Day 9 - 18.02.26 - Moving Day

Today is moving day - we are going from the hotel we've been staying at to a different hotel that was more central to the centers that we'd be visitng.

We had to be out of the hotel at a reasonable time so we had breakfast at the Hotel. After breakfast we finished packing and requested someone to come assist with the bags. The checkout process went well enough - someone went and checked the room, and then we were good to depart - looks like we headed off around 10.30.

It was odd thinking that we might not see Kirstine and Mark again - at this point it felt like we were quite good friends - we'd seen them almost daily for a week.

The hotel we were staying at was in a different part of Cebu - it took about 40 mins in a Grab to get there. We'd been on some of these streets before, so some was familiar - other parts were not. It was interesting - things start to look the same - May have been somewhere we'd been already, but also it was feeling like we were becoming 'aclimatised' to this being the norm. Like this is just how it is, which is obviously not ideal.

By now the rest of the team had arrived - today was a down day so they spent the morning doing some sight seeing.

We arrived and got settled in our room, and then we had some spare time, so had a look to see what was near by - took a Grab to Jmall where we had a look around, and then wen to a Japanese place for lunch. We had fancy soufflé pancake things, they were super tasty.

After this we headed back to the Hotel for a rest before we met up with the rest of the team, and headed out for a walk in the sourounding area. There was a center nearby, and 2 people from the centre joined us for the walk around.

The walk around was probably fairly typical of what I'd seen in my firs trip, but to be in it again and seeing what little people had, and the environment they lived in hit home once again. It was also Christine's first time seeing the poverty at this level. There was one part that the 'road' was flooded and there were stones that they had put in the water so you could get across - I wen thru this a day or so later and almost lost my balance.

We were going to go to a different nearby area too, but then it started to spit, and they didn't really want us out in the rain so we headed back in doors. There was a little cafe attached to the hotel where we sat for while, and we were able to ask some questions of the people who have a center in the area. I think we stayed there a bit long cos the cafe was due to close!

After this we headed up for a quick refresh and then it was time for dinner/orentation with Fredz our on the ground leader. We got a bit of the history of the Philippines - a bit about what Compassion is doing, and went over some guide lines/expectations that should be followed while we were visiting the centers and kids.

Tomorrow we will be visiting the center when Cassandra (our first sponsored child), Ieiazel (who was Christine's mums sponsored child) and Lance (who I started sponsoring after I went in 2024).