Letter from Ruth

> Hey there,
> Ruth wrote a little update but she doesn't have all of your emails so she asked me to send it out.
>
> Our time here is coming to an end. We have less than 4 weeks left before we leave the Philippines. It's so crazy! I can't tell if time has gone by fast or slow. It seems like I've been here for so long. It feels very much like home, but yet not at the same time. I'm still trying to grasp the fact that I'm actually leaving, and trying to make the most of these last few weeks.
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> All of our schooling is done. All we have left is the NARM exam to become certified, which we will take on September 27 in Monterey, California.
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> The new students have arrived. It's strange seeing them all here and meeting them and not doing all the get-to-know-each-other things with them that we did when we arrived. We moved out of the dorms to make room for the new students. So right now most of our class is staying together in a different house. It is a little farther away, but it has been nice to just be on our own.
>
> Funny, we went tubing down a river a few days ago. It was so fun, but was quite Filipino. There were guides enough to go around (1 for every 2 of us) and the water was quite shallow and quite rocky. For the first little bit, the guides went from person to person pulling us off the rocks as we would get stuck every few seconds. Then the water got a little deeper and the rocks spaced out enough to allow a passageway between them. We bounced off the rocks and the guides pulled us down the river. The guides were so funny. They felt very responsible for this group of 10 white girls and were making sure we didn't get lost or drown. If we ever started to get too far apart, they would start grabbing our tubes from the back and pulling them up on the rocks so we were stuck. Then when we were all in a little cluster stuck on the rocks, they would say, "Plastered tanan (they're all stuck)", they would do a head count, and then push us all off again. It was so funny. I felt like they were treating us a little bit like cargo. They wouldn't tell us to stop and wait for the rest or to put our feet down, they would just pull us up on the rocks so our tubes were stuck :). The water was probably only waist deep--smile. Anyway, we had lots of fun.
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> Please pray with me for a baby named Abegail that I delivered back in October... she is 10 months old now and is in the hospital because she was having a high fever (104) and convulsions. They aren't sure what it is yet, but are still doing labs and testing. Her dad is a pastor and her mom a teacher, so I have really enjoyed spending time with them. They have been so encouraging to me. Anyway, they need prayer right now. I went and visited and the baby seemed to be ok at the moment, but they still haven't figured out what she has.
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> On the way into the hospital to visit, another lady came up to me and started talking to me like she recognized me. I didn't recognize her, but she acted like she knew me. I think I must have accompanied whoever was taking care of her when she got transported from Mercy during Labor. Anyway, her baby had just died of Pneumonia and she was quite a mess. She was crying and sobbing and wanted us to go see her baby and take pictures for her. She was so pitiful. Her name is Ruby.
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> Anyway, this is getting long and I still need to attach Ruth's letter. I hope you all are doing well!
> Have a great day!
> Love,
> Hannah
>