Well I'm just starting to get a hang of things here. The day starts off around 7:30 with breakfast. then Jake and I head over to the school for the pledge of allegiance, and some dancing to wake the kids up. then we go into one of the classrooms and have devotions with the kids. I led it on Monday and talked to the kids about Samson and God's power. It was also an opportunity to see who could do the most push-ups in class. So they had fun. Then we started school, but they are doing all kinds of nutrition projects so I haven't had to teach anything yet. I found out I'm going to be teaching speech (in English) and computer. It will be very interesting since I'm far from computer savvy, and because I have used a Mac for the past 7 years.

The kids are awesome! The school is an elementary school so I'll only be teaching younger kids, but the orphanage is almost all high school and college kids. The little kids are so cute. They all have to wear uniforms, which you can see in the pictures.  I'm able to hang out with the older kids when they get back from high school and college (which sounds like a trade school) when they get back in the late afternoon. I've been able to play basketball with them, and it been fun to see how joyful they are when they play the game.

There are tons of animals here. There's a horse, cows, chickens, roosters, turkeys, parrots, dogs, two huge pythons, Koi fish, and a baby hedgehog. It's crazy to see all the farm animals walking around like they own the place. The snakes and parrots are in two separate cages. Toto told me they feed the snakes once a month. Both of them eat a whole chicken. So needless to say I can't wait to see that go down!
They also have a rice feed on the property, and I'll take a picture of that when I can. It's been raining today so I haven't been outside too much. I've been told there are two seasons here in the Philippines Summer and Rainy. Right now we are in the Rainy season. At night you can here the rain and it really sounds like you are under a waterfall. It gives me a whole new perspective on pouring rain.

The people here are so great! The language barrier will hopefully recede away with time, but for now they have been really helpful to me by talking in English. The young kids whom I'll be teaching mostly speak tagalog, so at times I really feel like I'm on an island here, but all it seems to take is a funny face and I've got the kids back.

 Toto has told me that I'll start doing Bible studies with the older kids soon, so I can't wait to get that going. It will be nice to get to know them better.

Below I've attached some pictues: My bed, the school, some of the school kids, some animals, the gym, and even a risky meal of catfish with head still attached (which was delicious).

All in all it's been a great start and I can't wait to see what God has in store!