Today we spent some of our morning at a local elementary school, where we helped up with a wall-painting project that they needed done. Turtle Bay arranged the paint and brushes and we provided the many hands that made light work (even lighter when the local students got involved). The wall went from an unfinished concrete gray, to a cheery shade of green. It was good to see how they made do with the little they had. A primary school with three hundred students and three computers. We were able to donate a small sum to help them to purchase some printers for these three computers.

We were able to share some food and games with them as well before heading back to Turtle Bay. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the pool, and getting a start on our studies, learning what we will need to apply when we get into the water tomorrow. We’re geared up and ready to dive

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Oh, and for all of you in Macau, the sky still exists – we saw it today, and it was gloriously blue.

What are your thoughts on the first day?

” Today was a very warm day but it was still enjoyable and i had a lot of fun with the kids from the local school. ” -Carol

“we got to give back to the community by painting the walls of the school, it definitely made the school look brighter and more lively, overall today was super fun, and I loved meeting the little kids” – Kelly

“Today was only the first day but it was so fun. After months and months of tedious work at school, it felt really good to chill out a little bit at the beach and pool. Also, we had a lot of fun painting a wall green. It took a lot of work but it felt really rewarding once we were done. Lunch was delicious too. We had FIlipino food. Looking forward to the rest of the trip.” – Jimmy

Day 1 – I’m too exhausted… zzzzzz – Dick

“Spending the day helping painting a wall and playing volleyball with the school kids was really exciting… But tomorrow will be better, because we start diving.” – Dario