Blue team here! Sorry for the late blog, but the day was packed full of stuff, and it has only been now that we’ve gotten a chance to write.

We woke up around 7 and grabbed breakfast, meanwhile, a list was going around of electives of what people could do that day: construction, feeding or the children’s home. The feeding took place at an area called Angona, and the construction consisted of sanding/varnishing the newly made bunk beds and shovelling sand around to different places. This continued till noon, where we had lunch and had a short relax time. Then the real work began.

Miss Smoker split the team into groups of 5 or 6 and gave the different groups money to catch trikes and jeepneys to a local shopping centre where the team was given a different set of items to buy. These items were shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs and brushes, and deodorant. The team had to buy 70 of each at the cheapest they could find them. Then the team bought spaghetti, zip lock bags, coffee and brown sugar. Then we came home and started packing the first set of items into 70 bags which we would then give to the Journey for Hope kids later that evening. Due to a miscounting, Smoker, Jos and Tyler had to go out and grab some extra items, along with buckets and rice. Meanwhile the rest of the team went back out to the children’s home and construction. The new items that were bought, was then packed into 17 different buckets that was going to to delivered to the families of the Journey kids personally by the team. Then after all the packing was done, the team loaded up in the cars and headed out to Journey for a movie and hang out night. The leaders on the way, bought pizza and roast chicken for dinner for the kids and the team. The room was absolutely packed with people – about 70 Journey kids plus our team of 34. We were all sitting on the floor watching ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’. The movie finished then out broke a massive dance party with the kids, and Miss Smoker throwing little jelly cups into the crowd for dessert. Then we gave the bags of cleaning products to the kids and left the building.

As we were heading home, lots of the team were pretty broken up because many of the goodbyes that were said that night were final. The car rides were the quietest they’ve ever been with such an active team, including one car who spent the trip home praying. On arrival to YMC, the leaders of Journey, Coach Jeff and Myles, along with some of the boys, brought over authentic Filipino street food for us to try. Some of the lovely food that they brought us was cooked chicken head, fried pork blood, pig liver. The strangest food we ate was balut and fried baby chicks. Then we finished and made the Journey guys eat Australia’s most disgusting and awful food… Tim Tam’s. After that horrific experience the team headed out to the pool and just hung out with the small group of Journey guys, and then had a debrief session and went to bed after midnight.

Simon: Hey muva, hope you’re doing well and I cant wait to get back and see you again. Try and keep the cuz’ awake for when I get back thanks J love you

Beth: Hey family! Enjoying and savouring every last moment I have here before I leave on Monday L But I’m looking forward to seeing you all again! Love you heaps.

P.S Give Chloe, Adam, Louie and Eliza huge hugs, kisses and love from me!