Pictures!

Hello again from the Philippines!  We had our water safety training day today, which consisted of practicing with our life jackets and getting in and out of a small boat while in the water.  Easy and painless.  It was nice to get out of the resort area and see the real Philippines, although the level of poverty we saw on the bus ride brought down the mood a little bit.  We spent the rest of the day at that beach until about 1pm.  Honestly, it was pretty dirty, although I had fun afterwards chatting with other trainees, singing videoke (there was a machine at the beach), playing cards and eating fresh coconut!  It was delicious and nothing like the coconut you buy at an American store.  Here's a few more photos from the resort we've been staying in.

One section of the resort is a 'fishing village,' which is very cool:

The weather changes VERY quickly here.  Usually the morning have been sunnier and we've been getting short, but intense storms later in the afternoon.

The poverty in the Philippines is pretty shocking.  I've only been here for a few days, but the area outside the resort is mostly slums and shantytowns.  You only have to cross a little river to get to them.  This is the other side of the river. I've seen a lot of places like this driving through the Philippines.  I've also seen a lot of large, expensive houses not too far away.

And this is what the other side of the river looks like:

On a lighter note, here's some pictures from some traditional Philippine dancing group that performed at dinner the other day.  One of my favorite dances involved people dancing between bamboo sticks, which other people would tap together.  It would get faster and faster with the music, and the dancers had to be very nimble to keep going!  Sorry the pictures are a little dark.

More to come!  xoxo