Day 2 – St. Martin de Porres Orphanage

Today our team drove 1.5 hours to Butos Bulakan to visit the St. Martin de Porres Orphanage

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ANCOP is one of the orphanage’s charity partners.

We entered the beautiful dining hall for a brief orientation.

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Natural elements such as stone and wood were architecturally highlighted.
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Everything in the room was both architecturally strong and beautiful.

The St. Martin de Porres Orphanage moved to its current location in  2005 onto donated land 7 hectares in size.

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Ate Jinky gave us a brief history of the orphanage.
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Local kids getting a sneak peak.

There are currently 127 kids at the orphanage mostly from ages 6-12 years old.

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The orphanage 1st opened in its original location in 2003. 3 original kids now college students gave us presentation.

In the morning, we had a tour of the beautiful grounds.

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Outside view of one of the resident houses. Children of similar ages and gender reside in the same house.
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View of another residence from the 2nd floor window of another house.
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Each house had a water pump for bathing and washing.
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Curious on-lookers.
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Posing for the camera.
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Unlike most of the others, Kevin was able to speak Tagalog to the children.
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Each child is responsible to do a list of chores (like setting the table for her residence).
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When I say, “God is good” you say “All the time.”
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We all gathered for prayer in the beautiful chapel.
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Inside of the chapel was beautiful.
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And so was the outside.

The orphanage also had guest quarters for special guests and sponsors.

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Guest quarters bedroom.
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A quiet place to pray.
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Being the change!!
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Awwww… newborn puppies!
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Can we take him home please?!
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What are these Canadians doing out there?
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Wow… Lunch was delicious!!

In the afternoon we got to play with the kids… our favourite part of the day.

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We played stella-ela-ola while we waited for the performers to get ready.
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We were treated to some beautiful music.
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Chillin’ with new friends.
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“What’s going on that side of the circle?”
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Duck duck goose was a hit (and easy to explain)!
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And so was the game “Pass the Squeeze”.
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I’m ready for the pass Krystal!

The student leaders gave out some of the gifts that they prepared from the night before.

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Hmmm… I wonder which gift I’ll pick!
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Spreading some Christmas love.
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“Hi, my name is Meredith :)”
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Even in the Philippines, the kids know how to dance Gangnam Style!
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Our new friends.
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It was hard to say bye… we didn’t want to leave but we had a mass to catch.

After the orphanage, we traveled back to the hotel to freshen up before heading to mass for 6:00 pm.

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Everyone is their lovely church outfits.
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We attended an English mass at Tri-Noma.

The mass celebrated the Feast of Holy Family.

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Tomorrow we get a day off as we visit one of the most beautiful places in the Philippines… Tagaytay!!

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