Posts

Showing posts from April, 2013

Philippines - Day 4 (Pinatubo)

Image
This is entry #6. Link to entry #5. Jolayne is also chronicling our trip  here. We began day 4 (Tuesday) on day 3 in a couple different ways.  First, after chatting with De Oceras about the best way to get up to Tarlac, I decided it would be much faster and lower stress if I could get a ride.  At Jolayne's recommendation, I called  Sonia Bognot, our host for the trip  and asked if there was any chance at the late moment that she could come pick us up instead.  She readily agreed and we worked out the finances easily.  It wound up saving us probably a couple hours of commute time each direction.  Day 3 also brought an early start to day 4, with us waking up  at 330am .  I woke up about 30 min before our alarm when Jolayne texted me to ask if I was up.  I wasn't. Then I was.  But it was just fine.  The night before I had the smarts to put our bottles of water in the hotel's main fridge, so they were nice and cold when I retrieved them the following morning.  Yay.  Cold (

Philippines - Day 3 (San Fernando, Orphanage)

Image
This is entry #5. Link to entry #4. Jolayne is also chronicling our trip  here. As I mentioned previously, I awoke at about 2 am after only 4 hours of sleep, and yet I was so tired.  I tried going back to sleep and wound up using the time to get journal entries ready.  Our day's trip was to an orphanage, together with the young men and women of the San Fernando 1st Ward.  We were told to be ready for our day's trip at 6am, just after sun-up.  We even joked about Filipino time vs American time and were assured that they meant American time.  Hmmm.  It was just after 630am when the crew finally showed up, so we'd already had a half hour to sit out on the steps in front of the hotel, finish last night's pizza for breakfast, and enjoy the local scenery.  Everyone seemed to be in a much better mood in the morning; the kids had a good night's rest, which was much needed. TRAVELING THROUGH THE LAHAR ZONE We were destined for Lubao, Pampanga, which is about an