| FYMT Part 3 : Mr. Dante Real Men Of Genius & GARRR~!

I've forgotten to mentioned that while the guys were busy posing for art by the beach, the gurls were pampering themselves silly with pedicure and manicure. It was a bargain it seems and the dudette came all the way to Cesmin Beach Resort Cottages to do it for them.

synchronize sleeping

Day 4. June 12, 2009. We headed to Full Gospel Fellowship, pastored by Ps Jerry Tadina. We're to do a Youth Service (mini-concert-thing) there. It was a small church along the red light district of the area as Ps Jerry mentioned to us. No, no one went missing as pastor held an iron grip around us to prevent us from Pulling Stunts®.

the (not so) red light district

a place of hope

and of learning

the hall

Despite the outward appearance of the church, the hall is very nice and clean. Tiled floors and decorated walls. We practiced a few of songs and get the sound checked out. Interestingly enough, they have no acoustic guitar at all. Just two electric guitars (and one would easily presume the people here would have an acoustic guitar in every nook). Soon it was time to eat dinner and for the concert.

chicken chop rice

Here's the funny part. We being Malaysians, have a preset idea of what a concert would be like. In our minds a concert would be... Oh, I dunno.. a 7 to 10 tracks worth and with that mindset we actually cooked up 14 concert songs and practiced them hard only to use less than half of it throughout the entire mission trip. hehe~ Nonetheless, the concert was good. The sketch was well played and the messaged was delivered wonderfully. All in all, a job well done.

the crowd

The next day however, we're supposed to return to the same church to conduct various workshops from dances to creative arts to multimedia and to worship workshop. Julian, Wayne, Jennifer (Kae Lynn) and myself were to conduct the Worship Workshop. They were very shy. Maybe due to our Malaysian english and all but all in all, they were responsive and that's A Good Thing®. Unfortunately though, I didn't take any pics of the workshop. What I do have however, are pictures of Kee Weng and Lucius sleeping earlier that morning. Lucius sure has some weird sleeping poses..

imagine: multimedia and worship workshop pic

imagine: creative arts and dance pic

Later that night, it would be our last night in Cesmin Beach Resort Cottages. After this we would be splitting up into two main teams once again and heading to two different places. What's more, our Philippino guide and chef extraodinaire, Dante; Real Men of Genius & GARRR~ will be no longer at our service. So as a farewell, he BBQ'ed for us Some Good Food®. In momento of him, I shall refrain from commenting anymore on the food.

Dante! So GARRR!

the grill he cooks on is GARRR!

the pork chops he cooks is GARRR!

the final product is but a testament to his GARRR!

FYMT Presents: Real Men of Genius & GARRR!
(Real Men of Genius & GARRR!)
Today we salute you, Mr Dante A Real Man Of Epic GARRR Proportions
(Mr Dante A Real Man Of Epic GARRR Proportions)
Walking around knowing every nook and cranny of La Union,
You're the real Philippino hero.
(Runnin free!)
Sure, you're taking care of a bunch of Malaysian tourists and you
Have to make sure that they do not get lost or eaten by a cow.
(Watch out now!)
Your keen sense of smell and taste ensures that they eat only the
Best food Philippines has to offer. You even brought to Jollibee.
(Jolleyyyy!)
So crack open a nice cold bottle of PG-friendly drink, Mr Dante!
Cause we all know that when the going gets tough, you are GARRR!
(Mr Dante A Real Man Of Epic GARRR Proportions~)

The next morning, June 14th. We were leaving Cesmin to Ps Ramel Tadina's church which is somewhere near the coastal farmlands.

the bright morning sun of 7am

Ps Ramel is Ps Jerry's younger brother. For no reason whatsoever, I've forgotten to take both their pics so just imagine them for now as we move along. Ps Ramel brought us to a special beach where rather than hearing the sound of waves crashing into sand, we can hear the sound of waves crashing into... rocks... pebbles and other nice looking stones. Yes, it's a beach of stones.

these stones cover the higher part of the beach

and nearby is a structure

the structure is split in two and has a tree in the middle

some say... Samson did it

wayne upped his agi and flip the ex out of the pop

a woman collecting the nicer pebbles to sell - its their livelihood

Soon it was time for Sunday service. Ramel brought us to his church which consists mainly of farmers and the like, welcome to the Family Church.

they have a jeepney for transport!

the youths

the hall

next to the church

Comparatively to his older brother's congregation, the people and the youths of Ps Ramel's church were more lively and less shy. Despite not being able to really communicate well in english, they were not hindered. It was kewl~ In any case, right after lunch, we headed back to Cesmin to grab our belongings and using public transport, we made our way to Baguio City: The Summer City of Philippines!

*cue adventure music, preferably non-MJ*

Goodbye Cesmin Beach Resort Cottages

And Hello Baguio!

the dude who architectured the park

Once again, I remembered taking pictures of us eating the long BBQ'ed small intestines of a pig but somehow I'm not able to find it anywhere! I guess I'll just let your mind do the work for me. Soon, the president of Asia Pacific Theology Seminary (APTS), Rev Tham Wan picked us lost people up from the the middle of Baguio and brought us to our new lodging, the guest room of APTS.

For Masters Degree only

Awesome view for only USD5000... A YEAR!

the men's room: american standard - drinkable tap water is awesome!

we do our devotions in that little hut on the top left

Ps Joanne's elmo pic

The whole place is simply.... breathtaking. It's hard not to be tempted to further one's studies to Masters degree over here where the place is always cool, the food is dirt cheap and the service is quality. The drinkable tap water and new towels every two days blew us away. We stayed in dorms with double-decked beds, each with its own set of towels and comforter. Students however, have their own rooms. Naish~

Later that evening Rev Tham Wan invited us over to his house in APTS for a get-together BBQ dinner with the rest of the lecturers there. Food rated SGF® for those who're keeping track.

The Reverends:
Tham Wan (right), his wife Moon Tee (middle) and Joanne Lee (left)

lotsa lotsa lotsa food~!

the american styled home for the president

fireplace shot no. 1

fireplace shot no. 2

All in all, it was a very fruitful two days for us and with that, the end of this post. The next day, more mission work to be done..... I think.

Good nite peeps~

| FYMT Part 2 : Magandang Umaga (Po!)

The dawn of day no. 2...

the stoners from room Sh-Annex

We awoken to an unbelievably cold Philippines morning. Cold due to us spamming the air conditioning away throughout the night (assuming the word 'spamming' is applicable to airconds). The previous night's dinner we had a Philippines equivalent of our Malaysian tom yam but without the spiciness; Sinigang. The following morning of day 2, we were once again immediately treated to an awesome breakfast by Ralph, some unknown Philippines pork sausage and their char siew equivalent.

this is what breakfast means in philippines!

Later hopped up into a jeepney. A jeepney is something like a jeep but stripped down and modded to be able to accommodate more than a dozen plus plus plusssss people. It's one of the main modes of transportation in the Philippines and quite an icon too much like our Malaysian trishaw except more practical and they won't eat your cash like you're some blardy tourist! heh~

jee.. a jeepney

and it fits 20 people!

Sorry for the inexcusable lame pun up there. As previously mentioned, the first two days (10th & 11th June) will be for us to get to know the culture before stepping into ministering it. Our first stop, Ps Joel took us to a Catholic church and explained a whole lot of theological stuff. I shan't bore thee with it. Just look the nice pics and go 'Oooooh~' and 'Ahhhh~'.

the church

gothic styled interior

Next stop was..

the filipino-chinese friendship pagoda

the pagoda itself

and louis selling himself away

This place is quite popular amongst the youth who want to loiter and scandal around too. Graffiti can be seen all around the pagoda, "(insert name) likes so and so and so", etc. Quite standard stuff though except for one particular statement that caught our attention.. almost near-prophetic-like words..

Jeff eh? sign taken

the view from the pagoda

the gurls~!

Next on the itinerary was the Botanical Garden of La Union (pronounced; La-Ooo-Neon). Nothing much to say about the botanical garden that what the name suggests.. its a botanical garden!

wheeeeeee~

gah they took my kidneys! ~charlie

the garden

the guardian

the orly owl!

eagle who didn't wanna show off its wings

hawk = rajawali

a kungfu master

check out the beak

pagodasss

Next we went to Macho Temple where some bombastic-theology-word-that-i've-forgotten was exposed to us. It's a cross between the catholic and taoist so yeah.. pretty interesting stuff. Didn't take any pics of the inside because I didn't wanna stain my camera.

macho macho man~

Went to a supermart that doesn't have much to offer or appeal to us. Bought necessities for the upcoming ministry.

at least they have huge cotton candy

Went to market later on to walk walk some more. Tried a few local bread and other delicacies but unfortunately, due to constant movement, I was unable to snap any pics of the awesome bread, deep-fried squid, etc.

gotta love a good name

the wet market

ahhh... we used to have so much fun eh?

The following day (11th June), we headed to the market once again to walk walk even more. This time though, I somehow didn't take any pics at all. But lemme describe the market to ya... It looks like Jasin but more bustling. It has lots of chap fan on the upper levels. Lots of cheap second-hand clothings but looks quite pasar malam'ish. So there ya have it; the market.

go go power rangers!

We headed back to the resort cottage and some of the guys decided to go for a walk along the beach. Cesmin Beach resort Cottages' beaches were similar to those in Melaka, except that this one has quite a few broken bottles strewn around. Lots of those iconic fisherman boats too. We found *Vain's boat too.

the guys

the vain

children playing with junk

walls of Cesmin Beach resort Cottages

Stop here if you do not wish to see bunch of valiant attempts of taking kewl pics to put on facebook. Lets see if you can spot the man~

the profound setting of the sun

We headed to another beach after that; a much cleaner one too, I might add. Dante, our guide & chef, an supremely impressive man whose full of garr!, the same dude who took us to the market, brought us to the famed Jollibee. As Ps Joel says, when one thinks of Philippines, 3 things come to mind;

1. Catholics

2. Iglesia Ni Cristo

3. Jollibee

Joanne was throughly satisfied and that concludes day no. 2~ Another 10 more days to go!

Good nite peeps~ Gotta work tomorrow~


*names changed to protect the innocent