Ironwulf.net: En Route – The Philippines, Travel, Photography Blog

I let the wind lull me to sleep inside room 205 of Motherland Inn II. I arrived early morning in Yangon from Mandalay, took a shared taxi to town, had the free buffet breakfast at the inn and headed to my room at the upper floor. Finding the wide open view at my window, I opened the glass windows and was delighted to feel the gust of wind coming in. I turned of the aircon and left the window open except for the screen and let myself drift to dreamland.

Day 2 of our Puerto Princesa tour found us visiting the areas where a lot of the sponsored children and families reside. We were also graced by the presence of Miss Universe runner-up Ms Miriam Quimbao, who is a fellow sponsor. She flew in that morning from Manila and would leave later that day as well just to attend the event and lend her support.

It was a tense moment mixed with anticipation while I wait behind closed doors when I knew my sponsored child would be the next one coming in. How would I react? How should I feel? Aside from the annual reports of his progress, he’s a complete stranger to me. I came to Puerto Princesa, Palawan to volunteer my photographic services to World Vision, a non-government organization known to help educate less-fortunate children around the globe. It was 5 years ago when I started to sponsor a child and little did I know I’ll come face to face with this child 5 years later.

Morning of day 10 in Myanmar finds me deliberately waking up late. I made sure I’m well rested for tonight’s bus ride to Yangon. I took the day easy enjoying the comforts of the hotel and catching up to my online world. When I checked out, I left my baggage at the reception and decided to visit one of the Gold Leaf Workshops in Mandalay. A Gold leaf sheet is an essential part of the day-to-day lives of Burmese people. It’s their main offering to Buddha where they place it on layers on their images. And some even goes to eating a leaf a day and claims to give them good health.