Coconuts.

(From August 23, 2008)

This morning, we had technical training at our site. We spent the beginning of the morning going over the purpose of courtesy calls. Courtesy calls are part of the Filipino culture, and they basically involve visiting the mayor, social work department (for us), and barangay captains in whatever site you are at. So yesterday, we did all those visits. Then we played with the kids for a long while—they are so fun!! We taught them a few games and then they taught us some Filipino games. Between my time in Manila and here, I have discovered that I am darn good at table tennis!

We all worked up a good sweat while playing—please think of the warmest day you could imagine and add 100% humidity and direct heat to it. That is what it is like every day! Yesterday, I actually felt kind of sick from the heat, but I got about 11 hours of sleep last night, so that helped a bit. After showering, your skin never actually dries. It basically goes straight into a sweat. I am anticipating mildew growing on my skin sometime soon, since it is never dry. Yuck. But that’s what I wanted! I am hoping I will adjust within a few months, because the sweating will get old.

This morning during training, we also drank directly out of coconuts! They just crack it open and drink the water out of it—so delicious…and messy! Having so many coconuts around is really helpful though for times when there is no purified water – just have someone pick one off a tree, cut it open, and start drinking! It’s pretty cool.