Well, we didn’t make it in quite the time I estimated. We got up and had breakfast at 7 am, then the missionary drove us out to his house on the outskirts of Manila. We hung out there for a little while and then Jim, Larry, Steph, and I went shopping with Nerry (missionary’s brother) as our guide. We walked down to the main street where we caught a jeepney ride to a mall. Jim wasn’t happy about going to the mall and decided that he wanted to go to Green Hills where he had gone last year. The missionary didn’t want to take us there on Friday because she said Muslims ran it. We all 5 crammed into a Toyota Corolla taxi and drove to Green Hills, about 25-30 minutes away. We ate lunch at KFC (Kapag Fried Chicken) and then went in and shopped for a few hours.

There were many shops on the two floors, but a lot of them sold the same thing: knock-off clothing (mostly t-shirts), knock-off designer bags, knock-off expensive watches, Filipino food, mobile phones and accessories, and Chinese-style souvenirs. I tried to barter for some shirts, but the girl didn’t come down far enough for me. The same went for a knock-off Rolex watch.

We went back to the missionary’s house for dinner (pork chops, veggies, and rice) and then a quick shower and then off to the airport. The missionary got lost taking us, but we got there in plenty of time. We went through check-in and got all our bags checked in except for the long blue PVC pipe that held the guys’ blowguns. They wanted us to pay an extra $150 excess baggage fee because they said it exceeded the allowed length of a checked item. Larry went and talked to a supervisor, and he allowed us to check the pipe for no extra charge. Then we went to the gate to wait for about an hour and a half.

There are actually five security checkpoints that one has to go through to get on the plane. There is a guy that checks to make sure you have a ticket before you enter the terminal. Then you go through a metal detector, frisk, and x-ray machine at the terminal doors. Then you check your bags, and go through getting your passport stamped. After that you show your passport and boarding pass to another security guard as you go through another metal detector, frisk, and x-ray of your carry-on baggage. Then you head down to the gate, and get in line once again to have your carry-on baggage and shoes go through another x-ray machine and then you get the metal detector wand.

We boarded the plane around 9:45 pm and sat there until around 10:15 pm. The ground perser came on the P.A. and said that there was maintenance that was required on the plane and it wouldn’t be able to fly, so our flight was cancelled and rescheduled to Sunday afternoon at 12:30 pm. They said to deplane and wait for further instructions, so we sat in the terminal for 30 minutes and then they announced that accommodations would be arranged and a shuttle would be ready momentarily. No more announcements were made after this one, so Al started bugging the guy at the desk with a walkie-talkie to find out what was taking so long for the shuttle. After 45 minutes, they gave us a snack (hot dog and soda) and then another 45 minutes, Al found out that there were no more hotel rooms available. The PAL guy was checking into an alternative for the remaining passengers and asked us to be patient and just wait.

Al gathered the team and suggested that we start praying since we weren’t getting anywhere by ourselves. Al prayed and as soon as we said “Amen” (literally) the PAL guy with the walkie-talkie came over and told us there was a shuttle outside waiting to take us to our hotel.

We got on the bus and waited for about 45 minutes more. Two Filipino-American women got upset at the long wait time, so they went back into the terminal and found someone important to yell at until the bus started moving. Then the bus driver drove us to the hotel about 30 minutes away. Everyone got off the bus just in time to figure out that it was the wrong hotel, so everyone got back on the bus and the driver took us about 2 blocks away to the correct hotel. Everyone rushed off the bus to go to the check-in counter, so there were about 100 people crowding 3 people behind the registration desk trying to get checked in. We (Al, Gerry, and me) didn’t get our room for about an hour and a half. We got upstairs and the room was very nice with two bedrooms. Al and Gerry went straight to bed and I waited for a rollaway to show up. The front desk guy promised there would be one in 5 minutes, but it took more like 30 minutes. I went to sleep about 2:45 am.