maggiekalinowski

Sept 15, 2009

I have been overwhelmed by the hospitality of the YWAM base, they are so welcoming, it has been great! Today I had a very good night of sleep.

Yesterday was my first day of ministry, I went to one of the slums with Fronie and Dreb to have a youth bible study, many of the young people weren't around so instead of having a study we just talked with the people in the slums. I have a hard time with the language barrier because most of the people in the slum don't speak English. I met so many people in the slums, many of their names I don't remember because they introduce themselves very quickly and the names are not easy to remember. Since Dreb speaks very little English also, Mondays will be very interesting for me. Dreb is teaching me a few word in Tagalog everyday, he is my professional Tagalog teacher. J

Gigi is also a great teacher, showing me the ropes and making sure I always have a full stomach. It rains a lot here, it is called the "wet" season, and it sure is wet, the streets flood very easily. Today is the first day that we have no rain, and it is sunny.

Some interesting Filipino culture is, facial expressions are very important. Many times you will use your eyebrows to say "yes". Similar to Latino culture they use their lips to tell direction and communicate. There are many little friends that we have, they are called ants!

When filipino's eat they use a spoon and fork, they don't use knives much at all. Even sometimes they don't use any utencils and they just eat with their hand, their rice and meat. It is fun! There is a very high respect for people that are older then you. If it is a female, you would call her "ate" (pronounced "a" as in apple and "te" as in temple.) if you are talking to a male, you would say...well I don't know how to spell it, but quay sp? (Koo-ya).

I feel as though I am adapting well to the culture, but there is still much for me to learn and observe.

Pray that I can have some supernatural learning powers so I can understand the language better.