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On Saturday we went to visit Kawasan Falls, one of the famous landmarks in the Cebu Province. It's about a 3 and a half hour coach journey south from Cebu City, so we woke up at 4am and got the 6am coach from South Terminal.
It was the first time I've walked in a proper tropical rainforest, and very few people live there, selling food and drinks to the tourists. As usual, we were the only British ones there, most tourists were Chinese/Japanese or Korean.
The waterfall was beautiful. You can pay 300 pesos to go on the raft and the men guide the raft towards the fall, and make all of you lie down on your front so that the water hits you on your backs.
Watching other people do it made me think it was really easy, but once I was under that waterfall, it was painful. The water really hits you hard on your back, but it was funny to see other peoples faces too! But then I realised we were only under the small waterfall. We were heading for the big one, and they made us sit down in small groups in a circle, with our legs crossed. We all were panicking, and some of us got off the raft because they were too scared. I decided to carry on, I knew I wouldn't die!
The raft was going towards the big waterfall and we all held hands, faces down. The water came crashing down on our backs, my whole body was literally jerking up and down because it was so strong. My friends then pointed out that my whole skin was turning white and lumpy, they looked like horrible blisters. All over my arms, my legs and my back - I thought it was from the water, but no one else had it.
I went to sit down and my skin was getting worse and worse, I didn't know what to do.
After around 30 minutes, it started to fade away, and then I realised, it was an allergy reaction to the bamboo sticks; which was what the raft was made of. The Filipinos looked at me as if; how could I not know that I was allergic to bamboo? I had to explain that we didn't have any in the UK! I finally found something that I'm allergic to!
After that, we went out to the beach and relaxed in the sun. As usual, the British volunteers lay outside in the sun whilst the Filipinos went swimming or stayed in the shade. You can really see the huge cultural difference between the Filipinos and the British just from seeing how us 20 volunteers behave!
I think I've adapted to the weather now. I don't sweat as much as I did, I sleep with a sheet on and sometimes I even sleep without the fan on. I'll probably come back to the UK absolutely freezing at this rate!
This week (our 6th week), is the MPR. It will be consisted of meetings, 1 to 1 interviews to see how we are doing, (to ensure we're not psychologically damaged/harmed! Haha!) and we're off to Moalboal for one night! The halfway mark already!
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Zoë Omg Gemma! Allergic to bamboo! I really really want to know what I'm allegeric to! XD xx