take 5: A Getaway

We are approaching 3 months here and John and I are learning how we individually cope and adjust to culture shock. I (Edith) personally go through waves of highs and lows every single day whereas for John, until about a week or two ago, he hadn't felt much emotional distress dealing with cultural adjustment.

Our director recommended us to go on a little getaway from the city to help us get emotionally and spiritually refreshed. He said that living in Manila does take an emotional toll on you and it's a good idea to find time to get out to the country (province) once in a while for a change of scenery. We didn't realize how much we needed a little vacation until we went on one.

It was a last minute decision but we decided to go to Batangas and see if we could find a nice beach everyone had been raving about here. It was supposed to be about a 3 hour drive south from Manila. John found a resort on Matabungkay Beach near Batangas online and thought this would be a nice place to stay over night.

Not a good start...
Well, to make a very long story short, what was supposed to be a 3 hour trip ended up becoming a 7 hour trip. We had to stop a few places along the way to ask for directions to get to this resort. It was getting dark and it started to rain. We couldn't see the landmarks we were looking for and the signs weren't (in our opinion) very clear either (where there were signs that is). We got to this resort and found out that all the rooms except for one were booked so we took the last room. It was a simple room, no bathroom inside so we had to go outside to a separate building and the shower, toilet and sink were all in one single room with no barriers. There's no soap or shampoo provided and of course I didn't bring any because I just assumed there would be some provided for us (bad assumption...). I was exhausted and grumpy and had a very bad attitude about this whole situation thinking "This is no resort, it's a campsite." To make matters worse, as soon as we put our baggage into our room, a very large ant colony decided that they wanted to stay with us. There were ants crawling all over the walls and floors... if you could just imagine my horror.

The lady had to come in and spray the walls and room with strong bug spray and sweep up after. We had to wait half an hour for the ants to die and for the toxic fumes from the spray to dissipate. You don't want to know all the negative thoughts that were going through my mind by this time. The only thing that kept me from wanting to leave and return home was seeing Kayla enjoy everything. The fact that we were somewhere new excited her; it didn't seem to bother her too much that it took 7 hours to get there and there were ants in our room. Watching her made me realize that I could learn a thing or two from her about having a different perspective on things.

Gifts from God...
Okay, so at least one of us got decent sleep that night:) The bed was too short for John and being pregnant, the foam mattress wasn't the most comfortable for me, but now, it was time to turn a new leaf, it was a brand new day and we wanted to enjoy it. We prayed that it wouldn't rain so we could go to the beach. We found a man who was selling native jewelry on the beach. We didn't want to buy anything from him then but asked about the boats and asked where they took people. His name was Dario and he told us that his brother was a bangka (boat) operator and he would take us to a nice beach on a nearby island.

So after breakfast, Dario lead us to him and his brother took us on his bangka to a nearby island. It was a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky, feeling the cool breeze against our faces on the ocean, the night before became a distant memory.

Kayla loved being in the water, John went snorkeling and swam with the fish and I enjoyed picking beautiful shells and coral off the beach. As we enjoyed a full morning of sun and beach, we felt we were given wonderful gifts from God.

Now that we are back home, among the air pollution, congested traffic, rain and humidity, we really do feel refreshed and ready to continue our cultural learning.