It is kind of sunny today.

All of the soda is in glass bottles here. If you don’t stay in the restaurant to drink it they pour it into a bag and stick a straw in it for you. I am explaining this now because I had my first experience of this yesterday. For some reason I had convinced myself from the beginning that it was not sanitary. But Patrick stressed that the restaurant was too full for us to stay and eat and that this was my only choice. So I gave in. It really wasn’t that big of a deal but it was a new experience for me. This coming Monday there is no school because it is Revolution Day or something. I am not sure… they make every excuse I can think of to not have school! But I will be able to finally go on my first excursion since I have been here. I think we are going to see the San Juanico bridge. It connects Leyte and Samar. I am pretty excited about that. It still has not stopped raining. I broke my umbrella in three places and had to buy a new one. Patrick is always saying that I am very careless and he worries about me all the time when I am not with him. He is convinced that I almost get run over like 10 times a day and he is always catching me before I step in something. But I remind him that I am on my own a lot more than I am with him and I have some how managed so far. J So anyway he helped me pick out a new umbrella. I however, don’t believe it will rain much longer so I just wanted a really cheap one. He is big into quality and I frankly… just want something that will keep the rain off my head and clothes. He finally gave in to a cheap one I bought off the street. He explained to me how I have to be careful with it because it will break easy like the last one. I rolled my eyes and thought “good grief I wasn’t born yesterday.” We only got about 10 minutes into our walk to school and I broke the top off the new umbrella from swinging it around and using it as a walking stick. HA. But you don’t NEED the top.. I think it is just for decoration. Needless to say… Patrick still thinks I am careless and I am starting to believe him. I woke up this morning at 2am after going to bed around 9pm. I went to the center and helped fry chicken and make spaghetti for 100 people in Ormoc today. We left at 5 am and had a 3 hour van ride to get there. But I was able to hang out with JP and Liam again. I spent the night at Liam’s and then we came back to Tacloban on Saturday because it was his birthday. I put together a surprise party for him before I left so when we arrived in Tacloban all the volunteers had decorated. It was pretty fun. Tonight is the Grand Finale of Leyte Idol and May, the head volunteer coordinator, got all the volunteers front row tickets. So that is going to be pretty cool. This past weekend I went to Ormoc to work with the street kids. It was amazing and heart breaking all at the same time. We bought them food and brought them gifts of crayons, color books, papers, pencils and several other things they don’t have. Some of them are 9 years old and have never held a pen. Liam was teaching them how to hold a pen! It was pretty devastating yet beautiful at the same time. These are the kids Liam has been working with this past month. He leaves on Wednesday So I am taking the trip to Ormoc again tomorrow and going to work with the street kids along with Liam for his last two days here. The kids are amazing! Another Volunteer arrived last week from Minneapolis. He is 55 years old and HIV positive. His story is pretty interesting.