Goodness, sitting under a lanai with a tropical downpour going on. The rest of the team is swimming, probably huddling under cover so as not to get wet. Never understood that. Yeah, yeah, I know, lightening. The past several days have been terrific. These people are so generous and warm. Best as I can remember, maybe the blog will get caught up.

The last day in General Santos City, I was taken to a Rotary project at an elementary school. A local club had adopted it, helped build parts, scrounged books, etc. The neatest part is the food program. A large portion of the student population is undernourished. The Rotary provides the school with the wherewithal to feed a portion of the children, keeping them in school and charting the improvement in their performance. I guess when your brain has food it works better. The kids were just so darn cute. Although they did allow as I had a large nose and it was red. Hummmm.

Fellowship is very important in Rotary and, BOY, do the Filipinos understand fellowship. Each of the team members went to different parties the last night in Gensan. And had tales to tell. Tales of friendship and humor. Karoke and dancing. Did I mention singing? Goodness!

On to Marbel. We were picked up in a van in the morning, met our hosts at restaurant, ate lunch (see pictures) A major portion of any meeting is food and talk. They are very good at it. Want to stop eating? Be prepared for concerns that you aren't well or you don't like the food. No dieting allowed.

While here we have visited universities, banana plantations, papaya plantations, elementary schools. ( A major need is books, story books in any condition.) Discussed lots of Rotary projects that are done on a yearly basis such as Operation Smile for people with harelips. Homes for the aged and on and on. My head is reeling with ideas and possibilities for projects at home and connections here.

Big day was a vocation day were we went to study how to operate a zip line attraction with waterfalls. Some great picture are showing up on FB and should soon be here. Lunch at a place that had first citizen s dancing. Got the team up with them. Pretty good but they trusted me with a 'bolo.' Bad mistake.

Today, visited more schools, and found a place with wifi so I can write this tome. More later.