Our time here in Davao, Philippines is coming to a close. We leave in a couple hours for the country we’ll be spending most of our time in, for the next leg in our travels. (Unfortunately, I can’t be much more specific than that on the website. If you want more details about our exact itinerary, feel free to email us.)

We have managed to get adjusted to the time zone, heat, and humidity as much as we will, I think. The adjustment has been quite smooth. It helps that all of us have been to this part of the world before, so nothing is totally new. In fact, for my brothers and I it’s like coming home in many respects.

I have felt a cold coming on, which I hope dies before slowing me down too much. You can pray for that, as being sick while traveling is no fun (I almost threw up on our trans-Pacific flight while landing in Tokyo - not really due to motion sickness, but food, I think).

We have been helping my parents with the huge task of packing, sorting, and getting stuff ready to move, since they are moving away from Davao for good. Pray that the plane will have enough room for all their excess baggage. Seriously. It really depends on the size of plane they decide to use for this next flight, and the number of passengers they let on. Traveling in this part of the world has many uncertainties.

We have also been doing further planning for the hike part of the trip, including preparing some detailed maps which we’ll be able to use along with my GPS (let me know if you’d like a copy of one of these via email). We’ve also been reviewing the language as much as possible, printing up some “cheat sheets” of key phrases that will help us along the way. We’re trying to think ahead about any other supplies we need, since we’ll soon be away from any major stores.

Well, it’s time to grab some lunch. We hope to have internet access at our next destination, but nothing is for sure.

We really appreciate all your prayers and support.

Oh, and ironically enough, there was another earthquake on the eve of our departure, this time even closer to our destination. But this does not affect our plans at this point.