Leaving for Ligao

Friday was our time to leave Manila and all our new friends at KIMS and head for the airport to start the next leg of our adventure in Ligao. We love Ligao and we couldn't wait to see Pastor Choi and Sister Alma again. It is a big effort to get 29 people packed and sorted and loaded onto the vans. One of the biggest challenges is working out who needs to take what stuff. We have so many donations and so we have been shuffling between bags in order to ensure that we don't get hit with excess baggage. Lara has been very diligent with her scales to ensure that we all fit. This meant weighing every bag and moving things as required. We got sorted and loaded and had an easy trip to the airport. Geoff Shepherd (the Pastor from Mill Park Baptist) was here with a team and he kindly drove us to the airport just so we could chat. I've known about Geoff for many years but we only just met. Starry and I sat in the front of the van and it was great to spend an hour or so chatting in the car.

Once we checked in at the airport we went in many fast food directions. We had a couple of hours to kill and this was all a bit of fun.








Rusty trying to change his order at McDonalds at the airport. Hard at the best of times, let alone when speaking English in the Philippines! I thought Lara was bad at ordering but the line created here rivals anything she has managed in the past.

The trip with Cebu Air is only about 45 minutes. I was feeling pretty average by this point and I had fallen asleep before the plane left the ground. Too many late nights and early mornings. 

 I had been telling the team that the Ligao part of our Philippine experience was a little less frantic than Manila. So far, this has not turned out to be the case. Choi and Alma met us at the airport and we packed all our stuff into the Jeepney (our old mate Eli was the designated driver again) and we spread between vans and cars.

Our first stop was the Guinabatan Municipal Jail.  I'd never been to this jail before. It was a 2 story affair with about 50 people packed in. As we walked up the stairs to meet the prisoners, Pastor Choi asked me to bring the word to the prisoners (there's that 4 minute rule again). I coughed and spluttered something from Psalm 13. It wasn't my finest hour, but it got the job done. We managed to hand stuff out to the PDL's (people deprived of liberty) and they appreciated our presence there.

We then went straight to our next appointment which was at the Ligao national High School. Here we caught up with our old mate Carmelita (aka The Little General).

She is the Principal of the LNHS. She makes Lara look tall. She's incredibly committed to her school and her kids. There are approximately 6000 kids at the school. It's completely bonkers.

The purpose of our visit was to see the Choral singers perform especially for us. They leave shortly for a competition in Spain. They are heading away for 26 days on their European tour. They are seriously good and do a "Pitch Perfect" style routine. So incredibly talented and wonderfully entertaining. We were all mesmerised by their 4 songs. It really was a remarkable experience.






Just as we were leaving, the instrumental group appeared. They had just finished practice and were basically in the wrong place at the wrong time. When Carmelita saw them, she insisted that they do a performance as well. It too was awesome. They played funny guitar things. Sounded ace.

Then after this, we had a smashing tea at Pastor Choi and Sister Alma's church. The ladies had cooked up a storm. It was an amazing feast. We generally overeat when we are here. They had all the usual favourites including curries, fried eggplant, spring rolls, banana spring rolls, sticky rice and fried chicken. It was absolutely amazing - as always.

After tea, we settled into the David Hometel accomodation which is just across the road from Church and directly next to the Ligao National High School. It's a very comfortable place to stay. The big kids settled in for a night of chatting and cards while Starry, Melissa and Corinna practiced a song for the jail tomorrow. It was an unbelievably busy day. Tomorrow (Saturday) is the medical mission in San Ramon and a trip to the Ligao jail.