We had our first Breakfast that involved rice at Betania Retreat House (it is a getaway place for all the active and ascetic nuns out there). I have to say it was bizarre. Picturing dinner but at 7 in the morning. I couldn't decide if I could enjoy my meals or even tolerate it for three months. Two bowls of cereals to a rice, pork and egg blue plate meal. I had never felt so full on something so little. This surely does explain why the Filipinos are tiny.

The next fascinating thing happened. We took our sweet time in fitting 20 volunteers into a typical jeepney. For some reason, they thought it would be possible. But us Brits did take up more space leaving a few UKV to stay behind. The Jeepneys we drove in were old vans that the Americans had to drive in during the war. 10 Americans maybe is the equivalent of 20 Filipinos....Tiny.

We arrived at our backstreet beach and it wasnt what I had expected. It was more. We managed to interact with each other including the Filipinos through gestures and our constant "what's this, what's that?." After a while we all went into the sea and our cultural differences shunned us all. The Filipinos were in clothes while we were half bare. Didn't stop us from having a good time though and we got to learn their slang and humour. One that we said we'll never stop using. Hopefully in due time we will get it right (in context).