Margie Riveria

Both Morag and I were up at 5.30am to get ready to catch our tricycle to the 'bus station'. The tricycles out here are so funny. There is a motorbike with a roof over it and a seat at the side of it which can squeeze two people in it. You can put your stuff at the back of the tricycle. We had masses of bags with us today to give to Margie. Bumped our way to the station. The roads have sooo many holes in them it is unbelievable. When we got there they got us onto a bus off to Ubay straight away! The bus gradually became fuller and fuller along the way until eventually there was 6 of us on the back seat! There was only 12 seats on the bus but we somehow managed to get 21 people on it! Classic Asians. We were finally able to stretch out when we arrived at Ubay station. Stepped out of the bus and as the normal procedure we were approached by masses of taxi men on their little tricycles. We asked on man to take us to the compassion center and he said 'yes, yes' that he knew where it was. We realized after cycling around in circles that he didn't have a clue. So I got him to stop when we came to a local doctors. Luckily the man inside spoke good English so he directed us in the right direction. We arrived at a church but I could see it was the wrong place but I went in to see. Luckily again the people inside the church spoke good English and so again our tricycle man was told where to go! Finally arrived and was greeted by Lilibeth. It was so sweet as they had made a sign saying 'WELCOME ANNABEL AND MORAG' that sat at the entrance of the church. Masses of woman welcomed us and they all got their cameras and kept taking photos of us until we left! Lilibeth told us that Margies Mu had kept her visit a surprise! Before going to visit her we had some breakfast with her. We had rice cupcakes and sticky rice in a banana leaf. Not going to lie, one of the strangest breakfasts I have had. They also brought in a huge coconuts for us. After that we took a tricycle over to Margies house. We arrived at a little village of bamboo huts. We walked over to one of the huts and I saw Margies Mum. Got into the hut and she called Margie and from behind a curtain. She came running over and we hugged. She had tears in her eyes from surprise. Apparently the whole family didn't believe that one of us was coming. She is so pretty and lovely. She has a little sister aged 4 called Kyla-Nicole and 2 older brothers aged 16 and 18. The father works at a piggery and the Mother is a beautician. Margie gave me a card she made in case I did come. She had stuck pictures of herself and pictures of our family into it. It was so sweet. I then gave her, her late Birthday present that I had wrapped up in pink tissue paper with sweet ribbons she then tied on her wrist and I tied the other in her hair. I gave her a sweet flower necklace which means 'compassion in all living things' and 2 bracelets, one with silver roses and the other with red and silver beads. She was very tearful. She then opened all the other bags of things. She was even happy with the saucepan, probably her favorite thing, haha! She loved the Uk sticky notes. Morag took MASSES OF PHOTOS. Lilibeth told me that she told Margie that she would come to see her today. But Margie said she had to be at school because she had exams soon. We showed them pictures of snow and the kilts the boys wore. They thought it was very funny. Margie said she wanted to come to my house one day and see the snow. It's sad because it is very unlikely that I could make it happen. Her English is amazing and she can understand almost everything I say. After sitting in their house I got a family picture with them all. We were about to go to the restaurant and the Father said he wasn't going to come as he was embarrassed so I made him come. He changed his clothes before he came. Everyone squeezed into a small tricycle. There was 12 of us on it at one point. We all sat around one table. It was the whole family including me, Morag and 3 Filipino ladies from compassion. Margie told us chicken adobo was good so the 3 of us ordered that but in the end everyone shared everything. They all ate masses of rice. Margie was very funny and kept joking to one of the compassion ladies that there was shrimp in her food. The ladies eyes are completely swollen up because she ate a shrimp a couple of days ago. I had to pay for all 12 at lunch which was a bit of a bomb! After lunch we took a tricycle to the pier. Margie was super excited about riding a boat to the other side. It was absolutely boiling but they gave us pink wicker fans which were very useful. I wanted to get a picture of Margie climbing onto the boat but I wasn't able to as she kept calling me to get on with her. Eventually got to the other side. It was funny as some of them were nervous about it as they can't swim. The amount we get stared at is crazy. Feels like we are back in Myanmar. Haven't seen any tourists either. Margie and I walked together until everyone got tried and sweaty so we stopped to get a drink. I bought a big bottle of sprite and coke at a very very small dirty shop. She gave Margie and I 6 glasses for them. It was amazing as Margie was translating for me. They decided instead of walking to the other compassion place we would get the boat back and go to the stock farm. Margies little sister fell over and got 2 big cuts on her knees and didn't make a fuss about it at all. Made me think of Emily and Jack I looked after in Belgium and what a fuss they would have made! I miss Belgium a little though. Looking forward to seeing Mar in Sydney soon. Can't believe how good Margie
s English is. We had a good chat about masses of radom stuff. She said she like chocolate but doesn't get too eat a lot of it. We took a motor tricycle to the stock farm. All had to squeeze onto it again!At the stock farm the farmers showed us all the buffalo's getting milked. Margie and I both milked one. Margie was scared but I persuaded her to do it. We then saw a horse so I asked if we could let Margie ride it but apparently it is a dangerous horse so they headed into one of the fields in a cowboy style with a rope to get one. Margie was unbelievably scared. Her face was hilarious. Was slightly embarrassing when I had a go as they all thought I couldn't ride. I was tempted to gallop away and impress them all! Some of the compassion lot had a go.I bought everyone some fresh chocolate milk when we left. We then took our tricycle and bumped our way to the dam. It was beautiful up there. Margie and I ran own to the water and collected some shells. I did a self-timer with everyone on my camera. They all found it very funny. Went back to the compassion center after and to pay I had to go and split my big not at a local shop with Margie. I bought her 2 chocolate bars there. It was sad as she kept asking me for my full name for facebook but I am not allowed to have any contact with her except through compassion. It is strange that she has facebook though!!After munching on some of the sweet rice we said our goodbyes to the compassion people. They gave us the pink fan and a wicker hat! We went on the tricycle to the bus station with Margie, her Mum and little sister and we said goodbye there before getting onto the most cramped bus ever. She waved us goodbye until we were out of sight. The bus took forever to get back. It stopped at a petrol station and we realized after asking it was right next to our hostel which was handy as we didn't' have to take a tricycle. Very good day!!