Thursday 1st April

Sunburnt. All across my back and onto my shoulders. To make it worse, the children keep jumping onto the affected area. And I don’t want to show them that I’m in pain, so I’ve been letting them get on with it. One of them gave me a massage earlier. It was excruciating.

We spent the day around the house, beginning by painting the outside wall and later playing with the children. Randy turned up wearing the Manchester United shirt again and then started painting in it, so I made him take it off. It might not be mine for much longer but it’s still an expensive shirt. And anyway, the paint was pink.

After lunch, many of us had a siesta. It’s so easy to fall asleep in this heat. Only the grasshoppers seem to manage a full day. I kept waking up thinking that I’d slept through most of the afternoon, then falling back to sleep anyway because I was so tired. When I did eventually get up it turned out I’d been out for about the same length of time as everyone else. The girls upstairs were away for even longer then us, so Ian and I had time to set up some group games on a bare piece of ground just up the hill. We eventually managed to get five of them up there and the games began. Ian made up the numbers. I made him hop rather than run so that the girls could keep up with him.

Later we played stuck in the mud and cricket. The girls are much easier to control than the boys although they get just as mucky. We told them to put on their sandals before they left the house but they just kicked them off before they started running around. One of them cut herself on a rock but she was so keen to play, she refused to go back inside to have it dressed. The weather was stifling but they laughed at us for drinking water so often.

Over dinner Lynne suggested I give a testimony during Sunday’s service. It’s getting harder to say no, so I’ve agreed. I’m going to talk about the different people we’ve met since we arrive in the Philippines. I’ll probably finish by talking about Pastor Gerry.

The pace of things seems to have slowed over the past few days. It’s probably just a case of getting more familiar with the pattern of life here in Subic. The children are now much more familiar with us. I spent the evening upstairs with the girls, where they danced to a worship CD. It felt lovely jumping around and playing with them. It feels like a happy house.