I see some changes in Ella. She isn’t insisting what she wanted. She asked if she could play with Voj but when I said “no”, I never heard her stomp her feet and complain. I think she is becoming more mature or was it all because of the games in the pc and laptop? If so, then I think I could give her an hour in the laptop each day as a bargain. As usual, she alternately plays the games and the cat who pretends he is asleep each time Ella gets near him.

In the afternoon while trying to nap, Manang Inday (my cousin-in-law) called. She is one of the few readers of this blog and through checking on here and knowing we are still stuck in here, decided she (and he daughter) will spend time with us all before we leave. She said her mouth watered upon reading about our dinner last night. She’s a big fan of “sinugbang panga” and kinilaw too and requested it for dinner. Donald agreed only if they bring ice cream. He ran to the market and just when we are preparing the dishes, they came with an ice cream and bread! We had a wonderful time chatting about the latest news and gossips back in our hometown while Dimple spent time with Ella inside the room infront of the laptop. They went home half past 10pm. I am glad they came because we wanted to visit them yet their place is very far from here. Looking forward for another get-together next month during the graduation of Cheche and my niece Mgel.

Talking about going home tomorrow…..I feel like life is unfair! I dragged my aching feet going here and I am not dragging them going back there. I still want to stay for the weekend. I am not dragging my feet anymore….if Donald can carry me out of this house then let him do it. I am not joking. I really mean it.

I would love to have these flavors! The macapuno and Mais Quezo (Corn cheese). But hey, even if we do have money to get these we could not find a store that sells these flavors here in town. This is the good thing living in a small town three hour drive from the big city of Davao.

Ella has been good and improving. She does what we asked her to do without a fuss. She can be relied upon on some chores and she naps beside me each afternoon without me having to get a switch. For a week she carries the fan inside the room and lie in bed counting numbers until she fell asleep. The first time she did that, I was here infront of my pc while she was counting 44…45…46…47…48…49…50…and when I turned around she was asleep. From that day on I call her every nap time to count and there has been no problem since.

Dr. Samuel Cariaga delivered the sermon and right after the worship service, the medical services began. It went until 7pm and I was the last patient to get checked. My BP is 150/100 and was given medicine for hypertension and asthma. The team are very quick to set up and are quick to restore too. They had dinner then off they travelled back home 3 hours away from here. Dr. Sam was behind the wheels and surely he is dead tired.

This afternoon, Ella was on her own playing and finding something to eat. Donald caught her buying peddled ice cream which we call here “flavor of the road”. She has this Barbie sling wallet that comes with her backpack where she put the loose coins that she had saved for weeks now. Since she isn’t used to holding money, she hasn’t bought anything from it. Just today. When she saw this ice cream cart infront of the chapel while the check up was going on and I was busy giving out drugs and Donald has his own work too taking pictures.

She was counting her money…I don’t know how she counted it right  

then waited…..

and waited for the ice cream man to scoop her some home-made ice cream

She finally held the cup and

got to taste the heavenly flavor. But her looks cannot justify it.

Tried once more and over the moon because she rarely gets the chance to have this kind of ice cream.