Let me give you an update from where I left off last time. I will go ahead and tell you that this will be a long post. I'll add pictures later.
We traveled to the other side of the island for a week. We loaded a bus and rode 6 hours to Sandakan. Sandakan is the second largest city in Sabah and it is located on the east coast of the island. In Sandakan we checked into a Bed and Breakfast and planned to see the orangutans the next day. It was great to see them up close. Once the humans left the feeding platform the monkeys arrived. There were so many monkeys. It was raining that day so we were only able to see 3 orangutans.
Once we saw the orangutans there was nothing much to do in Sandakan. We were able to talk to the owner of the Bed and Breakfast about where there was to do in Sandakan. Her exact words were: "Nothing, now that you have already seen the orangutans!" We told her that we were not interested in all the tourist attractions and that we wanted to learn more about the people and culture. That is when she suggested that we travel with her nephew to her home town to stay with her family. We immediately jumped at the opportunity.
We loaded a bus and headed further south to Lahad Datu with her nephew. We stayed with her brother who was a believer and her nephew stayed with her sister who was a cousin. Her nephew took us around to meet the family. We were introduced to his grandparents and another aunt. His aunt took us to lunch and allowed him to cook for us. He cooked fish, vegetables, salad and of course no meal is complete without rice. :) It was delicious. Everywhere we went people stared at us. We got used to this in KK but it was worse this time. We were told that the people in the villages we went to in Lahad Datu had never seen a white person. And they know that white people don't normally go into these parts of the island or villages.
Our next destination was Semporna. The cool thing about Semporna is that is basically all water villages. We stayed at the Dragon Inn which is located right on top of the water. We liked how when we took a shower that the water went straight down into the ocean. Our supervisors met us there and together we walked around some of the water villages. We were able to take a whole day to snorkel at 2 locations. In the morning it we snorkeled at Mabul but it was raining and it was hard to see everything underwater because of it being so dark. Later in the afternoon we went to a sand bar called Kapalai. It was gorgeous. The sun was out and the fish were huge. We had a great time just relaxing out on the islands.
The next day we flew back to KK to start packing for the Philippines. We were able to spend Friday shopping for the last minute souvenirs before we left on Saturday July 25 to head to Manila.
In Manila we met up with the other teams and we were able to talk about our experiences. Since I was not able to attend orientation it was difficult at first to talk to people. Once we were able to break apart in groups it was easier to meet people other than my teammates. It was good to hear from everyone how their summer was and compare stories. We all talked about what we struggled with and how much we learned throughout the summer. We were able to visit some historical sights in Manila and visit the Mall of Asia.
We had to be at the airport 3 hours in advance of our flight. I did not got to bed that night because by the time I was done talking to people it was already 2 am and I had to be in the hotel lobby at 5:15 am to catch the shuttle to the airport. I flew to Hong Kong and met up with 2 other people. All 3 of us flew to Chicago for our 14 hour flight. Once we got to Chicago we had to go through immigration and customs. It took me an hour to go through immigration and wait for my luggage just to go through customs. I then had about 4 hours to waste in the airport. I walked around with one of the other people on the flight. It was a good waste of time and time flew by. Once I boarded my plane for Spartanburg, he still had 2 hours to spend. I told him that by the time I get home, his plane would just be leaving.
I got home around 10:00 pm Wednesday night. It was such a long day. No rest for the weary though because on Friday we headed up to see Ryan in Jackson, TN. This is probably the only time that John will see him until football season is over and I don't know how many weekends I'll be able to travel 8 hours to see him coach.
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