure everyone was accounted for, not straying off, and was a point for questions when it came to transportation and other things. We took a 30 min train and 2 other jeepney rides to get there.

To give you some perspective, Manila is the most densely populated city in the entire world with around 14 million residents. The state of Iowa has around 3 million people in total. In Tondo, there are nearly 700,000 people with anywhere from 30,000-80,000 people per square kilometer. There are around 76,000 people in Ankeny total.

So with those statistics, you can imagine how cramped Manila is, especially Tondo. Housing complexes are small and normally are not even houses but shacks. Many homes have big families and fit many people into a very small space. The roads/sidewalks are hardly roads, not many are paved and most had tons of muck and this black sludge from laundry, and sewer running every where.

We walked through many areas, one of them being called “smokey mountain” which essentially is a giant mountain of trash. It was huge. There used to be (and likely still are) people who lived on the mountain. The government relocated these people into temporary housing. They call this area “Aroma” because of the smell. We also walked through there and put on a children’s program which was a few songs and a feeding. We would walk through the small alleys and pathways and shout “feeding po!” And kids would come running with their bowls and line up to get some of the champorado (chocolate rice dish).

This day was very fun, but also sad seeing these very very rough living conditions. Cainta was pretty similar, but not as bad. It is definitely hard ministering in a place where people have so so little compared to America. There is a big difference in what we consider poor/poverty in America to what other nations consider it as. Even being here in South Africa and working in temporary housing neighborhoods, you can see the difference in what is considered poor.

Other than ministry things, my team and I were nomads for most of the Philippines. Nomads as in moving around a ton and not having a permanent place to stay. At the beginning, we were in 1 room for a little under 3 weeks and then were randomly told to move to another building on the property because another missions group was coming and needed the space. So in one afternoon, we packed up our “lives”, took things off the walls and many trips to our new room. We stayed there for a little over a week and then were moved off the property to the boys home. Except that night we didn’t stay there because we went to Eden’s house (the gal we met from Ankeny) and had a sleepover for valentines day. The next 2 nights we went on our little retreat to the beach, and then came back to the boys home for 3 or 4 nights, then moved back to our second room for 4 nights and then packed up and left for PVT (parent vision trip) where we went to an entirely new town. The first night we stayed at one hotel, the next morning we moved to a different one. After 4 nights we went back to Cainta and moved into our final room before sleeping in the airport for 2+ days.

All in all, we were nomads! It is very nice being here in South Africa and having a steady place to stay. We have been here for less than 2 weeks and this is the longest time we have slept in the same bed since late January. It definitely brought lots of excitement and honestly a fun story to tell!

After PVT, we came back to Cainta for debrief (I wrote a blog about PVT which I would recommend reading so I won’t talk about that in here). I had my birthday during this time! My team celebrated me with cards and a picnic by the pool with donuts, pizza, garlic bread, and mozzarella sticks. Oh and raspberry lemonade! It was so awesome! That night we also went to youth group one last time which was so bittersweet. I also had some of the school girls and guys over to swim the day before we left which was a blast!

Debrief was about 7 days of rest and reflection over this past season. We had lots of fun as a whole squad. We swam a lot, had many teachings, amazing worship nights, and fellowship as a squad as we prepared to split up again for South Africa.

Speaking of…

We are here now! We are split again. My team (akouo) and chairs are in Durban, Teshuva and Salt are in Jeffery’s Bay, and all of the boys are not in South Africa, but a land-locked country in the middle of South Africa called Lesotho. We are all many, many hours apart and likely won’t see them until we meet up a few days before we fly back to America!!!

Well, that about wraps up my time in the Philippines!!! I am so grateful for the experience here and will cherish it forever. I am so thankful for the many friends memories!

~Ellie