Ryan and I also had the opportunity to take some of our peer educators to a HIV/AIDS clinic  on a nearby island. This was an AMAZING opportunity and I'm so glad it worked out. We got to hear how this tiny organization has started out, how they hope to grow and help persons living with HIV in the Philippines. In case you didn't know the Philippines is one of only 7 countries around the world where HIV is INCREASING!!! Now this may be due to lack of testing in the past or people actually getting tested now, but either way it's on the rise and Filipinos need to be aware of what's happening in their country. While we were at the clinic we also got to talk with two persons living with HIV. Their stories were so impact full and meaningful to all of us and I am so glad that they had the courage to share their testimonies with us! (Do you recognize Ryan in this picture?!?)

After our awesome trip to Cebu Plus (that's the organization from above), Ryan and I headed to Batangas, which is South of Manila, for Mid-Service Training. This training was great, but it was also stressful. I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of Americans in one room! (There were 112 of us there) I also felt like I was riding a roller-coaster with my emotions while I was there. At various times I was super excited, nervous, anxious, scared, and a little sad too. It has been interesting to see where this adventure has taken me thus far, but I'm still excited to see where it takes me in the future! 

Oh so before MST I made a little side trip and got a tattoo! Yes, me, I got a tattoo and I absolutely love it!!! <3 

A couple days later my wonderful sister turned 24 on the 24th of November. I really miss her and hope she had an amazing birthday! I can't wait to celebrate future birthdays with her :) 

For Thanksgiving several volunteers got together from our area and had a real American Thanksgiving. It was delightful. We had so much food, which was fun to make, had great conversations and fun spending time searching for whale sharks, which we didn't find this time, but we are determined to find them sometime! So before Thanksgiving everyone was saying what they wanted to bring etc. (I made Dana's famous Marshmallow Loaf and Granny Morgan's homemade rolls, are you drooling b/c you should be) Ryan was able to find someone to sell us a turkey, so we were like cool we an have turkey, yummy. Well the day we were to leave the man brought the turkey in a bag to Ryan's work; it was still alive. Then he came to our house and killed it in our front yard. (I think if I had to do that I would become a vegetarian for sure!) So this man slit it's neck, plucked off it's feathers, then lit it on fire to singe off all the rest of the feathers and finally cleaned out the insides. It was a very different experience. But our neighborhood cats absolutely loved it; there were about ten of them in our yard afterwards cleaning up the mess. Haha! By the way, Ryan and I also successfully cooked our first Turkey! Which is super exciting! Anyways Thanksgiving was amazing :) 

So FINALLY at the end of November my drama club preformed their first play of the year! It was a great success and the audience really enjoyed it. I'm not going to lie, the students stressed me out a little, we didn't even have one practice with a complete cast, but the show went very well and everyone did a great job. The students acted out "The Disastrous Wedding" which is a murder mystery play. You were supposed to pay for the full script so we improvised and had the audience choose the murderer, which they really enjoyed so it all worked out! Needless to say our show was a scream...

And that completes the month of November! So until next time when I share the happenings of December. Take care, miss y'all! Love, love, love