Week 1

Made it through my first week in Ormoc City, and even got the chance to do a little island hopping to Canigao Island, it is this tiny little island about a 15 minute boat ride from Leyte. It is literally not on any maps, its so small. You can walk around the island in about 15 minutes. The island was stunning, white sand beaches, no bugs, rainforest interior...great snorkeling. We slept on the beach both nights, without tents, since there is no fresh water on the island there are no mosquitos also, which is a plus!

Now I have to start a very busy week planning lessons for the kids. Today we did an "About Me" project, where we had pictures of them developed and had them write some sentences in english about themselves. It is such a challenge and a learning experence for the volunteers and the boys. The language barrier is pretty extreme, I thought they would speak english a little better, but they know very little. You can tell they want to learn though, they are trying. There is one boy who is 15, but is in the first grade at school, so I've been working on his english reading and writing. Tomorrow I'm going to try and start to do a geography lesson. Just so they might know the continents and some countries in Southeast Asia. I also got permission to do a mural, so I think I'l do some sort of world map, maybe the solar system also.

Now I'm off to an hour long massage...for $5....I love the Philippines