Culture Shock!

It's the morning of my third day in Manila. We're all settled in our little loft above the church. We're on the fifth floor. Many of the buildings are half-outside, half-inside, so this is our view off of the balcony.



Notice our bathrooms on the right-they're much different than I'm used to...as everything else here. We're adjusting. The only other white person we've seen is the missionary who is helping us. I don't think I'll ever get used to being stared at this much. You can just feel eyes on you everywhere you go.

The college students start on Tuesday, so right now we're just getting used to everything. We did meet a few of the leaders, and they are all so friendly! Everyone in the Philippines smile all the time! So they laugh and joke and tease all the time. They are very accepting and curious and blunt, so they ask all kinds of questions. I'm so excited for Tuesday to come and we can start hanging out in the student life center on a regular basis! The missionary told us at orientation that about 3% in the city of 2.8 million are born again believers. It's a little overwhelming, but the odds are in our favor. We're also going to be able to actually go into the colleges with the missionary sometimes, so we won't just have to wait for them to come to us in the center, but we can go to them, too!





Last night, we were talking to 2 sisters at the church, and they were asking about how things were at home, and I told her where I grew up, I could only see one house. And she said, "Oh! That is so scary." It made me laugh, considering that we have to put valuables in the smallest pocket and hold it close to us so that our bags or clothes don't get slit by snatchers! Different perspectives...