I’m going to try and do this chronologically so this post is about our arrival in Manila and flying over to the island where the children reside at God’s Town.
The 3 of us weary travelers arrived in Manila very early in the morning. Linda had made arrangements for a van to pick us up knowing full well we would be laden with large, heavy bags. And there he was, our smiling van driver, ready, willing and able to take us to our hotel and much needed beds for some real sleep.
Even though it was pitch black driving to the hotel it was the start, for me at least, of an eye-opening and at times over-whelming experience. It is not like we don’t have poverty here in the US but this just seemed to go on for quite some time and some of these were the nicer homes. Of course parts of the city are very neon and glitzy but that was not where our final destination would be. We went to an out lying area of Manila called Quezon City. Which by the way, if you Google the city, just had a devastating fire in what the article referred to as a slum area leaving over 3,000 people homeless.
Our first couple of days in Manila included catching up on sleep, making arrangements for our flight to Samar and getting ourselves “pretty” for our visit with the children at God’s Town. We availed ourselves of one of the continuous places advertising massages and the like and it was heavenly. This and subsequent visits produced one of our new Ma’amisms as we call them: “If massage was an Olympic sport, the Filipinos would win the gold medal”. Stay tuned for more Ma'amisms we had many "pearls of wisdom" during our adventures.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t report that we visited a hair salon where I got a pedicure, had my hair cut and colored for 1,000 pesos. Now sure 1,000 pesos sounds like a lot but in US dollars: $22 bucks..that’s right, $22. But sadly regardless of all the compliments I got about it once I returned, I really can’t travel ½ way around the world to do it again any time soon.
After finally securing airline tickets for our next leg of the journey we headed for the airport to leave. I say finally secured because everyone was traveling due to it being Holy week. So through security we head laden down with huge heavy bags full of much needed items, tools and things for God’s Town including a big wheel trike. As one of the large duffle style bags goes through the guard looks at Ma’am Linda and ask, “Is this your bag?” to which she replies in what can only be describe as a near Marilyn Monroe, coy sort of voice: “Are you looking at my ax?”. Well yes he replies and proceeds to explain how it is election time over there and this item is not allowed. Linda then continues to make her case in a very charming voice that it’s a tool needed at the orphanage to help with the farm where we are going. She also offers to go get him coffee or a soda and needless to say, God’s Town now has an ax for the farm.
I’m going to end this post with a bit of history that we got to see.
The 3 of us weary travelers arrived in Manila very early in the morning. Linda had made arrangements for a van to pick us up knowing full well we would be laden with large, heavy bags. And there he was, our smiling van driver, ready, willing and able to take us to our hotel and much needed beds for some real sleep.
Even though it was pitch black driving to the hotel it was the start, for me at least, of an eye-opening and at times over-whelming experience. It is not like we don’t have poverty here in the US but this just seemed to go on for quite some time and some of these were the nicer homes. Of course parts of the city are very neon and glitzy but that was not where our final destination would be. We went to an out lying area of Manila called Quezon City. Which by the way, if you Google the city, just had a devastating fire in what the article referred to as a slum area leaving over 3,000 people homeless.
Our first couple of days in Manila included catching up on sleep, making arrangements for our flight to Samar and getting ourselves “pretty” for our visit with the children at God’s Town. We availed ourselves of one of the continuous places advertising massages and the like and it was heavenly. This and subsequent visits produced one of our new Ma’amisms as we call them: “If massage was an Olympic sport, the Filipinos would win the gold medal”. Stay tuned for more Ma'amisms we had many "pearls of wisdom" during our adventures.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t report that we visited a hair salon where I got a pedicure, had my hair cut and colored for 1,000 pesos. Now sure 1,000 pesos sounds like a lot but in US dollars: $22 bucks..that’s right, $22. But sadly regardless of all the compliments I got about it once I returned, I really can’t travel ½ way around the world to do it again any time soon.
After finally securing airline tickets for our next leg of the journey we headed for the airport to leave. I say finally secured because everyone was traveling due to it being Holy week. So through security we head laden down with huge heavy bags full of much needed items, tools and things for God’s Town including a big wheel trike. As one of the large duffle style bags goes through the guard looks at Ma’am Linda and ask, “Is this your bag?” to which she replies in what can only be describe as a near Marilyn Monroe, coy sort of voice: “Are you looking at my ax?”. Well yes he replies and proceeds to explain how it is election time over there and this item is not allowed. Linda then continues to make her case in a very charming voice that it’s a tool needed at the orphanage to help with the farm where we are going. She also offers to go get him coffee or a soda and needless to say, God’s Town now has an ax for the farm.
I’m going to end this post with a bit of history that we got to see.
The pictures are of MacArthur Landing Memorial situated in Red Beach, Palo, Leyte. The monument commemorates the 
landing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur at the beaches of Leyte in October 1944. It was the first time MacArthur had set foot on Philippine soil since he promised "I shall return" before evacuating Corregidor Island for Australia. The landings at Leyte kick started the liberation of the Philippine Islands from Japanese imperial forces in World War 2 which had occupied the country since 1941. 
And finally here we are in front of the monument from left to right Lourdes, Linda, me, Becky, Purie and her granddaugher Lavelle. Purie is the Director of God's Town and Lourdes is her sister. They were among our welcoming committee at the airport when we arrived.
That was a good beginning to your trip. That haircut sounds good, too. Love the ax story and how it turned out! Thanks for sharing and I'm looking forward to reading more soon! Please share more photos, too!
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