The people I'll miss when I go home...

SAVERS. These are the kids who make me smile every day.

Nanang Florie, my mom in the Philippines. :]

In the red is Auntie Pat, and above her in white is Auntie Azon. These are my other two housemates. Both are goofy and wonderful. In dark blue is Auntie Mercy and in light blue her daughter Sheng. Up top, Pastor Doe with her delightful son Jairus.

Praise and worship team. Not all of us are actually in this picture.

Aira and Faye. Aira's my nighttime talking buddy when I'm lonely and she's become kind of like a little sister to me.

Apple. She is literally the sweetest girl I know here and one of my best friends (worldwide).

My band. These guys were my first close friends here. They made my transition here a lot easier by treating me like one of them from the start.

All CMBI students. This is Michal, the one I'm closest to. She's going home this week and I don't know when I'll see her again. :[

My ballet students.

"You are not welcome back here."

....That was my dad's comment when I told him my opinions of chicken head and feet, both of which I tried for the first time last night. (I said they were yummy. They are!)

See, I have this little "game" with some friends here wherein I have to try one new and exotic food each month. We started in December - I ate balut for the first time then (and actually liked it!). Not sure what my task for February is, as I've proved pretty easy to please thus far and am seeking more of a challenge. Ha. :]

In other news, our trip to Manila was wonderful. I had a blast shopping and being in the city (although the traffic is atrocious), and more importantly the conference was wonderful. Anne Graham Lotz spoke twice - her first session was called "Jesus is our Savior" and focused on the cross and His death, and second session was "Jesus is our Lord" and focused on the resurrection. Hearing her speak helped me get some things back into perspective and it was just what I needed. A very tiring weekend, but a blessed one.

love,k

Piggery!

Yesterday I decided to take a break from dancing and go with some people to to look at pigs for the lechon on Sunday after church. (A lechon is a big meal -- for lots of people -- where they roast the whole pig. You kill it right beforehand.)

The place we went was so cool. They had all these different sections depending on the type and size of pig....It was really organized, at least more than I imagined it would have been. At the top they had all these huge mother pigs I think most were pregnant, but some had just given birth (and had adorable little piglets!!). They kept them really confined and didn't give them room to move -- to avoid miscarriages. There was one male pig in the center (it was a huge room) whose role was to impregnate all the women. :) But those pigs weren't for eating, so we went down a hill and around to the back where there were tons more of the eating kind. There was one pen with big pigs (not as big as the mommies upstairs, but way bigger than Wilbur), and they got smaller as you moved down into the other pens. (I still can't get over how cute the piglets were!) We got there around feeding time, so the pigs were hungry and squealing SOOO loud!! The lady started feeding them pen-by-pen beginning with the piglets, and the other pigs could smell the food I guess because then they got even louder. It was pretty funny. It was cool to watch them eat though, because there were these little spickets that they drank water from, and they knew how to take turns and everything!! I don't know, I just thought it was cool.

I got to choose the pig for the lechon, so I chose my favorite -- one that had a big brown spot over its right eye and two large overlapping grey and brown spots on its back... It was adorable and I want to name it. (I don't have any good name ideas yet.) Rendo told me "you know, when we cook it no one will see the spots..." But I still wanted it. (Although...Do I want to send the cute pig to its death? Oh well, too late now.)


So, any pig name ideas????