For the weekend I stayed with Brekken from USA, Collin from USA and Veronika from Sweden. We lived with this really sweet family and they had a 4 months old baby and he was so adorable!! For host family day we went and got a massage with our neighbors John from USA and Mark from UK - I got an hour of swedish massage and OMG it was so good :) best hour ever!!
After the weekend Brekken and I had to change host family so we did and we became part of the SUPER 8!:D I lived with Philippine from Belgium, Bonnie from USA, Linnea from Denmark, Marjoux from Switzerland, Chiquita from USA, Brekken from USA and Tori from USA. It was so much fun staying 8 girls together!!:) And what I loved most about it was that I did not know some of these girls very well so know I finally had the chance!
Our pool in our back yard!:)
Philippine and Brekken on our host family day!
My beautiful bed buddy Brekken on our very comfortable bed! :)
For CI's this week I went to GK Baseco. I was there for 2 days were we just interacted with the kids and had a lot of fun with them. We played different games we have learned through Up With People and some of the kids taught some of there games to so that was awesome. There were kids in every age group. We had babies, 3 year olds, 10 year olds and teen agers and they all needed some kind of attention and affection. You could tell by some of the children's behavior that they were not use to getting that much attention and therefor had a hard time sharing it with other children. Some of the children became mean to some of the others because they would want me all alone or some of the other UWP students alone and when they first get your hand they will not let go. And that was really hard because you wanted to give every single child the same attention as you gave one!
One thing I loved about this CI was that we came back over three days so we could get to know the children and the children could get to know us!:) After the first day the children called us "Ate" which means big sister; so my name became Ate Sarah and I loved that.. Having 20 children running up to you screaming Ate Sarah, Ate Sarah was the best feeling ever..
We went around there neighborhood and saw their homes and the way they lived. One thing that surprised me the most was how normal it was for them to live like that, how happy they were, how smiley the kids were and how everyone just said hallo like everything was perfectly normal. And I guess they just don't know better or maybe they just know that this is what they have and they will just have to make the best of it!! We could all learn a lot from these people. They never complain and they might not have a bed to sleep on, a warm shower or even food on the table everyday 3 times a day. Think how much we take stuff like that for granted - we should all be a lot more thankful for what we have then we are! I know I am!!
On my last CI day there we painted their nails, put lipstick on them and did face paint and they all loved it! It was so much fun to see there reaction and I had so much fun putting there nail polish on :)
On our last day there we got a really good tour of the place and it was really horrible to see their living conditions. The families and kids that were not a part of GK Baseco lived in much poorer conditions and you could easily tell them apart.
That's all trash!!
There is so much trash that you would have to dig for days to get to the ground. The children plays here because they have nothing else..
Some of their houses..
My other CI sight was Nazareth Home which is a home for women with unexpected pregnancies. A lot of these girls were under the age 20 and was expected their first or second child. They could stay at this home all through their pregnancy and a month after giving birth. Most of these girls were raped and one of the was only 12 years old. This girl had been raped 3 times and was now 8 months pregnant. It was so hard to see a young child walk around with her teddy bear in her arms and a big belly, it just did not look right at all. All we could do with these girls was listening to their stories, talk about their future and hold the three babies that was already born and we also made bracelets with them and that was a big hit:)! I'm so happy there is a home like the Nazareth Home because that gives girl like these a bit of hope. While living there they are trained in how to give birth, how to take care of a baby, to breastfeed the baby and most importantly how to get ready mentally as a 12/13 year old to give birth to a baby. Some of these girls keeps the baby and others gives their babies up for adoption. It's mostly there own choice to keep the baby or not, but if they live with there families and they still go to school it can be the parents decision or even the grandmother because they will be the one taken care of the baby. I just hope for these girls that their future will be filled with nothing but love, joy and laughter! It was such a nice day and The Philippines keep reminding me in how lucky I am to have what I have and to live in the country I live in.
One of the beautiful mothers with her 3 weeks old baby!
The Philippines have been absolutely great and I have loved our CI's here! Thank you for the lesson:) Going to miss the people and the country!
XoXo
- Sarah <3
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