The place I called home for four days was a simple one. We slept on mattresses beneath mosquito nets in cramped rooms and doors were mere cloths. To travel to the villages we were to visit, we had to climb mountains and cross streams and rivers, clamour over and under barbed wires, and over huge steaming piles of poo. Yet people were happy for the littlest things despite their hard lives. Every village and house we went to, people were poor, and many children ran around in tattered clothing and bare feet, yet one could see the sparkle of joy and hope in their eyes when we distributed food to them, or simply just gave a simple wave. We were strangers in a foreign land where hunger and poverty is the norm, yet it was amazing how, despite the language and cultural differences, it was still the same God we all worshipped at their humble churches, and it was humbling to see them allow these group of strangers into their lives. It was a humbling experience for me. Singapore has spoiled many of us, and nobody can fully appreciate how good we all have it until we experience life on the other side of the fence for ourselves. When one has to pump for water before bathing, it really makes one appreciate the convenience of life that many of us have taken for granted. I came back from Philippines today, and I have taken away with me the experience of a lifetime. Honestly I was a little worried when I caught my first glimpse of the bathroom which I was to shower in for the four days we were to stay at Pastor Joey's house in Zambales. There were no lights, and in one bathroom, a colony of cockroaches called one wall home. Water had to be pumped and subsequently scooped over ourselves, and the toilet had neither flush nor toilet paper. My biggest worry was the bathrooms because I like clean toilets. I don't visit public ones at all [unless I really really really have to] because they are never clean enough for me, and even at home I scrub the seat before I actually use the toilet. So I admit I was a little worried and I found myself thinking how bad I would smell if I didn't shower for three days. Yet it's amazing how resilient the human spirit is. When the time calls for it, I'd manage just fine, which was what I did for the four days I spent in the village, and I even started to miss village life when time came for us to leave.Even though I've only been in the company of this group of people for about a week, some for four days, nevertheless I missed them all the same. When you brave steep rocky slopes, thorns, weeds, twigs, slippery streams, rivers, and steaming piles of poo everyday, you develop a kind of affinity for the people who are around you to share in the breathtaking view when you've finally climbed to the top of the mountain. Images in the media can never compare with what you see with your own eyes. There was the deep azure of the South China Sea on the horizon, and off to the other sides were the peaks of Mount Pinatubo and other mountains of which I do not know the names off. It was a top-of-the-world feeling that cannot be replicated anywhere else other than from the top of a mountain. Being scratched by numerous thorns, twigs, slipping on loose rocks on steep inclines gave birth to a spectacular feeling of achievement at the top, and one would naturally feel a sense of closeness with the group of people with whom one shared this moment with.Through this trip, I got to see God's magnificence in the little things as well as His creative hand in the grandeur of His creation, and it has taught me alot and blessed me in so many ways. I got to speak to people I normally do not interact with very much, and even though we've gone to bless, we in turn were blessed by the joy and passion in these people, and how despite their tough lives and little that they had, they still reflected such energy and enthusiasm when they worship God that it's humbling to be in their presence, and I caught myself mentally signing up for the next trip even before it is planned. Maybe just leave the balut eggs out. Even though it tasted like egg yolk with a chewy slimy centre, the thought of that foetus in my mouth really churns the stomach.