Cebu Part II: I Brief Visit

Our morning began with some touring through the city with PP Lambert Lim Lim Thai from RC Metro Cebu. Fort San Pedro was our first stop. This was the location of the military defense structure built by the Spanish and indigenous Cebuano laborers in 1565.

The famous Santo Nino Basilica was the next stop on the tour. It was built on the spot where the image of the Santo Nino, a sculpture depicting the Holy Child Jesus found by Spanish explorers in 1565, is preserved in a burned wooden box left behind during the 1521 Magellan expedition.

To round out our morning tour, we visited the Magellan's Cross. This is a Christian cross planted by Portuguese and Spanish explorers as ordered by Ferdinand Magellan upon arriving in Cebu in the Philippines in April 1521.

Our lunch consisted of a meeting with RC Metro Cebu. The club is made up of professionals from all nationalities including those from Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Caribbean, and Spain just to name a few.They have many ongoing projects, but one of their biggest ones in their cleft palate project. Cleft palate is something that occurs in more than 20,000 babies per year in the Philippines due the malnutrition of the mothers in the first trimester. This project is one that takes place twice a year and involves surgeries to correct those individuals with cleft palate by a large team of professionals from around the globe. Some other projects RC Metro Cebu are involved in is the Balay Sanaritano Feeding program, Typhoon Sendong, Pamilican Lighting Project and the Dengue Fever Eradication Project. At the meeting we were also able to hear not only the club members singing songs, but the University of Visayas Choir who are competing in over seas competitions and have already brought back many medals to their school. They had amazing voices!  For a sample, we have posted a short video of their rendition of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzhDCvCc0C0&feature=youtu.be

The Alegre Guitar Factory was another tourist stop we made to see all the steps that go into making a guitar. The tiny details that go into such an instrument takes much work.

RC of Talisay hosted our last stop for a dinner meeting with the yummy Cebu specialty, lechon(roasted pig). The club went through a few of their projects also including one that built a school for a community and another where they built 20 homes for families affected by the mudslide in a fellow Philippine island. We were impressed by all their work they have done and are in the process of doing for their province.