It's been a few days since I've been blogged. Two reasons...sick and busy when not sick. I've been on an unwanted weight loss program since Tuesday afternoon and now it's Friday night. We go home tomorrow morning and this is one thing I would like to leave here. I blame it all on Chris. Tuesday we went to TGI Friday for lunch and I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. The cheeseburger came with everything on it, just the way I like it. But, because we had been, earlier in the week, advised not to eat lettuce, I began to take mine off. Chris joked with me about it and said he was leaving his on. I felt bad, so I left all the veggies on it and within and hour I was sick. I missed church Tuesday night and Wednesday morning but thought I was feeling better so I hopped on a bus with Chris, 3 people from Bible Baptist Church Cebu (BBC), and a pastor and his wife from Nepal. We went to the beach.
Their beach is not like any beach I’ve ever seen. The sand is imported and just poured on top of the hard, dirt ground. There isn’t enough to squish between your toes or build a sandcastle. The sandy beach doesn’t go down into the water. There are steps required for that. It is still beautiful and the water is clear. I didn’t see any fish in the main part of the ocean. However, the resort had 2 captured sharks in some stale, murky water. They were maybe 3 or 4 feet long but big enough that I didn’t want to get in the water with them. Pastor Sharma, from Nepal, rented a jet ski for him and his wife. Since they live in the mountains they had never seen a large body of water, much less been to the ocean. She quickly panicked so Pastor Sharma convinced Chris to gout with him to drive. Pastor Sharma held on for dear life and only lasted about 10 minutes before he asked to go ashore. He told Chris to go back out and finish the time. Chris happily agreed. At that resort an employee has to ride with you at all times so off they went. Chris played his usual dare-devil tricks and it would seem as if the employee had a lot of fun with it. Chris swam a while and saw a couple more fish and then we took pictures before heading back. I didn’t get to enjoy all the beach had to offer because my problem revisited.
On the way back to the hotel one of the ladies from the church, Ivey, gave me some medicine. After a little rest in our room, I thought the medicine was working. I decided to ride the bus to church.
Church didn’t even get started before I realized it was a bad idea. I found Chris and asked him to help me flag a cab for me. Chris instructed the driver to take me to Crown Regency Jones. That began the scariest 10 minutes of my life. The cab driver started by locking the doors. None before had done that. Then, he pulled away from the church and turned the opposite direction of the normal route. We drove down roads I had never seen. I started counting turns; one left, one right, two rights. I was freaking out. The even scarier part was we were on roads that were so narrow he had to roll down his window to pull in his mirror. On top of that fact, we were the only cab, no, the only car on any of these streets. There were some tricycles and some people, but no road-side stands. Eventually, I spotted the Chua Hung Hospital which is just blocks from our hotel and I could finally breathe normal again. My heart slowed and my muscles loosened.
I slept well with minimal problems and went to breakfast with Chris Thursday morning. I decided to try to go to the meeting again. But, before services started I knew I needed to get some help. I found our buddy, JP and told him I needed some “good drugs”. He found me a nurse who brought me some Gatorade and put me in touch with Ma’am Judy Lumagbas. She is the Assistant Pastor’s wife and the Head Nurse in the church. I guess since they have an elementary, high school, and Bible college they have nursing staff. Anyway, she was home sick with the same thing. Ma’am Judy called me on the phone, and after interviewing me, said she would call the doctor for me. The doctor, another member of the church, came to the church office just for me. (She was on her way to take some guests to the airport.) She asked all of the same questions and some new ones and then wrote me a “prescription” on some paper she found in the office. I asked JP to take me to the pharmacy but he just took the prescription instead and had someone else go get the medicine for me. They returned with medicine in just a short time. I quickly took it and then JP helped me get another cab back to the hotel. I had a little energy so I ventured out with Chris to a different mall for lunch, where we ate an Italian lunch followed by some Italian ice cream, with some friends. We went back to the hotel and rested for a few moments and then headed to the Cebu Convention Center which is the same place where the first meeting was held.
Church was excellent. The speakers were entertaining and challenging but most of all Biblical. After church we stayed around to take several group photos and then tried to make our way across the street to eat dinner. It was like paparazzi everywhere. Filipinos would follow you and ask to have their picture taken with you or they wanted just your picture. They love Americans and other Internationals. They were so thrilled to have their picture taken with someone of a different color. We finally got some food and back to the hotel around 10:30. We tried to watch a little bit of a movie but fell asleep in the middle of it. Guess that’s how tired we were.
No comments:
Post a Comment