Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Day 9 Mexican Night!

We decided to make mexican food for all the staff on Monday night. It was a big hit! Although we couldn't find the perfect ingredients, it was just about the same! We made salsa, guacamole, black beans, corn, and rolled tacos (tacos dorados). It was really yummy!

This is the cooking and maintenance staff. They loved it!!

This is a picture of Nanai. She usually does all the cooking and household cleaning. She's really nice and good at what she does. She thinks Jeremi is a little crazy, but who doesn't?!?

This is Donna and Met, more staff. Met is one of the regional coordinators who travels with us sometimes.



Randolph, Russell, and Alvie enjoying the food!

More of Day 7 ... fruit tasting!

We stopped by a fruit stand on the way from GenSan to Marbel. The Delfin's had us taste all sorts of yummy fruits. Among them were small papaya (which was Rebecca's favorite!), sweet and juicy pineapple from the nearby Dole plantation, Jack Fruit, and Durian. We have Jeremi's experience with Durian below...
This is Jeremi and Boiser (our tour guide and ACE representative) holding jack fruit. A very slippery texture with an intersting and sweet taste...


Jeremi and Rebecca with pineapples! They are the sweetest and juiciest we've ever had!

This is Jeremi's first smell of the fruit. Even the Filipinos say it smells like hell but tastes like heaven...we'll see!

Mr. Delfin had to plug Jeremi's nose so he would try it!


Ewww! Looks like it tastes as bad as it smells!





So, maybe it is an acquired taste. They LOVE it!... and we don't!



You get rid of the smell by washing your hands in the shell of the Durian fruit. It really works!

Day 7 - Trip to Mindinao

This weekend we were able to visit another island for more recruiting and getting to know some of the graduates from the Academy.



Ok, so I thought in Asia, do as the Asians!

This is just to show how beautiful it is here! On this island they grow a lot of fruits. It is beautiful!! The Dole plantation is located on this island as well. A wonderful fruit experience will be posted later!

This is Peter Caro and his family at one of his businesses. A true "rags to riches" story. When he first attended ACE Academy he and his family actually lived in a pig's pen. Now they own four homes 2 of which they rent to others and have 3 other businesses. He learned so much about starting a business and changing his life. He is a model student for the Academy!


This is the Delfin Family. They were so kind and picked us up at the airport, took us around the island, brought us to a fruit stand to try all sorts of new fruits. They are also graduates of the Academy and this is one of their thriving businesses. They have also greatly improved their lives through their life changing experiences at the Academy.


We traveled to a different city to fly out and this is the exiting photo of Jeremi!












Loving the Philippines

So, we've been here almost a week now, and we love it! The food is different, but we've found a few snacks we really like! Jeremi really enjoys the fresh fish and the squid, while Rebecca enjoys the chicken.

This is the Academy Sign where we're living. You can visit the website to find out more about what we're doing! http://creatingenterprise.com/?page_id=8


This is Jeremi and Lester, one of the Academy's teachers, eating a banana cue. It is a small banana rolled in brown sugar and deep fried. Ok, it might sound weird, but they are soooo good!!


One last snack we really enjoy are the Chunkee cookies! We only hope they don't make us chunkee!! :)


Monday, August 10, 2009

Day 2 Philippines

Monday Aug 10, we went to two different islands. We visited Olango Island and another islet. They are beautiful places where the life is simple. Most people are fishermen or they sell seashells. There are many public schools, but there is very little running water. They get most of their water from the rain. Here are a few pictures to enjoy! It is visits like these that make you really appreciate what you have.

This boat may look small, but there were four of us, plus the "driver". He actually rowed. Isn't the ocean beautiful!


Jeremi tried rowing. It was much harder than he thought!


After we got to the island, this is what we road around in. Yes, there were still four of us, plus the driver!


Jeremi and me on the beach.




The principle of one of the schools we visited explained to us that the children often have very little food and no water. In fact, they have more coca-cola than anything. Then, they brought us to lunch. Although it was very nice of them, we felt badly about the little children who couldn't eat. However, it is offensive to reject a meal, so we ate. :) It was fish (very fresh!) and pork with rice and lentils.

This is one of the elementary schools were a different charity group brought in a water system to help the children have running water. They love getting their picture taken!!
We will post more later. You will notice that there is a lot of English here! Even in the most remote areas, the children learn English and Tagalog (the other national language).

Cebu!





We have arrived! We are on the island of Cebu and after a very very long 5 flight trip, we have arrived exhausted. The only thing about flying so long is that you get CANKLES. If you have never experienced cankles, it is not fun. Your ankles swell up so much you can't tell where your calves end and your feet begin. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment! Don't worry! They have decreased exponentially and we are feeling great!