Philippines here I come!

On Monday I paid my fare for my next overseas trip to South Africa. I will visit family while I am there and have more than one iron in the fire for teaching in other African countries while I am on the continent. Not sure how those plans will turn out yet. Friends have recently returned from South Africa and sent on photos of their trip in that beautiful land. Had to share one.

I fly out of Brisbane at a quarter to midnight tonight (13th March)! Groan! After a three hour wait in Singapore, I'll be on another smaller airline enroute to Cebu. Mind you, if you have to wait in an airport, Changi is the place to do it. There's so much to see. My friends in Cebu sent me photos of the area in which I will be ministering. I understand the houses are on stilts because this is reclaimed land. The poverty is obvious. We Westerners are very critical about multi-nationals, but I have to say I am always very grateful to see products such as Nestle bottled water in my travels to third world countries. Not getting a tummy-bug is always a major challenge.

Going to the Philippines

I am off to the Philippines to teach on the Island of Cebu. The prospect is exciting as I have never travelled to that part of the world before. I did, however, travel to other parts of Asia last year and transitted through Changi Airport in Singapore. There was an exquisite display of orchids throughout the terminal, which took the edge off the boredom of waiting.

Philippines has a Spanish history, I was interested to read, which accounts for the large number of Roman Catholics there. I will be going to a small Protestant church in a very poor area, and shall have a variety of tasks in the two weeks I shall be there. Mainly, I shall teach in the little Bible College. I suspect a more accurate name would be Bible Training Centre as I have been told there are only a few students who need some fairly basic input. That will give me great pleasure. I will also speak at a ladies meeting, run a couple of leadership training seminars for the itinerant church workers, and preach in church on both Sundays.

It is not all work and no play, as I will have both Mondays free to look around. The weather will be a killer, I think. 25-25deg. and humid. Erk! I'll be taking plenty of mozzie spray as well as anti-malaria tablets. Don't want to get sick while I'm there.

This is of my cats. She's a bit of a poser!

My cat, Fleder, is a Devon Rex. The opera "Die Fledermaus" by Johann Strauss Jr It means 'the bat' in German and the foreign looking ears on this breed of cat inspired the name. She has the typically crinkled fur, naked neck and raucaus voice,. She grew up with a toddler around, so she is reasonably tolerant, but knows how to dish out a well-placed slap when the mark is overstepped! Her fur is a dreadful streaky, muddy brown, but her pedigree papers describe it winningly as 'silver torby'. I surmise it means she is a mix of silver tabby and tortoiseshell. My husband ruthlessley declares, "Well, it didn't work!"

Unkind people (non-cat lovers, obviously) have even said to us that she is the ugliest cat they have ever seen! How rude! My husband usually quips, "She got her coat at Vinney's Op. Shop. It's cast-off camel's fur." I love Fleder to bits. She is very much her own person.

Weekend at Lamb Island

How lucky am I? I went to Lamb Island for a weekend of R&R. I was able to kick back with my friend Di, chat, read, knit and begin work on a writing project. Also, Di showed me how to begin a blog.

We came back to Redlands on the 6am ferry, hence the photo. I think I'm going to enjoy blogging!