The Beginning of Knowledge & Relationship

Hello again! I am doing well and loving the begginings of life here in the Philippines. As some of you may have known and been praying for our VISA process, I'd like to thank you for that. We spent two long long days sitting in immigration and were successful in applying. Now we just wait for approval. So continued prayers would be awesome. Regarding the other aspects of my new adventure here in the Philippines here are some photo updates:

We have successfully completed two months of culture/language learning. We have been studying the Visayan/Cebuano language which is the dialect spoken here in Davao. I wouldn't say we are amazing Visayan speakers yet but they say "the real practice starts outside of the classroom!" So we venture out in hopes that we will grow in our knowledge of the language and culture.

5 days a week we'd travel by Jeepney for almost two hours each way and walk down dusty roads to get to and from the place that we studied language and culture. When we'd get there at about 8:15am we'd begin classes sometimes indoors and sometimes in little huts outdoors. We'd learn until 3-3:30pm and then begin our long journey home.

My team and I and a few of our new friends/teachers crowded on a Jeepney.

My beautiful roommate Hannah and I on one of our many commutes. Also, this is my bed. :) The beginning of making my bed/space more personal and homey. (A picture to come after we finish setting up our room)

Currently there are 7 girls living in the house I am in. (We will get 3 more this summer) We have a wonderful lady who helps us with cooking twice a week and then we all either cook for ourselves, eat leftovers, or someone in the house will cook a big dinner for everyone.

During our language learning phase we got to volunteer in the clinic once a week (on weekends) but now that we are done with that phase we volunteer 3 times a week (8 hour shifts, either Day 6a-2p, Swing 2p-10p, or Night 10p-6a) I am loving being in the clinic. It's such confirmation that God has me exactly where I am supposed to be right now. I truly see God's hand and direction teaching me and molding me daily through my shifts at the clinic and through my relationships that I am building here. As well as our 3 shifts a week we have begun more learning. Learning through lots and lots of reading and writing assignments, and learning through observing and listening to the wisdom of experienced midwives. Please be praying as we enter into this next phase of volunteering and gleaning from the wisdom of the midwives in the clinic.