pre christmas fun

The nephews, niece's and more are arriving now a few days before Christmas, after tennis this morning, we went Christmas shopping at SM. Expecting horrendous queues it wasn't too bad at all, we got there fairly early and it was more or less normal. Maybe that the recession is making money and spending tighter this year i'm not sure, anyway shopping was fine. Back for lunch, Lizelle away so Nanay is chief cook and a snooze after for the three of us (me, ann and annika).

Quite a cool day and so kids had a play outside with the ball to give them a warm up before the swim. they hit the pool and me and Annika joined them. Tempted out later by Fried banana (yes fried banana) prepared by Nanay for a late afternoon snack. See photo evidence supplied.

Christmas a couple of days away only

Orphanage christmas Party

On behalf of the "friends of Mindanao" group we decided to give some poor orphanage children a Christmas party at Meregrande which is a splendid beach resort place. the date was set for yesterday 18th of December and the party went fantastically well, everyone had a great time, the children had fun and the adults too.

For me the party started with Paul coming round at 7am, and Paul and I drove in separate vehicles to help fetch the children. We drove to the orphanage at Calinan, about 25km away and met James and Lisa. There was also a Jeepney hired which took the majority of the children, i took some 3 poor infirm children and their carers and we set off back for mergrande arriving about 8:30am. We unpacked, got the kids settled and i bolted back home to pick up my familly and the Bunda familly who also were attending.

I left all the food being prepared by Karen and Lizelle and came back to an organised house, drinks and plenty of food, and presents, loads of presents.

The party was for the 15 kids normally resident at the orphanage but James had recently collected 3 infirm children from the mountainous area and those kids too were able to attend. Unfortunately the three kids were not physically able to join in with the games but they enjoyed the change of scene and being with the other children of course.

The "friends of Mindanao" group had supplied the presents and the funding for the party, but i had also been contacted via this blog by Maricon Bajo who wished to attend the party but who could not because hapilly for Maricon she was pregnant and the doctor had ordered rest. Maricon very kindly donated lots of presents for the day, Dolls for the girls, lots of presents for the boys and also "prize" presents to be given on the day itself, the kids loved Maricons toys, thank you so much for this kind act.

We loaded the car (no idea how we all fitted) and arrived back in mergrande about 10am, none of the kids were swimming, what was wrong? Lisa explained they wanted to do a show for us, they had been rehearsing, they had donned costumes and make up and were ready to perform. Good timing because Reg, Ian and John turned up for the show. Chris and his wife also came a little later. Lisa had put so much work into the show beacuse it was great, singing and dancing and solo's as well, wow those kids are sweet, there were more than a few tears in the eye moments.

Lunch was called for and spahetti, meatballs and rice, what a feast, drinks were served for the kids and then it was time for the adults food as well, which was delicious. 2 other Directors of the orphanage turned up, Dr Robillio and his wife and so we were able to meet them and share some time with the children.

What after that, well of course swimming, James led the way with the kids and i couldn't resist joining in with Arnel and super keish as well, it was great fun. Another emotional moment was when the 3 infirm children were carried into the ocean to experience swimming for the very first time.

After that...party games, prizes, presents, more food kindly donated by Chris Kaluna and his wife
and of course sweets and well, that was about it, time to head of home.

Thanks for Paul for supervision and transport, another big thanks for Maricon, for Chris and familly for their food and Lisa and James.

It was a great day out.

Orphanage party and first swim

Tuesday 9th of December was a day i wasn't looking forward to but it turned out all right, actually it turned out very well. The "friends of Mindanao" group had decided to sponsor a Christmas party for the orphanage in Calinan called the Pag-Amoma orphanage, there are going to be 18 kids but three of the children are infirm (muscle wasting disease, seems to be congenital) and they need individual carerers, with three other helpers for the rest of the kids and then the "friends of Mindanao" members and family, well there could be 40-50 people going.

The party is on the 18th of december at Mergrande a rather splendid beach resort, sea, playground, swimming pool, gardens, an ideal location. I had voluteered to help organise the party and several meetings had taken place to decide on events. Yesterday Tuesday it was decided that Lisa and I (Lisa is the orphanage manager) should go shopping for the xmas presents for the kids. We set a budget for the party (about 75% collected so far...) and a sum of this per child (going to be fairly vague here) was allocated for the present for the child to be given to him or her on the day. Tuesday was the shopping day aaagh, it was bad.

James dropped Lisa off and we went to Mergrande to ask for discount, partial success there, Lisa chose NCCC China town, Uyangaren (sp?) traffic was horrendous and parking was nearly impossible, circled 3 times, found a smiling boy who parked us up and off we went to shop.

The store is big and suitable, full of bargains and loads of stuff, T shirts, Shorts, outfits, shoes (don't tell the kids) and various other things for the 18 kids. No idea how lisa kept track of it all but i left it all to her, quite a logistical task. Various trips back to the car and then it was done, back to lucnch at our place, mong beans and fried fish, Lisa's favourite, tasted fine to me too.

Then, see photo, Germaine and Lizelle helped to sort the gifts and store them in gift bags ready for the big party, the biggest task here was taking the price tags off everything.

See picture, job got done and Lisa left, the party should be really fun.

Then PM after negative advice from the medical profession here, i asked Ann to check various web sites, which confirmed actually that Annika could swim. So, about 5pm Dad and daughter had our first swim, it went well, Annika very happy, splashing and the usual happy stuff, to be repeated daily for the next few years, pool, toys needed, always something eh.

New camera

After a week without, and after a little bit of perusing, we bought a new replacement camera. the direct replacement for the one we lost was the sony but it had gone both touch-screen and expensive. We had previously had a sony touch-screen video cam but it went wrong and caused us some grief so we didn't want to go there again, anyway too expensive, about 30,000 peso (nearly 400 quid at the current reducing rate of exchange).

So, we went for the cannon ixus 901s and very nice too...here are a few no too inspiring shots with the new camera. The pregnant lady in the first shot was the sales lady of course for the camera and the first photo taken with it.

Cost was 16,000 peso or about 200 quid, just under really, so, not bad.

Car in for service and estimate for repair "ouch"....camera and anns phone replaced, just the i-pod to go and then we will be back to where we were before the bump and the robbery, ah well only money i suppose.............