Good Friday.

So today, instead of going to Guiuan like we planned, we went to GK villages and other Barongays in the surrounding area. There was too much mud from the rain last night to head into Guiuan, so we changed our plans. Tony's been having a lot of communication with Mayor Mel (I learned his name, oops.) about the plaza he's hoping to rebuild into a central plaza for the children, the families, etc. I think they're in a meeting with Willy Santos as well right now, trying to convince the Mayor of Tanauan to build a skate park in the plaza as well, as a good recreational activity for the kids.

Before we got to the first village, we had our first collective culture scare. This was the first time we saw something and nobody in the van could explain the why's or what's. There were people, dressed in pointy hoods and masks and their whole bodies were covered. There were crosses on their fronts and they looked like they were collecting donations for the church. There were people dressed in all white, or all navy blue, or in different color combinations. I'm assuming they were priests, and this was some kind of tradition for Good Friday. It scared us because they resembled the American KKK, but the connotation here is completely different.

The first village we visited took us down the bumpiest roads thus far. For people who have been here, you already know what I mean. For people who don't, take the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, and multiply it by a thousand, and slow it down by just as much. It's totally nuts. You really gotta have a strong stomach and roll with the bumps in the road. I taught a few people on this trip to fold paper stars, though. I've been folding stars this whole trip just to keep my hands busy without giving me motion sickness from writing or reading.

The village was apparently, already built when the typhoon hit. However, when it happened, the town suffered a lot of damages, but fortunately, nobody died. Apparently, at all the GK villages, nobody died during the typhoon, which is amazing. I was actually pretty proud of myself that I could have a basic conversation with the kids at this village. It was hard to talk to the toddlers though, they didn't really talk back. We bought a bunch of food from a small store and handed it out to the kids and mothers.

Since it's Good Friday, there were a lot of prayers and sharing of stories about the typhoon, and being a part of the GK village, and so on. Apparently, our current GK guide, who was at the GK village where we celebrated Reina's birthday, used to be a pastor of some sort. He's really good at keeping the crowd alive and entertained. I feel like today was a lot of travel, going from village to village quickly, instead of interviewing residents for a long time like we have been. It's still been a good experience, we get to interact with everyone, but it's not for as long as usual, I feel. Maybe it's because of the weather. It was insanely hot today, hotter than usual. Nutty weather.

We got a bunch of fruit on the side of the road when we headed off to the Leyte Landing, where the MacArthur Monument was. At least, I think that's what it was called, and I think that's how you spell that. o.o We took a lot of cool pictures with the statues depicting soldiers walking through the water. The heat was really getting to us though, and we headed out quickly. From there, we headed to a really tropical barongay close to the water. There was a convent there that GK had visited before, and we went to thank them for their work in keeping their community safe as much as they could during the typhoon.

It's pretty heartbreaking, thinking about how the typhoon affected this area. Apparently, when they were cleaning up, or when the coast guard was making their rounds, people would pile dead bodies on a raft and push them out to sea so the coast guard could collect them. There were 128 households in this barongay, and that doesn't even include a full count of how many families and people there are living in those households. Today was a day of reflection, as Good Friday should be. You can feel the Holy Spirit in the words we've prayed and the general vibe of all the communities.