Day 10

Hey, hey, hey!!! What's crackalackin?? :):):)

Firstly just a quick update on what our leaders, Matt, Alex, Olivia, and Kait are doing. This morning the lovely leaders and the teachers, Mr Puzey, Mr Mac and Mrs Nicholls, had the joy of rising at 2am for their mystical adventure that they had no idea of what it involved until they arrived at the airport. Well Katrina and Paisley are going to let you guys all in on a little bit of a secret!!! They left on a twin prop aeroplane to relax on a resort island which was rated as having the second best beach in the world, however it is not all fun and games as they are also going out to help at a ministry centre, doing food distribution and construction. So unfortunately for the rest of us we're going to be missing them until Wednesday afternoon, but we'll all hear about their adventure when they return!!

Meanwhile, we had a little bit of a sleep in to 5am. Having breakfast served at 5:30am and a coach picking us up at 6am leaving for the Manila Bay port, this is where we then travelled across the fierce sea on the MV Bay Cruiser to Corregidor. Corregidor is an island where the Americans and Filipinos fought off the Japanese during World War Two, and today the island is a memorial for tourists to come and learn about the horrific past and honour the people who fought and lost their lives. This is a really significant area to the Australian history, as theJapanese expected to take control of this island and then Australia within 5 weeks. Instead the Filipinos and Americans held them off for 5 months so the Japanese were unable to get to Australia, ultimately giving us a totally different future.
Arriving at the 'tadpole-shaped' island at 9:30am we started our tour (separate from the Japanese tourists) and had a fantastic buffet lunch at 11:30am. On the tour we were able to view huge cannons that were the actual ones used in World War two, they even had shrapnel hole marks from where explosions hit them. The machinery was so massive that we were able to fit Cameron in the gun barrel of the cannon. However we were also able to view the damage that one of these guns could do, this being the huge crater holes in the ground, buildings that were demolished only having frame work standing, we were even able to explore through these massive buildings. One of the buildings that was really quite eye opening was the Malinta Tunnel. This tunnel was designed to look like a train tunnel, but internally it was accommodating thousands of Americans and Philippenos including the injured and wounded. The tunnel was bomb proof making it a secure place in WW2, having a mini hospital, beds and food and water supply.
After three years of war and hardship Japan finally surrended, freeing Corregidor and the Philippine islands. This is why this amazing story is so eye opening and touching because without all of it Australia could be so different.

The tour finished and we arrived back in Manila at 4:30pm where we went to the Mall of Asia (second biggest mall in Asia) there we had dinner which consisted of some new dishes of Pig Face and Pig Brain, YUMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! Then for dessert we enjoyed a fantastic and very impressive dish called Halohalo. After filling our bellies we headed off for own little surprise of ice skating in the middle of a shopping centre, amazing!!!! And KRISPY CREME donuts!!! Jealous much??? We then continued onto time zone where we ran a muck for an hour acting like big kids :)
We then left the Mall of Asia at 8:00pm and headed back to base at YMC, arriving back at 9:30pm having devotion, showers, and now everyone is off to bed.
So thanks for being with us and for all the thoughts, prayers and support so please keep them coming :)
Peace out! Love Katrina and Paisley :):):) oxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxox