Sunday, April 24, 2011

Goodbye Manila, Hello Bletchley!

So after 15 hours of flying and a stop off in Doha, we find ourselves back in Bletchley. I speak for everyone when I say that our visit to Kanlungan has been quite an experience and is certainly one that we'll never forget.

I'll take you through our final day in Manila (Friday). The day began in the Kanlungan cafe. The boys specially opened up the coffee shop for us where we had breakfast and some more fabulous fresh coffee. We also had some trainee baristas among us, as you can see in this fine photo:













We also used our time wisely and rehearsed our song/rap/dance for our goodbye performance to the Malate children, which caused much laughter from some of the coffee boys. I don't think they were taking Chris and Bosco's street dancing very seriously.

After our delicious breakfast in the coffee shop, Sol took us to a market as many members of the team hadn't bought anything other than an Allan puppet. (See previous blog posts for explanation!) This gave us a chance to try out our bartering skills and buy many many pairs of flip flops.

Lunch was spent back at the Malate centre, where we had yet another delicious meal cooked by the house mother. Various activities took place in the afternoon, some of the kids were making bracelets, some playing drums and some were playing a very competitive game of football. In fact I think Dad and Chris S got a bit too competitive!
Later on everyone gathered together, and the children sung some more songs. We also performed our "hip" dance and rap as well as a special song involving the much loved Allan puppets.

As a goodbye, the kids sung one last song to us, which caused a few teary eyes. We also watched a slide show of our visit that the staff had made. It was a lovely way to end the trip and say a final goodbye to all of the wonderful people we have met over the last 10 days.

I think that's about it really. Visiting Kanlungan has been a real eye opening experience and I will certainly miss everyone there.

Peace out, Anna x

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