I've got 2 tickets to PARADISE!!

We were awaken at the crack of dawn, because thats when everyone wakes up here in Bancalaan. We were told that someone left a surprise for us on the back deck. So we got ourselves out of bed and made our way over there and sure enough, someone had left us a big conch shell. It was really shiny and pretty, and when you put your ear to it...you could hear the ocean!! Or that could have been the actually ocean that was behind us....but either way. It was a nice surprise.

From that point we figured we should get dressed and start our day. We helped Shielah in the kitchen for awhile, preparing food for breakfast and for our "picnic" lunch later that day. Meanwhile all the kids in the area began crowding around outside the house waiting for us to come out.

It was E.J's 8th Birthday today! Happy birthday, Miss Elaika Joy!

Then Roy came in the back door holding a rather large sea turtle. He was SOO cute! So we, of course, had to take pictures with it.

"So...you're a turtle? Whats that all about? Ok, thats cool. Say Hi to your mother for me."

At one point, while I was holding the turtle, he slapped me with his fins and I screamed...

....at which point all the kids that were surrounding us started to laugh. I'm happy they can get a kick out of my screamish ways.

Afterwards we decided to take a walk along the houses on the water to the end of the island. It was alot of fun. We were stopped many times to take pictures and to tell people what are names were. I love this island, everyone is SOO friendly.

One down-side about this island is the bathroom situation. The island of Bancalaan is a Muslim-based island and they believe that by going to the bathroom on the ground, you will curse the ground. So they all have houses on the water and they all have docks that go out into the water and at the end of the docks are these little shacks that come up to my belly button. In this little shack there is a board missing from the dock and you pretty much, position yourself over this hole and you relieve yourself over the water. Its an incredibly awkward situation, especially for us because EVERYWHERE we go we are followed by swarms of kids....but thats island living for ya. Oh, **Fun Fact** Their toilets are called the "Ker-Plunk!"

Roy and Shielah lived on this island for 8 years as missionaries. We were able to see their house and the church that they built. Sadly, the latest typhoon season had done a number on their house and the roof caved it. We went inside and were shocked to think they lived and had 2 little children in this house. They are such dedicated people!!

Right before lunch we packed up some food and filled a small fishing boat with as many kids as it could hold and we went to the small island of Pataw Patawan. Its is a gorgeous little island that is as exotic as it gets! It was a perfect day! When we looked out over the water at all the other islands, it was raining EVERYWHERE else except where we were. The water was the perfect temperature and the sand was so soft. It was an ideal day at the beach. We started out by taking a walk around the island, which took about 15 minutes. It would've have been shorter but we were looking for shells. :) Afterwards, we swam for a little bit, then had our "picnic" lunch, which consisted of Pancit (or small-rice noodle with vegetables) and rice.

Filling the boat with as many kids as we can. :)

Afterwards, I was feeling tired and wanted to lay down. So I dug a hole in the sand to make myself a little chair to relax in. As I was sitting in my chair, all the kids surrounded me and Shielah asked "Can we bury you?" lol, So my relaxation was cut short, but LeAnne and the kids had fun burying me in the sand. Then Shielah drew some designs to make it look like I was wearing a shirt. It was quite entertaining.

After a couple hours, we were tired and ready to head back to Bancalaan. When we went to grab our shells we saw that they had multiplied. The kids had seen us collecting shells and decided to help. There were so many! So we spent a couple minutes sorting through which ones we wanted. :) Soooo nice of them!

The kids found a live starfish and Roy tried to give it to LeAnne. But she didn't want it because she didn't want to kill it.....

...so he spent the next 10 minutes trying to convince her that is was already dead....Nice! lol.

Our full boat ride back. :)

 When we got back, we went house to house with Shielah passing out Worm medication. Since a lot of the kids don't clean themselves very well (which is easy to understand...they pee in their water source!) so a lot of them get worms. Its kind of sad, we were passing it out like Candy. :/

Later that night we were hanging out with one of our favorite kids! Her name was Mirah and she is 12-years old. Her mother was sick with Malaria when she was pregnant with her. She didn't know that she was pregnant so she took the Malaria medication and Mirah was effected by the medicine. She can't really say words and her growth was stunted. But she is so outgoing and giggly, so happy with life. She is just so happy to be around, we really took a liking to her!

While we were eating dinner, Roy came in and told us that we were leaving to go to the other side of the island tonight because we're catching our boat at 3am. So we quickly ate, packed our shells (we left most of our clothes there to be donated), and said our goodbyes. Tomorrow is going to be an early day :/ Sadly, we're use to those by now.

"I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live."

~Ecclesiastes 3:12