This and That and My Birthday!

I haven’t had time to write in so long! My hour or two of internet time every week seems to fly by. Since I can’t go anywhere without a companion, I can’t exactly just jog on over to an internet café. Anyway, I have combined a couple day’s worth of journaling in this entry. I hope it isn’t too long!

I thought it wasn’t too hot today- maybe a little toasty, but bearable- until I cleaned a melted cough drop off my table. I guess I’m adjusting! Ah, it’s cooling off now. It looks like it’s going to rain again. Last night a storm came out of nowhere, complete with thunder, lightning, and pouring rain. It was kind of scary, especially since Ate Mimi and her husband Kuya Dudong weren’t home yet. But it was really scary when the power went out, right as Tyler and I were cooking dinner! I had to adjust to the fact that I might not have electricity for the rest of the night and possibly the following day. Tyler grabbed some candles, and we were able to keep cooking. Thankfully the power was only out for about ten minutes, unlike the other day when it was off for the whole day. I was rather taken aback when it came back on. Ah, and there’s the thunder. It looks like a fierce one!

As I climbed on the motorcycle last week, I burned my leg on the muffler. Oops. As bad as it hurt, I didn’t mind too much because it took my mind off the itching mosquito bites (I cover myself in repellant every time, but I must be tasty anyway), the three red ant bites making my foot fat and itchy, the rashes on my fingers where I rubbed the skin raw doing laundry, the dog bite on my hand that probably didn’t give me rabies, and the blisters on my feet from wearing flip-flops. I told the girls that perhaps I would break my arm next to take my mind off the burning. My newest ailment is a sunburn from the beach, well worth the pain and the tan it will turn into. I hope that as I adjust, I’ll have fewer ailments. When I hung my wet laundry out to dry, I got another red ant bite on the same foot as the other three. After that, I marched in place as I finished hanging my laundry so that they wouldn’t have time to crawl onto my feet. See? I can adjust! Now I’m using insect repellant in the lotion form so that it will stay on longer. The spray kind was really great, but not sweat proof.

Being an American in the Philippines is a lot like being famous, except no one asks for your autograph. They do, however, point, stare, whisper, call out to me, and sometimes even follow me. I might as well have a big dollar sign tattooed on my forehead. Because I have relatively light hair and skin, I am considered very beautiful. Also, big noses are considered beautiful here, and mine happens to be larger than the norm here. I almost can’t interact with men here because they think I’m so beautiful. The rude ones will be mean or inappropriate, and the nice boys turn mute in my presence because they’re so shy. Weird, huh? It would be funny if it wasn’t so annoying and burdensome. I hate to think that my Filipino girl friends feel outshone by me when we’re in public. I usually tell them something like, “Oh, I should stop walking around with you so the men will leave me alone!” I try to look as grubby as I can, but it doesn’t help- I’m still white. It helps when they find out that I can speak a little Sibuhano (the local way of saying and spelling Cebuano). Then they are more talkative and polite.

The big news of the week is that Ate Mimi’s oldest daughter, my friend Miles (short for Millicent) just found out that she passed her board exam for nursing. She’s an official nurse now! All her friends from school passed too. It’s been fun getting to know Miles and her friends. I was afraid that there wouldn’t be anyone my age here in Butuan. I got to skip class last week and run off to the beach with them (don’t worry, I made class up on Saturday). They have good English and great senses of humor. I enjoyed their company so much, I invited them over for the evening of my birthday for snacks, movies, games, and hanging out. I forgot to consider that Filipinos are different than Americans. I was thinking that a nice competitive game would be fun (spoons), but they didn’t like how the losers had nothing to do waiting for the game to finish. (We Americans don’t care about the losers, just the winners!) So we ended that game and did what Filipinos like to do best- sit around and talk! In the end, it was slightly awkward, but fun overall and definitely a learning experience for me.

My 21^st birthday began at 5:30 AM when I was awakened by a group of about twelve people from church singing outside my window. It’s a birthday tradition here, except it’s usually male suitors doing the singing, and it’s at about 3 or 4 AM. They sang a long medley of songs for me, many of them worship songs from church (instead of the typical love songs), ending with happy birthday. I was very touched by how sweet and thoughtful that was. I was also touched by something else- about six mosquitoes! That’s what I get for going outside during sunrise without repellant on, just when all of them were almost healed. I spent the majority of my birthday at a resort beach a couple hours away called Duka Bay with a great deal of the Fortun’s (the family I live with) extended family, most of whom I had already met. There was a ton of food and fun to be had. Everyone swam at some point, and the kids and I spent most of the time in the water. I’m pretty sure that I was originally a mermaid whose fins were removed at birth. I LOVE the ocean, so it was the perfect day for me. The ocean is different here- it’s not very cold and there are barely any waves. This particular beach has some popular cold springs that come out in large quantities at a particular place and come up through the sand in the water in smaller quantities. Because of this the water is cooler and less salty. It was by far the nicest beach I’ve been to. The beaches here all have barely any sand until you get to the water and open air huts for people to hang out away from the sun and keep their stuff. Ate Mimi and I did my lesson for the day in one of the huts. It was also nice for me since the people there are more used to seeing white people, so I felt like less of a spectacle. However, I’m quite a spectacle now that my face looks like a tomato. Anyway, the day was lovely. One of the uncles took a lot of pictures so I’ll get some up here.

Language school is going well. I’m kind of torn between being encouraged by my progress or discouraged by the fact that there’s still SO much to learn. I mean, it’s a whole language, and I’m only studying it for a month. I have a feeling I’ll be just starting to get the hang of it by the time I leave. Thankfully I enjoy learning stuff like vocabulary and grammar. I was proud of myself in the market today (don’t think the market like Albertsons, think like haggling for a bracelet in Tijuana, except with food). I held my own in Sibuhano, and even got a discount on my papaya with my pouty face and, “Wala na bay hangyo?” It means, “Is there no bargain?” I also learned a very useful word, “koan”, which literally translates “whatchamacallit” or “thingy”, but it is not to be confused with “kaon” which is the root of the verb “to eat” or the noun “food”. All that to say, language is going well! It’s funny, when I use Sibuhano in the jeepney to tell them where I’m going or to stop, they look at me confused, like they don’t understand. They know what I said, but they really didn’t expect me to know how to say it in their language because I’m young and white.

I’m somewhat of a picky meat-eater. I was thinking that I’d do fine here because I could mostly eat chicken and fish (beef is scarce here). I’m used to cooking chicken, but when I think of fish, I think of it in a plastic, air-sealed package. Not so. I had to ask Ate Mimi to remove the head for me before I could even think of starting to prepare it as food. My lunch still had a face! Yesterday, I grabbed a piece of pork (which is plentiful and cheap here) and bit into it, only to find that it still had some skin on it, complete with some coarse, dark hair. EWW!!! And don’t even get me started on how unsanitary and smelly the meat market is! They touch the money, touch the meat, tie the bag with their wet hands, then hand you your change, and the ground is drenched with heaven knows what! I don’t know how they avoid getting sick from the raw meat juice on everything. It’s best to go earlier in the day, before the meat has been out in the heat for most of the day. When I went to the meat market in Davao, I almost lost my lunch because the smell was so bad. I promptly went out and purchased a handkerchief after that.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining, I only want you to get a glimpse of what everyday life is like for me. All this stuff is the norm here, and I’m getting used to it. In fact, the meat market here doesn’t bother me any more. I’m careful about what I touch, and I double bag the meats. I’m used to the rain, the heat, and the bugs. I have accepted that there are bugs on my bed no matter what I do. It’s okay. They’re not hurting me. Well, this is all I’ve got for now! As always, keep in touch! I love you guys, and I wish I had time to write you all individually. Thanks so much for your prayers!

P.S. I hate roosters!!!