How to survive a typhoon

I am typing this blog sitting at the dining table in my condo, but although I’m sitting still I still feel like I’m swaying. Let me elaborate. It all started with a trip to the beach...

For October break me and some of the other teachers decided to go on a trip to the beach to relax after a quarter of hard work. We left Manila on Friday morning excited and raring to go at 5am (you have to start early to beat Manila traffic). There were 7 of us going on this fateful trip. Me, my roommate Meg and 5 other teachers from school. So we drove to the port and had a safe trip across the water to Mindoro another Island. The resort where we were staying was beautiful. I don’t think the photos here can do it justice!!

The weekend was great, very action packed!! On Saturday we took a hike into the jungle to look at some waterfalls. Our guide a Pilipino called Roger walked at such a pace that we thought we were going to pass out. It was worth it though; we arrived at some clear falls with a deep pool.  Freezing cold but perfect when you’re sweating like a pig! Sunday was snorkelling day. We took a boat to a reef called coral gardens, the snorkelling was fantastic.

banana boat fun!

Our whole group on a hike. From left to right Sam, Kelli, Katie, Me, Sharon, Meg and Leo

Here we are taking a refreshing dip after a long and hot hike

Philippio fishing boats on the beach

The beach at our resort Tamaraw

A Philipino boat (only a bit smaller than the one we travelled in during the Typhoon!)

Me and Meg by the waterfalls

We were all having a great trip but on Monday we woke up and the weather had turned, the sea was no longer a mill pond and the sky was kind of overcast. No problem we thought, lets continue with our day. We went banana boating in the morning which looks really fun until you do it. The problem is that when you fall in its hard not to fall on top of the other people on the boat with you. I seriously bruised my leg and almost killed Katie, I landed on top of her and she couldn’t get to the surface!  That afternoon the weather got worse and worse, the wind picked up and the rain lashed down. By this point the surf was huge, over the course of the evening it just got worse.

We went to bed that night praying that God would clam the storm over night, as we were due to leave BY BOAT the next day. It turns out that a super typhoon (that’s right super the worse for 20 years) had hit the north of the Philippines and we were feeling the effect. The typhoon aptly named Megi (much to Meg’s amusement) could apparently change path at any moment and come south towards us. So how do you get across the South China Sea when there is typhoon? Just follow my simple guide and you too can make it home in one piece.

Step 1. Sit near the front of the boat where you can see the horizon at all times. You may get soaked but you are less likely to be sick.

Step 2. Wear your life jacket at all times, it may be covered in mould and not fasten at the sides, but that baby could save your life.

Step 3. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security by the clam water in the cove where the the boat is anchored, when you get into open water the boat (and can a mention this is a tiny boat not a ferry) will literally get air off the waves because it is so rough.

Step 4. Do not look at the other passengers. You will either see fear in their eyes as they see their life pass before them or more likely they are throwing up!

Step 5. Pray hard!

Step 6. When you reach the port on the other side do not assume you will be able to get off. The water will be so rough that they will not be able to get the boat into the dock and will have to make 3 attempts to moor.

Step 7. Make sure you take a set of dry clothes to change into at McDonalds on the other side where you can enjoy a big Mac and thank the lord for his protection and laugh at your near death experience.



Me Sharon and Leo before we set off on our journey home. Can you see the fear in our eyes?!



TUnfortunately for me this guide has just been written so I had to try to work out what to do alone. I may joke but this was actually pretty scary, I’ve never been in such a small boat in such rough water. Fortunately the crew, particularly the driver was clearly very skilled and kept us all safe. I praise God for his hand of protection over us.  I don’t think I’ll go to the beach again for a while!!

CAR!!!!!!!!!!

So I know it just updated but just wanted to let you guys know that our car has been returned in good working order!! Praise the Lord for his faithfulness. Thank you so much for all your prayers about this. I'm off to the beach for the weekend... very excited!

Newsflash

Hey everyone

I haven’t updated my blog for a while, the last couple of weeks have been quite similar in routine and so I thought it would be pretty boring for you guys to read. Then I skyped with someone at home and they said I should blog anyway because they still want to know what I’m up to so here I am blogging.

School has been pretty standard these last few weeks but I’ve been feeling much more settled which is a real answer to prayer. I’ve been doing my one on one work with the kids. This includes maths, phonics and reading. I’ve included some photos of the kids I’ve been working with below so you can see their beautiful faces. I’ve also been working with grade 2 for maths every day. This is a real highlight for me because Wendy who teaches grade 2 is South African, and she teaches in a very similar way to the UK with lots of hands on practical group work. Her class however are not so easy; you may think that teaching a bunch of missionary kids would mean that you would have no behaviour management issues...well you would be wrong! They are all sweet kids individually but put them together and they cannot sit still. Despite this I’ve really enjoyed working with and getting to know this class and I had the pleasure of teaching them for two days while Wendy went on a course. It may be hard to believe but I feel I need more grace to keep my calm with those kids than I do with some of the kids at John Clifford! I’m learning a lot about being a supply teacher; it’s so much harder when you have not built up relationship and routines with the kids to still command respect and attention.

Some if the grade 2's I was working with in maths- we were learning about rectangles



The whole of grade 2, they look like buetter would'nt melt don't they!



This is Josh from Australia- I do phonics with him every day. (Check it out phonics play has become international!!)

Sam and Ethaniel from grade 3. I do word work with these guys 2 times a week

Last Friday I had the chance to lead a couple of action songs in chapel (this is like the kids weekly assembly). I did rainbow and great big god, I felt kind of nervous standing up there in front of 200 people I don’t know, but I was feeling pretty good about how I’d done. Afterwards a kid from grade 4 came up to me and asked if I’d had the ‘stage fright’. I asked him what he meant and he said my hands were shaking while I was doing the actions. Kids just say it like it don’t they!

I think you might remember my previous blog about the great router hunt; well you will be pleased to know that there has been development here. We were told the internet engineer was coming but every day he did not show up, we started to think that he just would not be coming. It is culturally appropriate for Philipinos to say what they think you want to hear even if it’s not true. For example if you ask them directions but they don’t know the place you are going, they will still give you some random directions. As you can imagine this is kind of frustrating because you never actually know if people are telling you the truth. So we thought that maybe the lady at the condos was telling us the engineer was coming even when he wasn’t. Anyway in the end they did actually show up, and now we have internet with this special adapter which the engineer found in the cupboard in the back bedroom which is full of stuff and cob webs and the light doesn’t work. I have no idea how they knew to look there, they had to get a torch and everything, and it was kind of crazy. So now I can go online in my condo which is amazing, thanks to God!!  Meg did just try to hook up a router and nearly blew up the plug...so we are not wireless yet. But hey I’m in the Philippines, we can’t expect everything.

This week is the last week of school before our October break (basically half term). This weekend I’m going with some guys from OMF to stay at a guest house in Calapan which is outside of Manila. Then next weekend I’m going away to the beach with the Americans from school. I’m so excited to leave the city and see a different part of the Philippines, and I’m really grateful to God that he has provided me with these 2 opportunities to take a break.

I want to praise God for his goodness and faithfulness to me because I have been feeling so much more settled these last couple of weeks and I know this is down to his grace. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me. It would be great if you could continue to pray for the car as this is STILL not fixed and also for safe travel to and from my 2 breaks. I may have to travel back from Calapan alone and take a boat and a bus so I would really value your prayers in this. I guess this is all for now, I’ll be back soon!