The Finding of Philip

August 4th

     Saturday. I woke up excited. We were going to the mall today!! I got dressed, and everyone got ready. We were planning on leaving after lunch. Karen, Mariam, Priscilla. Christa, and I all sit together at lunch. We see Caleb sitting at another table, and Christa gets up to go ask them

if they can still take us. The results were devastating  She came back and said that they couldn't take us. They were really tired. And I was thinking "someone else can drive the car...they can just tag along." It turns out that they said they had a flat tire, but Christa misunderstood,

thinking they said they were tired. Oh well, we still had Desiree. So a few of us could still go. Priscilla wasn't going to go. She was going to catch some sun down at the pool. So I text Desiree and ask her if she can still take us. She replies. No. She can't. She said she thought she

could, but she just can't. Too tired. I asked her if we could talk, so she came over to the table a few moments later. She and I talk, and I kind of talk her into going. So know she decided that yes, she can go. So we finish with our lunch and head to the mall. We had such a fun day. We

went to the mall, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Sonic, the Dollar Store. I was exhausted. I almost fell asleep in the car on the way back to campus. We didn't get back till around 9:30pm. It had been a full but satisfying day. We all gather at the lounge. I Skype my dad for about an hour, telling

him about everything we did.  I am making Priscilla a bracelet. We decide to stay up a bit later than usual.We all talk late into the night. I think it was about 1:30am when we decide to get up and go to bed. And then Rachel L comes into the lounge. She had been sleeping

for several hours now, so we couldn't figure out why she was here. At first, I thought she was sleepwalking. But she is very alert. She comes into the lounge with a very confused look on her face, and then she says, "Hey guys...there's a guy in our dorm." We were all surprised. What?

A GUY in OUR dorm? What was he thinking? Was he some sort of creeper? We begin asking Rachel a lot of questions. She said "I was sleeping, and the light turned on. I got up to see what was going on, and there was a guy. He was making his bed. I tried to say something to him,

but he didn't hear me. I said it louder, and he realized that I was awake, and he said 'sorry, I'll turn the lights off in just a moment.' Desiree sat up, and I just looked at her and went back to sleep. And he turned the lights off. But then I had to get up and use the restroom, and now I am

telling you what happened." We were shocked. Why would a guy be in our dorm? It just didn't make any sense. Karen and Mariam take it upon themselves and check out the situation. I really didn't want to go. I stayed with Rachel in the lounge. They come back a few minutes later

saying that he wasn't there. I told them that maybe he knew someone would come looking for him, so he ran to the other side of the room and watched them look for him. They looked through all of his bags to try and see where he was from. They think he is foreign, and I said "Oh, that

would make sense. He probably just got confused." They decided to go back and see if he had returned. And they film the whole thing on Mariam's Flip. They get into the room and turn on the light. He is laying in bed listening to music. Mariam sits on the side of his bed and

explains the situation to him. He was really sorry. And he wasn't even foreign. Apparently they had been looking at someone else's bags (and she wasn't foreign either!!) The Volunteer Supervisor had told him to come to 2B. So Mariam and Karen help him get to the guy's dorm, and

then they invite him to the lounge if he would like to hang out. They leave him in the right dorm, and come back to the lounge. Karen comes through the door and says "Justin Bieber is here!" Apparently, he looks like JB to her...and they say he is young. Like 16 or 17. I was interested

to see who this kid was, but it would have to wait until morning...but then 10 minutes later, he walks through the door. Wow...he doesn't look like JB, but there is a small resemblance. Karen asks him if he can sing or dance. He says no. So we sit, and try to get to know him. And his name

is Philip. But Mariam gives everyone a nickname, and she calls him Justin. How appropriate. Apparently Philip had been hanging out all night with missionaries, and then he came here at 1:30 in the morning. The Volunteer Supervisor accidently gave him the wrong room number

we come to find out the next day. And he apologized. But it gave us some great memories. We stayed in the lounge until nearly 4 in the morning. We decided to go to bed, because we were planning on catching the 10 o'clock bus to church the next morning. Oh, and it turns out that Philip is 15.

Nickel