Monday, April 29, 2013

Focus Service Project

On Thursday there was a huge fire here in Bacolod.. We were actually out swimming in the pool here at the hotel and all of the sudden we saw all this black smoke and heard tons of sirens going past the hotel! It looked like it was really close to the hotel but it was like a 5 minute drive away from here... Well come to find out basically the whole community got burned down... It was a community that was behind big industrial buildings and the only way to get back to them is by going on a little walking path, that no fire trucks could drive back there.. So instead they had fire fighters up on the roof throwing buckets of water onto the fire... Which of course does nothing to put out a fire! We found out the it burnt down 80 houses and partially damaged 40 houses.. Which left 120 families without houses and it was 800+ people total left without houses.. That tells you how many people live in one house.... None of them had insurance on their houses or money to say the least... They honestly lost everything! Here are some pictures of where the fire was!
 










I know this is so gross but poor dog didn't have a chance!

 
 
 
We felt so bad when we heard about this that Focus decided to do charity for the people that were affected! They went and bought a bunch of rice, noodles, cans of sardines, and drinks... They packed bags of food to give to each family! These families are staying at a school until they get the place cleaned up and can build new houses.. We went on Friday to deliver these bags of food for the families.. They were so grateful but it was so sad to see that they had nothing left but each other..
 
The line of people to get food was huge!



 
 
After we gave them the sacks of food we went back to Focus and decided that we wanted to make them dinner because they have no food or nowhere to cook food.. So we cooked rice, and sardines... Think of how much food it was to feed 800 people!! It took a long time to prepare the food and put it in containers to take to the people.. But it was worth it they were grateful and starving... Here are some pictures of them preparing the food!
 
This is only 80 boxes of rice!

The guys opening up cans of sardines



Some of the crew that helped make the dinner! There are some amazing people that work at Focus!
 
They also did breakfast the next morning for the people and dinner the next night! Amazing... Tomorrow we are going to give them tin for them to put on the roofs of their houses when they rebuild them!Here are pictures of them serving breakfast!
 


 
 
 


Sunday, April 28, 2013

Day 2 in Boracay!

For the second day in Boracay Landon had his conference all day, it started at 6 a.m. and went until 5 p.m. So Payson and I had each other to stay entertained for the day! When Landon woke up before he went to his conference he went out to the beach and took this beautiful picture!!
 
 
 
When we woke up we got ready and headed out to go get a smoothie for breakfast! Landon stepped out of his conference and came and ate with us.  Payson kept pointing at the sand and the water and so Landon put him down to play and snapped this sweet picture of him!
 
 
While Landon was at his conference me and Payson went out to the beach and hung out! We played in the sand and met some new friends! We were just sitting there playing when some people got out of the water and came and sat by us and asked me if they could play with Payson! They probably played with him for a good 2 hours and took tons of pictures with him and just had a grand old time! They were really sweet they were from the island Iloilo...

 
 
 
 
 
This is him trying to walk in the sand! It was the cutest thing cause it was so hard for him cause he would just sink in the sand!
 
Landon came and met us for lunch but before lunch we took all of the stuff back to the hotel and decided to hose Payson down cause he was so sandy... This is a cute video of him getting dumped with freezing cold water!
 
 
We went and ate some pizza for lunch and Payson fell asleep while we were eating, he was exhausted from playing in the heat! So we went to the hotel room to put him down for a nap before Landon went to his conference.. Well I put him on the bed and he started crying and was trying to crawl up on me to cuddle.. So I laid down next to him and patted his back and snuggled him and went to get up and he grabbed on to me and wouldn't let me go!! Sweet little thing I will take his cuddles anyday!!:) Needless to say Landon went back to work and Pays and I took a nap!!
 
 
After our nap we went out and played a little bit longer in the sun waiting for Landon! When he got done we got together with the whole Focus team and went and hung out at the beach! Payson was spoiled rotten being passed around person to person! He loved it.. They all took turns swimming with him and playing with him.. He sure is a spoiled little boy here.. Once he got sick of swimming him and Landon got out of the water and built sand castles with some other people from Focus..
 

 
It was always fun to be hanging out on the beach and see the pretty sunsets!!
 
After we got done at the beach we went to the Conference Center and they fed us a delicious dinner.. We had noodles, rice, and chicken... It was way yummy and free so you can't beat that!! Then we decided to walk the beach and go see D'Mall that is on the beach.. It was a lot further walk then we thought it would be! It was probably a 15-20 minute walk down and there really wasn't like anything to look at or buy! So we made our trek back and decided to stop at McDonalds and get an ice cream cone to make the walk worth it!!
 
 
Payson loved the walks back and forth on the beach! I have a feeling he is going to grow up being a beach bum walking the beach with his dad!
 
 
It was a good second day at the beach but by the time we got back to the hotel room we were all zonked.. The sun definately makes you tired!!:)
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 


Saturday, April 27, 2013

Day 1 in Boracay!!

Landon had a work conference in a place called Boracay! Its a beautiful beach resort here in the Philippines! We flew to Manila first to do visa stuff then just flew from Manila to Boracay... It was only an hour and 15 minute flight so not bad at all.. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 3:30 p.m. but we got there early because we had nothing to do in Manila until we went to the airport because we didn't have a car.. Anyways we got to the airport to check in for our flight and they hadn't started checking people in yet for that flight, but they told us they had extra seats on a plane that was leaving right then for Boracay so we of course said yes we wanted to get on that flight! Well they had to have the plane wait for us to leave! I felt kind of stupid walking onto the plane knowing that everyone was waiting to leave because of us! But oh well it gave us an earlier flight to Boracay!! Come to find out it was a way good thing we got to the airport early and got an earlier flight because the flight we would have been on was delayed until like 10:30 p.m. I think.. So we wouldn't have gotten to Boracay until midnight! That would have been terrible!! We flew to the airport by Boracay to the island Caticlan it's not to far from Boracay! Luckily we had Julie with us because there is so much to know and do to be able to get to Boracay from Caticlan! So first you get off of the plane and go inside and have to fill out paper work to be able to go to Boracay! You have to pay I think it was around 300 pesos a person which is like $7 for a resort fee or something like that I don't know for sure because Julie did all of the paper work! Then after that we went and loaded our stuff and ourselves onto a motorcycle with a cart hooked onto it I think they just call it a moto here! I didn't even get a picture!:( It took us to the port to get on a ferry which is a 20 min ride to Boracay.. When we got there we got on another moto and it took us to our hotel which was like a 5 minute drive from the port... So not bad at all... They dropped us off at the end of the road because they couldn't drive into the hotel.. So a hotel van came and picked up our bags and we had to walk! It wasn't that long of a walk but it was super super hot and we were sweating like crazy and I had Payson and he was asleep so he was snuggling up to me and was sweating way bad so that made me sweat! Lets just say it was a bad experience ha... All I wanted was some food, a drink of water, and a place to put Payson so we could both cool off!:)
 
On the fairy headed to Boracay!
 
We got all checked into the hotel well our keys at least and before even going in the hotel to cool off we went and got something to eat! We ate at a pizza place called Yellow Cab and it was way good! They had the best smoothies I have ever had! The pizza was delicious to! After lunch we finally went into the hotel room! We decided that we wanted to go to the beach and swim to cool down! We got ready and headed to the beach but needed to buy some towels to dry off with and a beach bag to put all of our stuff in.. We went to a bunch of stores that were along the beach figuring out prices and which towels were the cheapest and trying to negotiate with the prices! Some people were easy to negotiate with and some just wouldn't budge! But we got everything we needed and headed to the beach!
 
They made this cute design in our hotel room for us! As you can tell Payson thought it was pretty cool!
 
 
Payson hated the sand at first! When we were checking in at the hotel we put him down to walk and he started bawling because sand got inside of his sandals and he didn't like it and he wanted his shoes off!! So we thought it would be different if we just put his feet in the sand without shoes on! Ha that didn't work he held his feet up and grabbed onto us to hold him because he didn't want anything to do with the sand! So Landon decided to get in the water with him! He was off and on about liking it! I think the reason why he wasn't liking everything was because he had sunscreen in his eyes and he would cry then rub his eyes and get it in his eyes more so it just wasn't working out! It was a bad start to a beach vacation! We lasted about 30 minutes at the beach and then Landon had to go to his conference!
 






 
While Landon was at his conference I decided I would take Payson to the hotel room and let him take a little nap before dinner! That didn't work! All he wanted to do was run around the hotel room and play with everything he couldn't have.. He is obsessed with cords and plugs so you have to watch him like a hawk and he knows it is naughty when he plays with them! He also loved playing in the closet he would go in and shut the doors behind him and play hide and seek! He would laugh so hard it was the cutest thing ever! So after chasing him around the hotel room we went outside to walk around! I kept trying to put him down to walk but he still wanted nothing to do with the sand! So we made it a game that the sand was fun! I would pick some up in my hand and laugh at it and let it fall out of my hands and then he started doing it... It worked!! After that he walked all around in the sand and picked it up in his hands! While we were walking around we met a 16 year old boy that was helping his aunt run the hotel for the summer.. He was a sweet boy that held and played and talked to Payson for probably 45 minutes and Payson loved him!
 
 




 
 
After Landons conference we went and found something to eat! As most of you know we are pretty picky eaters and don't care for seafood we eat mostly chicken.. So we found a restuarant that served chicken cordon bleu! It was seriously the best chicken cordan bleu we have ever had!!! It was delicious and it was served with vegetables that was cooked in some amazing sauce, and we of course can't forget the juice that we ordered was pineapple mango and it was divine!! It was a way good dinner that we actually ate it twice while we were there!!:) After we ate dinner we walked around for a little bit and went in some little shops and watched the entertainment on the beach, but we didn't last long because Payson was wore out and was so so tired! Overall it was a good first day in Boracay!!!