New Year's Eve here in the Philippines is mental!!! It certainly was an experience and honestly I'm going to struggle to describe the amazing craziness that went on here, in fact the party is still going here for some and it's not uncommon to hear fireworks going off now... in daylight hours!!
Many Filipino's believe that noisy New Year's Eve celebrations drive away evil and misfortune for the coming year and man, they went all out! The balcony of the children's home has a great view of the city of Manila and I can say I had one of the most amazing new year's eve's watching the most spectacular fireworks with the kids there! It's really hard to explain but as soon at dusk hit the fireworks began.. they got more and more frequent, louder and bigger and from 11.45pm - 12.15am the city exploded. No choreography, just 19 million people having their own little parties and letting of a gazillion fireworks each. In every direction fireworks lit up the sky as far as you could see, it was AMAZING, beautiful, ridiculous and deafening. Some were so close I was sure it was only a matter of time before some kind of rocket firework landed on our balcony. There were more fireworks going off in 30 minutes than the whole history of firework shows in Australia I'm sure, and they didn't slow down until about 4am.
In every direction on the streets you'd see a flame get lit, people running away and something exploding! It was madness!! The basketball intersection was set up with a DJ, music was blaring over the loud bangs and people were having a grand ol' time!
Of course you can never quite capture the awesomeness of fireworks on your camera but here is a little video of the fireworks at about 8pm before my camera battery died :( Times this by about 100 and it's what you get at midnight!
The next day a thick fog of smoke covered everything and many flights had to be cancelled and re-scheduled. Note: Don't fly in and out of the Philippines new years day. And of course there were many injuries. Apparently many news reported hang out in the emergency rooms hoping to get graphic photo's for the papers the next day.
Unfortunately my sister Georgia missed out on much of the festivities. For several days leading up to New Years she had been unwell with aches and tiredness causing her to be so exhausted she struggled to get out of bed. Being the kind and loving sister that I am, I dragged her out of bed and up to the children's home so that she could see the fireworks (I think she's still glad I did this) however the next morning her condition had deteriorated and we ended up spending news year's day in the hospital emergency room. It was a really tough day, she was in alot of pain but she has improved some now. We are still unsure of whether it was some sort of intestinal parasite or seveer gastro however we would still appreciate prayer for little George to continue to improve and be well enough to travel home on Wednesday.
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| Now an expert on all things gastro/parasite drug related! |
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Prior to new years we spent alot of extra time helping in the children's home and I spent several night staying over in the nursery as more and more travellers left to go back home. I really love this kids but I definitely have a new appreciation for mothers! I have heard more and more of the individual stories of children who have come into the home which are heart-breaking but at the same time inspirational as many of them have come so far. I hope to share a few stories sometime soon!
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