THe CR PRoJeCT

Yolanda. She changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in just a few hours. Each and every person here has their own story, and although a lot of people have been left in similar situations I still come across a completely unique story on almost a daily basis. Like 44 children who, although attending school, have no place to use the bathroom; meaning that they use the two-foot wide area between school buildings or they wait through a full day of school until they can get home. It is those kids that we decided to visit today in hopes that within the next couple weeks we would be able to get a CR (Comfort Room) together for them. 

After dedicating our morning to a few other projects Stephen, Amber, Kulia, Bekah and I made our way to Barugohay Norte Elementary School in Carigara. Let me just say that one of the most heart warming things you will ever hear is a classroom full of Filipino elementary students say in unison "HELLO VISITORS" as you walk passed. It never ever gets old. Your first instinct after that is  to turn around to say "hello" or "thank you" in return, but what you may not realize is that the second you do the classroom full of students will scream with joy, jump from one foot to another, and then throw their hands over their mouths in excitement. I only offer this advice on the matter: do it anyways. Not only will it make you day, but it will make theirs too.

When we first got there we were greeted by Veronica, the teacher for those 44 students. She is the one that originally contacted us about the project, and also happened to be one of the people I was able to spend my very first full day here in Tacloban with. After a few introductions we made our way to her classroom to see what kind of work was in store for us. Over the next 30 minutes Amber and Mhytay entertained all 44 children while Veronica explained to the rest of us what it was that they need. She showed us the area they would need to place the CR in and gave us a general idea of the supplies we would need. She then took us elsewhere to show us a different CR that we could model the new one after. She even asked if it would be ok for the parents to be involved in various part of the project. It couldn't have been any more perfect. 

After getting all the information from here that we needed a few of us went in to talk to the principal. We wanted to make sure that he approved of the CR before we got to far in to it,  and also ask if there were any other projects the needed a hand with. I personally never heard about other projects, but I did find a few I wouldn't mind doing if they will allow it. I can't think of a single child who would object to few more playground items or a mural on this wall. One thing is for sure though, as long as the office approves it these kids will have a CR :)

BiRTHDaY DiNNeRS & WaLKiN' THe HoMe WaRD

I don't remember where I was or who asked me, 

but sometime in the last week I got asked what my family's birthday traditions were. 

MY RESPONSE:

"We go out to dinner for our birthdays.."

HIS RESPONSE:

"Well everyone does that."

Ok it's true, maybe we aren't that original.

But we still go out to dinner! 

I LOVE IT, 

And today was the day we went out for 

MY BIRTHDAY :D

But here's the problem:

Every year without fail, 

for weeks before my actual birthday, 

 I always have this internal debate. 

It's a tough one!

Texas 

has been the prominent winner for the last couple years. 

+

Last month Taylor picked Texas for his birthday. 

So I decided to switch it up. 

CHILI'S

won the 2012 debate. 

  

Please enjoy this 

STORYBOARD.

It is about a boy named 

TANNER

who all of a sudden decided that 

MUSICAL PLATES

is how dinner should be done. 

I'm pretty sure he ate off of 

eVeRyoNeS PLaTeS.

I kind of love my family,

A LOT :)

Now, FAST FORWARD.

We are at my parents. 

In my purse are are TWO-HUNDRED & TEN flyers like this

THRILLIONAIRES: an IMPROV COMEDY group who also happens to have a piano player. Which means IMROV MUSICAL COMEDY. 

It's going to be epic :) 

So these awesome siblings of mine 

helped me put every last flyer out in our home ward,

 and then some.  

They are so great :) 

and maybe this is tacky, but I am super excited for this show! 

So if you want a good laugh, please come on Saturday! 

(click on the flyer for more info)

100% 

of the donations go to

PHiLiPPiNe IMPRoVeMeNT GRouP. 

Which means 100% of the donations are going to help better the people of the PHILIPPINES. 

Salamat Po :) 

a DaY oF SuMMeR TRaiNiNG

Today was the day officially dedicated to 

SuMMeRTiMe PReP.

I didn't even have to plan it that way. It totally just happened!

SUMMERTIME PReP

= 

EFY TRAINING + PIG RETREAT

You want to know what's odd?
I have worked 20 weeks of EFY,
11 of which were Health Counselor weeks, 
and I have NEVER been to a day of 
HEALTH COUNSELOR TRAINING 
in my life.

2009: Hired 9 days before my first session.
(aka: there were no more trainings)
2010: Had to turn down the position, 
but ended up working for 2 weeks anyways :)
**FOUND OUT ABOUT BOTH THE DAY OF**
(aka: no time to train)

So TODAY I attended my FIRST
HEALTH COUNSELOR TRAINING

and it was GREAT!


1. There are only 3 Health Counselors that have ever worked for EFY before.
2. Of those three, I am the only one that has ever been a Health Counselor before.

I'm so excited! 

My Co-Counselor 

SCOTT,

he ROCKS. 

And we are gonna  

ROCK EFY!

THEN...

it was time for 

THE PHILIPPINES RETREAT!

DoM and I went down to CoLe's PaReNTS down in LaKe SHoRe.


There we...

 met up with the rest of the
PIG Crew
(minus three girls).

Yes, you counted right.
RYaN + CoLe + 11 GiRLS.
They definitely picked the right job. haha

We ate some dinner,
witnessed a BoTTLe RoCKeT WaR,
got our ITINERARIES & PACKING LISTS,
talked about all the stuff we get to do, 
and even learned some
TAGALOG.


Then we had a BONFIRE @ CoLe's 
just like old times :) 

Thinking about this trip makes me so GIDDY :D

If I could,
I would just on a plane right now!
But since I can't, I'll just go study up on my
TAGALOG
instead :)

18 DAYS

FHE+PIG

Once upon a time 

MY FHE FAMILY

took a trip to 

If you haven't been, 

GO!

RIGHT NOW! 

I feel justified in saying this, not because of my most recent trip here,

but because

I'M PRETTY SURE MY EXTEND AND IMMEDIATE KEEP THEM IN BUSINESS.

Actually, that makes them sound like they're struggling.

THEY MOST DEFINITELY ARE NOT..

WE JUST GO THAT OFTEN :) 

ANYWAYS..

WE RODE LOTS OF THESE

ROLLED LOTS OF THESE

WON LOTS OF THESE

AND GOT THESE ROCKIN' FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS

We even shared our tickets to do so. Haha :)

THEN

WE WENT TO

because

PHILIPPINE IMPROVEMENT GROUP

was having a fundraiser there. 

PHOTO: COMPLIMENTS OF RYAN

KATELYN, NATHANAEL, SCOTT & SPENCER

all came with.

That alone was great :) 

Then when we got there, we ran into

COLE & RYAN 

and even

DOM!

(they're three of the people I'm going to the PHILIPPINES with)

It was an

ABSOLUTE BLAST!

and from what I hear, the fundraiser was a major success!

I LOVE F.H.E. 

and 

I LOVE P.I.G.

that's all there is to it :)

VaCCi-NaTioN!

YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE A LOT?

That in less that 7 weeks, I'll be on a plane to 

THE PHILIPPINES!

YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE EVEN MORE?

That in less that 13 weeks, my brother will be on a the sidewalk in front of THE MTC!

DO YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE THE MOST?

That we both need to do somethings before we leave.

AKA get VACCINATIONS, NEW CLOTHES, ETC.

So naturally we (+ MoM & KaeS) decided we'd make a day of it.

After talking to Jeff, I mad my way to the

HEALTH CENTER

and met up with the rest of the fam.

Boring stuff first, FUN stuff later.

KAESI made it way not boring 

by making creepy faces 

while holding a picture of her BF

while TAYLOR and I took turns talking to the Nurse. 

Don't worry, she knows she's weird ;) 

TYPHOiD PILLS..CHECK

MALARIA PRESCRIPTION..CHECK

Then it was off to the MaLL. 

Taylor needed the works!

SHIRTS

PANTS

TIES

SUITS

SHOES

BIRTHDAY CLOTHES

Kaes and I helped for a little bit,

but then we decided to check out the rest of the mall. 

PS. DiD I MeNTioN I'M DoiNG EFY aGaiN?

Hence the job quitting in the last post. 
I am SOOOO excited!!

Even if it means wearing these SUPER CUTE RED POLOS all summer long!

So I decided that meant I should definitely buy some new shoes and accessories to go with them :)

That's completely reasonable, right?

Especially since it's the month before my birthday.
I thought so. 

THANKS MOM :) 

Then we fed our hungry selves some

PANDA EXPRESS,

went to the other DOCTOR to get my 

HEP A SHOT,

and called it a day.

I don't think Taylor has ever shopped so long in his life. 

CONGRATULATIONS BIG GUY!
You can now have your SHOPPING MERIT BADGE.

I LOVE FaMiLY TiME

THATS ALL THERE IS TO IT :)

BIG NEWS :D

I've been terrible at this. 

(I know, and that's why I owned up to it in the last post.)

But for once I'm not..

a) WoRKiNG

b) iN CLaSS

or

c) FRaNTiCaLLy TRYiNG to FiNiSH uP PReP for an aCTiViTY WiTH MY eLDeR FRieNDS. 

There are about 1,000 things I should be doing for each of those, I thought it was about time to post :)

So last night 

ELiZa, aLeXa, MaTT, KaeSi & I

were sitting in the living room watching one of Alexa's favorite movies. 

 BaCK SToRY: Once upon a time (2005 to be exact) my parents went on a cruise. I was sixteen and in charge of babysitting my my sibs for the week. KaeSi = 14. TaYLoR = 12. TaNNeR = 6. Being the good sister and babysitter I was, we decided to go rent a movie. It was already dark outside, so naturally we chose The Ring. The four of us sat up on my parents bed watching it. Parents in another country + First time seeing this gem = INTeNSe aMouNTS oF FeaR. I'm pretty sure it's these moments that always made me wish I'd had an older brother.. Anyways, as soon as it was over, we drove right back over to Hollywood Video and rented The Ring 2. Yeah, we were kinda stupid. But it's ok because so is The Ring 2. The moral of the story is, the first time I watched it, I was completely freaked out. 

 I've probably seen this movie like 25 times now.

It was one of the few I had on my iPod when I was younger. 

 So watching it last night went a little something like this...

Kaesi and Matt: Quiet, just having a good ol' time. 

Alexa: May or may not have jumped a few feet at several points during the movie.

(keep in mind the previous story, and the fact that she had only seen it one other time)

Eliza: Played the comforter/joker. 

Me: I literally had to hold myself back from laughing during most of the movie.

(those of you who have seen it a few times can't tell me it's not super funny after a while!) 

Anyways, there is a completely different point to this post. 

I only tell that story because while I was sitting in my

$15 PaPaSaN CHaiR 

from 

SaVeRS

watching the gem,

I got a phone call from my friend

RYaN O. 

So of course I went upstairs to answer it.

Ryan + My Participant Audrin
(who went by "SHoRTY" for a lot longer than just that week)

Two SuMMeRS ago

(2010)  

I randomly ended up working EFY for TWo WeeKS.

The first week I was a HeaLTH CouNSeLoR on Ryan's team. 

The second week I was a CouNSeLoR for the same team. 

We never really talked after, but we were Facebook friends

(aka his posts would show up on my feed every once in a while). 

Well back in 

JaNuARY 

I was skimming through my feed and came across this post. 

I had always wanted to go on a 

HuMaNiTaRiaN TRiP 

and the price seemed totally reasonable! 

Before I knew it, everything was falling into place!

JaN. 10: My PaPeRWoRK was in :)

JaN. 21: a few of us met together for a quick meeting, and I put down my $100 deposit.

JaN. 28: Passport Papers are in.  

FeB. 14: My PaSSPoRT CaME!

MaR. 1: I met up with CoLe (who, coincidentally, I also met doing EFY back in 2008) to give him the rest of the plane ticket money.

Then there is last night. 

LaST NiGHT when Ryan called, 

he wanted to make sure the name they had for me was 

100% correct.  

He and Cole were buying the airline tickets as we spoke :D

So that my friends means that this is 

aBSoLuTeLY, 

FoR SuRe, 

No TuRNiNG BaCK NoW,

HaPPeNiNG!

I'll do another post pretty soon about what we'll actually be doing there :)

For now, just know that 

I am absolutely ecstatic 

to have the opportunity to do this!  

are they not the most adorable little people ever?

Being able to serve these people, I know, will be an experience I will never forget.

And 

to the people that have donated money to help me get here, 

THANK YOU!!

Thank you so much! 

Your willingness to help me accomplish this has been such a 

HUMBLING EXPERIENCE. 

I haven't sent them out yet, 

but THaNK YoU cards are coming :) 

SALAMAT PO!