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Host Home- Bebot Saso
There is 3 families in one house
1 grandmother
Mother and father (bebot and bing)
3 little boys
1 young girl
1pregnant maid
2counterparts (Chelsea and JennyLynn)
15 lodgers
As soon as we arrived we was shown our room- there was only a bed and a bunk- both without mattress and I was speechless. Our team leader , samira, told them that they must provides us the mattress so our host mother, Bebot, told her husband, Bing, to go and buy it. Before the host mother introduce us to the family they served us our lunch and left us to it - we wasn't sure what to do and felt the awkward tense around us with the two little boys standing opposite and stares us while we eat. There was nervous chuckling going on between me, Chelsea and Jenny. They was constantly ensure that we're ok and moved the fan around to keep us cool. Everywhere we go they followed us with the fan so it was a lot awkward to be in the situation.
Once we have finished our lunch I proceed to start a conversation with our maid, Charise, and asked her if she could introduce us- unfortunately we wasn't introduced properly but instead she wrote down all names of the people in the house- I was struggling to guess who's who. My first reaction to the host home was helpless- I was in shock looking at the area, bedroom, living room, bathroom with no shower but a bucket of water, and kitchen. It wasn't very clean, dark, dull and a little overcrowded. Physically, I did felt a little sick and emotionally thinking how I'm going to adapt into their life. However, that wasn't the case, we wanted to experience the life of poverty and their culture.
My first trip to the toilet was a nightmare! I've eventually forget they don't have a flush and I put the tissues in the bog so obviously I've almost flood the bathroom and I begged Chelsea for a help to get rid of it! We figured out how to flush- we have to use the jug and pour the water into the toilet to flush it.
On our 2nd day was one of amazing experience in my whole life! We was having our lunch before heading for the mall, our grandfather shoot in the room like a bullet raising his voice to the roof and gesturing towards to the kitchen balcony and ran off, we was clueless what was going on so we stood up and ran to the balcony to find our maid lying down on the floor in agony with grandmother cutting her trousers open. At the point we only just realised the maid is about to give a birth to her baby! Yes a baby! I was obviously in shock and didn't know what to do but luckily I had Chelsea with me who witnessed her mother giving a birth to her baby sister not long ago so she know what she was doing and quickly got down to her knee to help Charise to deliver her baby whilst I rushed to get the bed sheet ( yes I know it was suppose to be towels but I was too panicked at the time!). Her birth place was unordinary place to be- it was just outside the kitchen on the balcony next to the huge fence with the garbage piling up and cooker on other side- there was no space at all for more than two people to help. Chelsea done the most job in delivering Charises baby, it was born at approx 12.30p.m and it is a boy called Chasie, Chelsea was shaking and so was I- we quickly wrapped baby up and handed it to the grandmother while we rushed back to the bedroom to make sure she cleaned herself up as soon as possible and try to calm each other (especially Chelsea) down! As soon as grandfather came back there was a nurse nearby came around to cut the cord, get rid of placenta, and clean up the mess. Most of family came and congratulated in a space of minutes so it was a overwhelmed moment for all of us to get all the experience in one go from the life in u.k. to the host home in the Philippines! Very awkward situation to be in with people we hardly know, on the other side of the world and in a very different culture home! It was a extraordinary experience of my life.
- comments
Kev sited What a great story to start your trip with. What other things are around the corner
Catherine Wow! What an amazing experience!
Matthew Cookson What a fab story and great experience for you at Philippines!
Christina (Deafway) Amazing! Although difficult to imagine how your visit could get any more exciting now!!! Keep the blogs coming.