Settling in

Our first week is entirely dedicated to settling in and finding your way around. Since our well-being is taken care of (if we want to eat the local food), the focus is on the well-being of our sunshine. Baby food, diapers, wet wipes... we have to get all of that. To do this, we have to find a means of transport that is suitable for us and, of course, appropriate shops. After a short tour with a CFA employee to the nearest mall, we have a first overview. There are masses of shops, not something like the DM popular in Germany, but we are creative. So we cook the food for Avi here ourselves, since there is no other option. Porridge in jars is either super expensive or not available. There are many means of transportation. The Filipinos mostly use jeepneys (small covered flatbed trucks that are brightly decorated) or trycicles. What surprises us: you hardly walk here. We are told that the Germans always get a surprised look when they say they ran. Our current mode of transport of choice is the taxi, as it is air-conditioned and quiet for at least 5 minutes a day. 😅

For all excursions with CFA we travel with white flatbed trucks. It's crazy how many people there is room in here. When we drive to the service, 5 children from the homes have space in the same area as the three of us. Here too we notice this warmth again. A huge space is made available for us and everyone else squeezes together. What hospitality! The huge potholes in the roads in combination with the not-too-good shock absorbers regularly rock Avi to sleep very well.

The Citichurch service (not a typo, it's actually called that) takes place in a huge mall (SM Seaside) right by the sea. There's even an ice skating rink in the mall and a kind of beauty contest for dogs is taking place this Sunday. Crazy!

The settling-in week is coming to an end. The start of our service school IMS is just around the corner. We are excited to see what awaits us.