I had a good night’s sleep at last, thanks to Tylenol P.M. I was sorry I had waited until the second last night to take it. I felt like a new woman. After breakfast, we had the morning to ourselves. We spent the time in the pool again and I was able to speak to the manager of the guest house again. She mentioned going to the grocery store for the first time and trying to get everything for their Thanksgiving dinner. Apparently, turkeys aren’t readily accessible in the Philippines and as a result, they are expensive. It felt strange to be spending Thanksgiving day in shorts, swimming in the pool. We missed everyone at home very much.

After lunch, Ramon picked us up and took us back to the orphanage for the ice cream party. On the way we stopped at Concordia to pick up the papers we needed for Jonalyn to get a discounted rate on the airport tax. We met Beth Caces, the director there, but didn’t have time to get out and meet any of the children. I was disappointed in that. We then went back to the town where the orphanage was located. The grocery store used to be in the strip mall in front of the orphanage, but it had closed. We finally found one down the street a little ways. And what a store! The kids stayed in the car with Ramon while Doug and I went in. It was much like our Super Wal-mart. The first level was the electronics department. Then there was something like an escalator but it was flat instead of having steps, more like an inclined conveyor belt, which was cool because you could easily take your shopping cart or stroller on it. Upstairs we found kiosks selling many different items, including food, much like you would find in the middle of an American mall. The clothing was also located on this level along with the food. It took us a while to get the ice cream because the only flavors we could find were mango and ubu (a purple fruit) and they didn’t go well with the chocolate and caramel sauce and sprinkles we brought from home. Finally we found a tub of chocolate and vanilla swirl and bought that. The check-outs were the same as at home. But even though it was only the 22nd of November (and Thanksgiving Day for us) there was Christmas music being piped through the store and the cashiers were all wearing Santa hats.

We made our way to the orphanage. As soon as Jonalyn saw Mama Linda, she flew into her arms and didn’t give us a second thought – just as I was afraid. She had nothing to do with us the entire time we were there. They set up a table on the open porch and we had about ten kids who ate some ice cream. Among them were Majorn, Jonalyn’s best friend. She was a sweet little bubbly girl with short black hair. I was also taken with Lucille, another five year old. She was very petite and had long silky hair and a soft-spoken way about her. She was very, very sweet and I wished I could have taken her with me, too. There was also another girl about five there who was a little bit on the heavy side and didn’t look Filipino at all to me. She was in a bad mood and didn’t interact with us at all. I got to feed little Jennifer, a sweet toddler who was bound for California. There was another darling girl who was going to France. After wanting to leave so badly the day before, I was glad we had stayed. I enjoyed spending time with the kids so much.

Jonalyn was jealous of Majorn when we got there because she saw Majorn wearing her flip-flops. She had a bit of a meltdown and Linda gave her the flip-flops. I knew for sure then we had a stubborn child on our hands. Brian and Alyssa occupied themselves with the cats that were roaming the grounds. I was a little bit disappointed that they didn’t spend more time with the kids but they did seem to have a good time.

Ramon decided to take us the back way to the guest house in order to avoid some traffic, but I’m not sure if he did or not. There still seemed to be so much! We talked about how much money we would need to pay the airport tax and that it needed to be in Filipino pesos, not American dollars. We asked him to take us to a place where we could change our money, but he offered to do it for us instead. We think he gave us a fair deal. He called his wife who had traveled out of the country recently to make sure we had changed enough. Then he stopped at a small bakery and bought us a Cassava cake, a native cake made from the yucca plant and coconut milk, topped with macapuno (coconut strings) and cheese. Of course, I couldn’t have any of it, but everyone else said it was delicious. Brian says it tasted like pizza. Alyssa had to go to the bathroom at this point and couldn’t wait until we got back to the guest house. I had to take her down this long, narrow dark alley to a dirty little bathroom. I wished she could have waited. I ended up taking Jonalyn, too, while I was at it. Quite the adventure!

Once we got back to the guest house we did some packing and got ready to leave by [4:00] in the morning. They did a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for us and it was good to have it. Brian got sick, unfortunately halfway through dinner and he went back to the room. The rest of us followed suit soon. We did have some medicine with us to treat ourselves and it didn’t last long. By the time we got back to the room, Brian was feeling better and complained about us not bringing enough food for him. The night before we had put out some laundry we needed to have done. We weighed and took stuff out because we didn’t have much spare cash to pay for it all. The price went according to weight and we were trying to stay around a kilo. They did a great job with it and even ironed our things. We had all that back by Thursday afternoon. Then it was early to bed to get ready for our trip. Earlier that day, Alyssa met another little girl just her age we lived in the apartments there. We hadn’t met her before because she was in the mission school, but had the day off for the holiday. The girls had a wonderful time playing together. Too bad it was only for one day. We were just starting to feel a little bit comfortable and at home. Even though, I was ready to get home and wished I could blink my eyes and tap my heels and find myself back in my bed in Wisconsin.