Ate Whitney (at-AY Whitney)

After two days of traveling and three flights later, I am in Cagayan de Oro (CDO), Philippines! The flight from Manila to CDO was unbelievable! We basically flew over island after island and there were always hundreds of little boats in the water between each island. Mindanao (the island I will be living on) was the most beautiful! The airport here is so small that you literally exist the plane on a ladder like in the movies :)) 

I met up with the Kennys, and we took a jeepney to the mall. Then we came down the Nehemiah House in CDO. I'm not exactly sure yet what all i am allowed to post about the Nehemiah House so I won't say much. The girls are absolutely precious!!! They speak broken english, however some are very good at english (they help me talk to the others who aren't as good :)) They call me Ate Whitney (pronounced like at-AY Whitney). Apparently, Ate means like older sister. I think i like it :) Also, when they greeted me they took my hand and put it to their forehead as a sign of respect. At first they were all a little shy, but we began to play volleyball, Twister, play with hair, and they taught me how to say a few Vasayan basic words. After dinner, I got to help do some dishes. This is my favorite part of the night as I got to know one of the girls a little better. Her name is Honey and she is really good at english. We talked about Jesus, the Bible, our favorite worship songs, our other hobbies, and our spiritual gifts. She loves the Lord so much, and is such a servant to the other girls as well. I cannot wait to continue to get to know these girls!!! 

Doing dishes in the dirty kitchen (there's a separate clean kitchen)

After dinner, the girls performed some of their dances for me! Apparently, dance routines are a big deal here, and these girls learn them all together and perform them at the church. They probably did about 4 songs. It was adorable!!! I think I've already fallen a little in love :) 

Here's just a lil bit of insight into this world-i had to quit writing that blog last night at 9 because the internet went out- i just woke up at 2:45am because we are leaving to go back to Gingoog City in an hour, and I finished this blog. :) who needs any sense of time?!