Picture: Donovan painting.

Donovan and I spent lots of time together. He is such a delightful child; smart and energetic, but most of all he is eager to learn. He was like a dream student who loves to learn and remembers what he has learnt. Outside it was pouring down rain and there was a strong wind, the effect of a passing typhoon, so we stayed inside most of the weekend. We did yoga, played Frisbee and ball games, read books, and played Mahjong solitaire matching Chinese characters and symbols on my Android pad, but mostly we spent lots of time doing art. We used crayons, oil pastel, markers, and watercolors. Donovan did well using different mediums and techniques like leaf printing, crayon resist, and applying oil pastel. One time he was unhappy with me because I told him to apply different oil pastel colors underneath his picture of an apple. He did not want to do it because he just wanted to color his apple red. I explained to him that light shining on the apple makes it appear to be lighter in some places than in others. Applying different colors beneath the red would help show the light and dark areas of the apple. His face seemed to light up and he said, "Oh, I get it�..." and he was perfectly content to following my instructions to color his apple. I thought, "Wow, how insightful for an almost, six year old!" Janelle, 13 years old, daughter of Tess, did some artwork with us as well. She and Tess speak English very well and they both made us feel quite welcome.

Donovan reminded me of when I was a child living in the village in China. Like him, I participated well in school and desperately wanted to fit in but I never did. My father was already in America and sent money home so we always had more of everything than other families around us. For example, we had a bigger house. I had the only tricycle in the neighborhood. When no one had meat to eat, I always had it for my lunch in school and was quite willing to share all of it with my friends. Donovan's friends came to play with his transformers and he is happy to share his toys. Most villagers do not speak English. One of his friends would point to the food he wanted and Donovan would give it to him. Arturo told me that Donovan said to him, "I am American and I should live in America." Judging by his statement, he is contended to be in the village but he would rather live in America, nothing else. In the States he could go to McDonald's more often but where they live now is one hour away by car and they certainly could not afford to do that. Also he misses the Internet to play his games on his iPad. It seems he desperately wants to fit in. Arturo shared this story with us, "One day Donovan saw the village boys playing with worms so he came back and asked me to get him some gloves so he could play too." I had an image of Donovan wearing disposable gloves squatting on the ground playing with worms with the other boys. I think the experience in the Philippines will help him adjust to different societies later on in life.

When we left, Arturo, Tess and Donovan came to the airport at Kalibo with us in the same hire car and driver we had before. We stopped at McDonalds for lunch as a special treat for Donovan before they head home. Again the plane was several hours late leaving Kalibo and the plane from Manila to Taipei was five hours late so we did not miss our connection. The airports in the Philippines are probably the most disorganized we have ever experienced. By the time we arrived at Taipei it was midnight. It was fortunate that we planned to overnight in Taipei so we did not have to make the connecting flight until the following day.

Even though we were only in Taipei for twenty hours, we enjoyed our stay very much. There are more people who are able to speak English than in Japan and the environment is clean and things in general are much more organized than the Philippines. The hotel room was huge and tastefully decorated and the bathroom had a Jacuzzi. It was only $US62 and it included breakfast. We could have participated in a free half-day tour of the city but we just felt like relaxing and resting and not rushing around. We walked around the hotel neighborhood and had coffee and lunch at local eateries. Later, we rode the bus back to the airport. The plane was on time and we were back at our boat before midnight. Overall the trip to the Philippines was interesting and rewarding.