There's nothing quite like being Pinoy .. (Tagalog word for 'Filipino'). There's a sense of pride in belonging to this country which is scarcely found in the rest of the world.
Patriotism - in the wrong sense of the word.
I love it!! The fact that Filipino's pride themselves in their chaotic craziness and recklessness. It's hilarious!
You see, we take ourselves too seriously in England. Come on, you know exactly what I'm talking about! If only we learnt to laugh at ourselves a bit more, smile when we're weak and admit we're just a bit of a failure at times, we'd be one step closer to happiness. The Philippines may be considered a third world country, but its ideology is more developed than most...they're aware that being wealthy and successful is not always accompanied with true happiness.
Picking yourself up and moving on is the story of their life, their motto - Sadly they have to do this...a lot!

I've hit the 2 month mark now and since I've been here, I have picked up on a lot of different Filipino traits, habits and ideas (not all bad). The problem is, it's been noticed that I have adopted many of these tendencies. I'll list just a few things which you would notice about a Filipino...I'm sure this'll bring a smile to any Pinoy or visitor. But for the rest of you, you'll just have to imagine.

• Pointing with their lips
• Staring at someone open-mouthed until they rephrase their question more clearly
• 'Ano' and 'Di ba' regularly slip out during conversations
• Rice (of which no meal is complete without) and dried fish is considered a delicious early morning breakfast...I have to disagree on this one
• When someone tells you they are on a diet, really this just involves ordering a diet coke with their Jollibee meal instead.
  Self denial at its best :')
• Staying up with their family until 4am doing karaoke on 'Magic Mic'. Regardless of whether it's in-tune or not!
• The Black eyed Peas are great...solely because one of the members is Filipino.
• Turning around when you hear 'pssst'.
  This one is especially true.
  The other day I heard 'pssst'...turned around thinking I was being called. It was a lady opening a bottle of RC Cola!
  FAIL.

Posters and billboards throughout Manila completely back up what I've been saying. For example, I saw a big poster of two cockerels attacking each other and below the picture, the caption read 'Angry Birds - It's more fun in the Philippines'. They're crazy, and don't they know it!

So, I've been meaning to write a blog for a little while, but there's never a spare moment. I'm hiding behind my computer now so I won't be asked to do anything else…I just need a few minutes to get this written down. Dedication eh! ;) Now let's see how good my memory is…

2 weeks ago, I was invited to speak in one of the slums where I lead my semi-Tagalog Bible Study. I've become so used to giving this message 'Ano ang Kristyano?' that I can of deliver it without looking at my notes. Ate Cathy accompanied me as my translator to slum area 139 in a room that CCM has bought. We started the Bible study with just 3 men, but as time went on we eventually had around 8 men and women present. Usually at the end of a devotion when you ask 'does anyone have any questions?' it's an awkward minute of silence; however this time was different. Questions were coming from everywhere and I was very encouraged by their seriousness to the Gospel. Please especially pray for a man in his 50's called Orlando. He mentioned how difficult it is to be a Christian and how he would find it to be too much of a difficult road. Pray that his doubts would be put aside and he would come to a knowledge that Christ is with His children every step of the way.

We then went to the home of the Ortilla family. A family who bring a whole new meaning to the phrase 'smiling at the storm'. Mid way through 2012, a flood devastated the lives of many in Slum 139. It was sudden and gave no chance for families to gather their possessions and run. The Ortilla family was particularly affected by this flood.
They lost everything! A year's care, a minute's ruin!
Everything they had worked hard to maintain and protect throughout their time in this slum was all swept away. All their clothes, certificates, photos…the lot! All former memories were no longer to be enjoyed.
So CCM offered the Ortilla family a place to stay while they recovered. In that time, the father set to work constructing a new home and I can tell you, it's very impressive! I was surprised at how resourceful he had been in recycling scrap metal and bottles to make a rooftop and flooring, and connecting wire circuits so there could be electric light and a cooking stove. You'd never have known that this time last year they had nothing. A great representation of many of the families who live in the slum areas. Always smiling, always grateful and napaka masipag!

On the way back we witnessed a large extended family all sitting under a tarpaulin taking part in a 'wake' for one of the deceased family members. A Wake is a Filipino ritual which is a pre-funeral week of mourning. When a family member dies, their coffin will be brought to their home where it is a chance to 'let go' of their loved one, distribute the money and the will, and celebrate their life. This particular Wake was right in the middle of the slums. People were gathering around the open casket playing chess and eating... After this is finished there is to be no more crying and no mourning…what's done is done.

So the next day I was given 10 minutes notice that I would be leading a Bible study for 10 of the EAP mothers. They are in need of your prayers! It was also the day of the final Grace Ministerial Academy (GMA) class. I spoke about this shortly in my last blog and how I attend every Friday evening. Pastor Noel Espinosa (the GMA speaker) has a brain the size of a planet and it has been a great blessing to be under his ministry for the past 2 months! We shared a fellowship dinner afterwards which was a great opportunity to meet some of the men who were soon to graduate from the GMA program. Many of them will soon be becoming full time pastors, whereas others were simply coming to grow in their knowledge of God. Now this makes it sound as if I was only interested in the football…it's not the case ;) But…I met 2 guys, Gino and Remaur and, get this…they were Man Utd fans - Big time! I'll be meeting up with them at some point to play football. For the first time in 2 months, I'll be able to play a real sport. Basketball is banned!
Sorry, this just had to be mentioned.

"Tonight. For your own amusement and entertainment. For one night only. I would like to introduce a traditional Filipino Folk Dance starring Reuben Saywell!!"
Eurgh! I'm dreading it! I'm sure you've had a good laugh looking at our practice photos. Basically, a member of CRBC is getting married in the church on April 6th and I was signed up (thanks for the heads up guys!) to do a traditional Filipino folk dance called the Carinosa and help out in the Tinikling dance (I failed at this a few weeks ago if you remember). We've done a few practices, but thankfully we're all rubbish so I'm not singled out ;) Don't worry, they admit this as well!
I was asked the other day by one of the children, "So you're not a dancer. You're not a singer. What are you actually good at?"
Good question.

I've also been doing a lot of tutoring with the children recently. I was asked to help out with some science tutorials last week - yeah that aint gonna happen! I've only been doing English tutorials which have brought a flood of memories back from English language at GCSE. Maybe I should have listened better because prefixes, suffixes and predicate verbs have been going completely over my head. There's been a couple of occasions when one of the children has asked me to explain something and I reply "Well, what do you think?" A great tactical diversion when I'm utterly clueless!

Okay so some of you are asking what the area is like…I've explained a lot at the start of this blog, but just to add to you imagination.
Imagine peak hour in London, get rid of the road markings and speed limits, times it by a thousand and you're in Manila. There is no concept of road courtesy or personal space…so, if there is space, there is space for all.
That's not a complaint, there's something very intriguing and addictive about the Philippines. It gets under your skin. You want to be a part of the chaos. You quickly learn to not make too much eye contact or someone will try to sell you something, and to say "NO" when they are persistent. Walking in the malls on your own as a white person is where you put this into practice most of all. They love to serve you … and do it as close as is physically possible:
"Hi sirrr. Magandang umaga"
"Hi"
"What are you looking for sirrrr"
"I just need to buy a plain, white t-shirt."
"Ok sirrrr, you want this brown jacket?"
"No, just a white t-shirt thanks."
"What about this gold bracelet for your girlfriend?"
"No thanks. Ahh here we are, a white t-shirt. Salamat"
"Sirrr let me help you with that sirrrr-rr-rrr-rrr."
--ARGH LEAVE ME ALONE YOU KIND PEOPLE!!

On Thursday we had the last Drop-In Centre before we break up for the summer holidays. This ministry has been running for almost 10 years now and is one of the most effective ministries I'm part of…helping the homless physically and spiritually. I'm beginning to get alongside many of the adults and children each week, learning about their history or current circumstances. It's both eye-opening and sad to see their daily struggles, but amazing to know that the drop-in puts a smile on their faces and teaches them the most valuable lessons from the Bible. I'll really miss doing this every week, but I'm sure I'll be kept busy with other activities and it recommences in June. As the Drop-In centre helps the homeless near the church and I'm living there, I've begun recognising many of them sleeping on the streets, wheeling their trolleys, begging, or working as street vendors or barkers (A barker's job is get people on a jeepney: "Cubao, Cubao") ;). Most of these drop-in attendees will use cardboard boxes as their bedding; the path as their toilet, and every day is a great day for a barbeque!! Obviously it's not the same type of barbeque as we have though…burnt skewers of bone chicken, deep fried banana or sweet potato cue, fish balls, squid balls, taho and balut are the common street foods, all costing around 20 pesos each. Bargain!
So as I walk through all this on the streets, I can't help but feel like I'm intruding on their home.

I was recently invited to stay at Matt Gamston's house for a few days. His pastor from England (Gloucester), Alan Gilmore and his wife Liz had both paid him a visit for the week so it was great to be able to meet them as well. Okay, I totally wasn't paid to say this, but Matt was such a great host! How very self-sacrificing of him in giving me the last 3rd of his white chocolate Kit Kat, eating the bone of the mango…but still, we were not worth the horseradish sauce. However, the list goes on…
(How was that Matt??)
Matt's dog, Hooper is officially the soppiest guard dog I've ever seen…on the other hand, it was nice to see one which isn't chained up by the side of the road or shut up in a small cramped cage barking 24/7. This is a common problem throughout Cubao especially. Matt said that the only attention Hooper gets is from the terrified passer-bys or the type which is revolving around her being eaten, "ooh she looks tasty!"
I was invited to attend a Bible teaching seminar on Friday in San Pedro at Sovereign Grace Bible Church. It is a seminar that has been running throughout the year aiming to teach pastors (some of who are doctrinally confused or from non-reformed churches) about Biblical interpretation and Church History. Pastor Jorge kicked it off with a message about 'interpreting the Bible'. Then Matt Gamston led the second part, speaking about the 'Crusades'. Both of these were especially helpful and it was interesting to hear Matt delivering his message in Taglish (a mix of Tagalog and English)!
So after a tense game of Bananagrams in the evening (of which I was well and truly beaten), we got an early night because Tagatay here we come!

Tagatay is an area north of Cubao and San Pedro and a popular tourist destination near Manila. There's many touristy things to do and it's impossible to visit everywhere in just one day. However, we gave it our best shot! There were 9 of us in all who went along: Pastor Jorge and his family, Matt Gamston, the Gilmores, Jay (a Pastor from Baguio) and me!
We first traveled to the highest point in Tagatay where we got a magnificent view…we could see for miles and miles! It started off as a very hot day, but when we were taking photos in front of the beautiful view, suddenly our time in the blazing clear sun was short-lived and we soon had to make a run for cover as it suddenly started chucking it down with rain. It was raining cats and dogs, but thankfully it didn't reindeer. *BOOM!* Rain deer...reindeers??! You kn-- okay, don't pull that face, I can take a hint!
Actually, when we were taking photos in front of the view, at one point, a man called to us, "pssst". Cue every Filipino in Tagatay to turn around…but, it was me he wanted. He basically wanted to charge us to get our photos in front of his giant canvas, which imitated an identical view to the one behind us. Why we would want a photo in front of the fake view when we had the real thing for free, I don't know. Although thinking about it, there was a giant pineapple in his background which appeared to be missing in the real view...hmm.

We then traveled back downwards, underneath the clouds where the sun was still shining. It was lunch time, so we were taken to an outdoor restaurant with an incredible view of the Taan volcano in the midst of crystal clear waters. Unfortunately we didn't have time to climb the volcano on this day, but I've been told that some time in May, we'll be given the opportunity to get a boat and do this with a big group of us from Cubao. We ordered buko (coconut - a Filipino favourite), Bone-marrow soup and sizzling mushrooms (which were surprisingly nice)! To top it all off, we had lunch time entertainment, provided by a traffic conductor in the parking lot. For the whole hour he just stood there blowing his whistle…we think he must have been really bored, but it was funny!

We were then taken up to a zoo near the border of Tagaytay. We'd been to a small 'zoo' a couple of weeks previously in Cubao which had been a bit depressing to say the least. I say that because the conditions of the animals and the cages they were kept in were pretty rough and uncared for. Poor monkeys! However, this zoo was a lot better...and there were proper animals. Lions, tigers, camels (Sam), baboons, you name it! Not sure what I thought of the rabbits being locked up next to the hungry snake cage though. Yeah, we know why that is. Convenience eh!?!
There was a zip line which stretched from one end of the zoo to the other, so me and Pastor Jorge had a go...Matt wasn't keen on the idea ;) After an hour or so, we were about to leave, but not before I got a photo with one of the tigers. You've probably seen the photo… I look more nervous in the picture than I felt to be honest. The 'Life of Pi' had put me at ease!
When we left, we came back onto the highway to see a guy standing by the side of the road holding 2 puppies above his head, signaling for drivers to take them off his hands for a small price.
Only in the Philippines!!

Finally, our last trip in Tagatay involved going to see 100s of carp fish being fed. Random, but so cool! Literally, I've never seen fish so eager for food; it was like Kipper at feeding time. I leant over at one point to get a photo of them and one of them rocketed out of the water towards my camera and made me drop my lens cap into the water. Enjoy chewing on that one fishies!
Overall, it was a great day...the souvenir shops made me laugh though...why you would want to buy a pen made from snake's skin or a pencil case in the form of a dead frog with fake eyes I don't know!

I stayed in San Pedro until Sunday afternoon so I was able to go to Sovereign Grace Church again in the morning. It's amazing to see the work being done in this church! I met a 7 year old boy called Alfred (aww!) who stood there wearing a shirt and tie and was introduced to me as the future pastor of the church. So cute! ;)
It's about an hour bus ride to get back to Cubao and it's never good when the air con decides to break within the first 5 minutes. The bus was absolutely packed with people sweating and fanning themselves, but I had worse problems to worry about. A pirate copy of a 1970 Arnold Schwarznegger movie was showing on a TV screen at the front of the bus. Ouch!!

It was one of the social workers' birthdays on Saturday, so I splashed the cash and went to buy her a jack fruit (google it!). Who says I'm not a generous giver! When I got to the market, I had my first experience of haggling…I had 95 pesos in my pocket and I needed to get a tricycle home. But we had a problem; the woman was charging 100 pesos for the jack fruit.
I felt so hardcore as I got onto the tricycle 10 minutes later with 20 pesos spare in my pocket (not inclusive of the money I paid the tricycle driver). Half price for my first time haggling, not bad eh! ;)
Just as I was feeling pretty good about myself, I got caught in the rain. But it wasn't just any old rain. It was what Forrest Gump correctly identified as 'Big old fat rain". In fact, the water reached almost up to my knees at one point and I was pretty convinced it would flood. But this was nothing! By the morning, it had all disappeared. Not a puddle in sight!

Gambling. Don't do it! Especially with the social workers in CCM. I learnt the hard way when I bet them a McFloat that my water container at home could hold more water than the one in the office. They weren't convinced and they took me up on the bet.
Bottom line is, I lost.
I've just realised, you're probably unsure what a McFloat is. All you need to know is that they're sold in McDonalds and they're delicious! ;)
Philippines trivia: "Love ko' to" is the Philippine slogan for McDonalds!

We have reached my 3rd devotion on the life of Jonah in the boy's and girl's homes. So many amazing lessons to learn from Jonah - what a compassionate God we serve. A God of second chances!
What Christ has purposed and planned for your life will be brought about despite all your foot-dragging. How often we think that we know best. How often we forget that 'obedience is better than sacrifice'. How often we have to be brought back to God through repentance. Praise God for His mercy and patience!
Tonight I will be giving the next installment on Jonah's life. Please pray that the children's hearts would be softened to receive the message.

In the coming week I'll be going to Rebap Camp. A camp hosted by CRBC and expecting around 400+ attendees…kinda puts our Youth Camp back home to shame!! Please pray for those who will be speaking and that many would see this camp as an opportunity to turn to the Saviour!

So much more to say, but you have lives to regain!