Halo-Halo

Halo-Halo. One of the most popular Filipino desserts. Its kind of like a banana split. A scoop of ice cream, nuts, berries, bananas, jello, bits of toffey, served over shaved ice! Delicious and nutritious! A large bowl like this will easily feed 2 people for $1.75.

Week 6

This last week was really a down-time from all our adventures. Cecil and I met for lunch and later at the mall for dinner, shopping, and a movie. Enjoyed a very nice seafood restaurant in the Island Center Mall (ICM) twice. One meal I had milkfish which is excellent. I think it is called "the poor man's lobster," but I could be wrong. The second time I had grilled squid. Each meal is served first with a cabbage soup, the fish served with grilled veggies, and a creamy, lime jello dessert afterwards. The atmosphere is Japanese, modern, minimalistic.

In the mall we stopped for a snack called Halo-Halo (see pic). This would really go over well in the US. It is delicious and healthy. They serve a scoop of icecream with a mixture of nuts, berries, bananas, other fruits, and bits of toffey over shaved ice.

I am still really enjoying my time here in the Philippines with Cecil, though I also look forward to seeing the US again and eating American food. :) Plus starting RN school June 15th. I return June 3rd.

Will post more pics when I get my film developed!

SSPX Pilgrimage in Bohol, Philippines

Thursday, May 7 -- Sunday, May 10, 2009

300-400 pilgrims, including many priests, brothers, and sisters, walked from Tagbilaran City to Carmen, Bohol, across 60 km (36 miles).

We Made Compost Toilets for the Pilgrimage

I helped a carpenter from the parish make 4 homemade, portable

compost toilets. These use pine saw dust instead of water. Each one

cost less than $5. This pic is off the web from "Loveable Loo" website

where I got the free directions. We painted them green. I'll post pics later.

A Must See Movie!!!

"Seventeen Again." I thought it was just another teen flick, not so.

It takes a philosophical look at sex, love, marriage, and family. A must see!

PG-13

Another Week in the Philippines!

Hello Everybody,

Still alive and well here in the Tropics! Last week I kept busy helping Cecil, her chapel, and the Society of St. Pius X prepare for their annual national pilgrimage which they host every year in Bohol. Each year hundred of pilgrims gather from all over the country to walk from Tagbilaran City to Carmen, which takes three days. Each day they have the traditional Mass, a conference from a priest, a very simple community breakfast, followed by a 20 km (12 mile) walk that lasts until the evening. At midday, pilgrims stop in a town to pray in the main church, chanting the Credo (Creed), and then have lunch and a siesta in the shade of the town plaza. In the evening after supper, the youth compete by singing folk songs, hymns, and competing in sports.

Monday, May 4th - Wednesday, May 6th

After enjoying lunch and conversation with Cecil each day, I spent the afternoon helping get ready for the pilgrimage. Earlier I had suggested to the group to build portable toilets instead of having the pilgrims use the woods for their latrine, or spending an exorbant amount of money renting porta-poddies from Cebu (another island). After emailing a website describing how to make what is called a Loveable Loo (google it!), the idea caught on with the leaders to make this very cheap, nice, and hygenic portable toilet which uses fresh, nice smelling pine saw dust instead of water. For under $5 each, we constructed 4 homemade compost toilets (see pics). I assisted one man who is a parishioner and a carpenter at his house. Also, I volunteered to track down the tents that would be used by campers during the pilgrimage, and to set them up to air out.

During the evening, Cecil and I met to go to Momma Rose's house again for a two hour choir practice, getting ready for the High Masses to be sung during the pilgrimages, and to prepare for the group choir competitions. Six choirs from different regions compete that Friday and Saturday evening for a trophy.

Thursday, May 7th -- Friday May 8th

Cecil had to work Thursday and Friday so we were not able to join the pilgrimage until Saturday. But, we were able to attend Thursday morning High Mass at 6:30 am in Tagbilaran City Plaza, assisting the choir. A missionary priest from South Africa offered the Mass which was attended by 300-400 pilgrims, including many priests, brothers, and sisters. Father preached about how the theme of the pilgrimage "To Restore All Things to Christ." He said our pilgrimage would be a demonstration of our Faith and a prayer to restore Sacred Tradition to the Church and moral order to society.

Friday evening Cecil and I enjoyed a date to Pizza Hut (for $2 you can get a personal pan pizza, soup or salad, and a drink! :) ) and some shopping

Saturday, May 9th

Today we joined the annual Filipino SSPX pilgrimage, which I have heard a lot about. I was excited to share in the event with so many like-minded Catholics, whose faith and devotions were really inspiring.

Cecil and I met at the bus terminal at 5:30 am, sharing breakfast snacks while waiting to board the bus. An hour later we arrived to meet up with the pilgrimage group which had been sleeping the night at an elementary school. We were just in time to catch the tail end of the breakfast line. Cecil made sure I got my fill of rice, fish (fish heads, not bad!), and energy drinks before our 12 mile trek which began around 9am.

At 10:30 am the group stopped for a rest and Cecil and I bought some water. All around us we passed exotic scenery of mountains and valleys with layered levels of rice fields (see pics). Locals watched us from their farms and food stands, while some of the volunteers of the Apostles of Mary national youth group passed out rosaries. At Noon, we stopped at a beautiful basilica, filling the church. The priests led us in chanting the Credo (Creed) which was awesome to hear so many traditional Catholics chant this Gregorian hymn with such harmony and unison. Afterwards, we had a long siesta in the shade of this humongous tree after anothe simple lunch. Cecil and I hung out with her friend Sahara and her fiance June, with whom we have a lot in common. I took off my shoes and took a nice nap.

During the afternoon I had to ride in the van a couple of times to rest and Cecil joined me. But we finished with the group as we entered the town of Carmen, to ascend an extremely steep and high staircase to the top of a mountain, to a shrine devoted to Our Lady of Fatima (title honoring when she appeared to three children in Portugal, in 1917). We were lucky enough to find shelter from a sudden thunder storm and heavy downfall. While viewing a tall statue of the Blessed Mother, and looking out over mountains in all directions, we prayed the concluding rosary. It was inspiring to be with all those people praying while the rain poured down. Father Ghela, SSPX preached about what the end of a pilgrimage represents--ie our final reward at the end of time on the day of Resurrection. Just then the rain stopped and the clouds began to part! WOW what a day!!!

That evening we had to wait a few hours for a van ride back to the elementary school. When I returned, I was so exausted, dehydrated, and suffering from allergies I just found a corner to make a bed in and go right to sleep.

Sunday, May 10

Got up at 8am to shower and get ready for Mass in the school gymnasium. I was still too sick with allergies (sore throat) to sing. We packed our things and left after breakfast, returning to the city. It turns out our Bohol choir group had won both competitions the evening before, which I could not attend! We even beat the seminarian group!

Getting back to town, I took Cecil to an American restaurant as we both were starving, and I was beginning to crave Western food. I ordered Mexican food which Cecil had never tried! Later Cecil went home to sleep as she had a very bad allergy cold. I too went home to my room-for-rent to nap a few hours.

Getting up later, I decided to spend the evening on my own at the mall, eating and going to the movies. I saw an excellent movie called "Seventeen again." There was not much to choose from, and this just looked like a teen flick. But it was really one of the best movies I have ever seen! A middle -aged man who is unhappy with his marriage/family life encounters a spirit guide who enables him to literally become 17 again and make different choices. Its kind of a twist on the old movie "Big" with Tom Hanks. The theme is how people often, when they become adults, loose an innocent and pure view of sex, love, marriage, and family life, making wrong choices that often end in heart break, disappointment and divorce. But this man, who is 17 again learns life's lessons all over again, and is once again challenged to make the right choices. A must see!!!

Chocolate Hills

We visited this natural wonder on Saturday, called the Chocolate Hills, once listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Perfect cones made by the Hand of God.

Gothic Basilica in Calipe, Bohol

500 year old Spanish Church built on the Sea, seen for miles by boat when approaching the island.

Calape, Bohol--an Oasis in the Modern World

This town of Calape, Bohol is one of my favorite. It sits just on the ocean to the left. Just to the right are mountains. See the river in the bottom of the photo. Cecil's friend Felmar lives right by the bridge before it crosses the river to the north, in a 50 year old wooden home on stilts, as part of a fishing village.

Our Lady of Kayloo

Famous Miraculous Statue in a Chapel-Shrine in Calape, Bohol. This has miraculously grown to 3X its original size!

Week 4 Here in the Philippines!!!

Hello Everybody! I have been here for 4 weeks now in the Philippines!!! I hope you all have been enjoying weekly updates about me visiting Cecil for courtship and adventures.

This last week I continued my routine of sleeping in a bit, morning consitutionals as it were, reading, praying, and meeting Cecil for lunch, then going to the cathedral and library in the afternoon. Later, I would take a stroll down the shopping district (black market = no taxes, and some very cheap stuff) to window shop or buy souvenires for loved ones back home. Then picking up Cecil to head for her Godmother Momma Rose's house where the church choir met for two hours, preparing for special hymns for this weeks annual SSPX pilgrimage here in Bohol. We are helping to organize it, to sing polyphany in the choir, and I am helping to build portable toilets (see photos next week) and maintain 20 tents to be used by the male pilgrims. The women will stay in elementary schools.

I am really settled into Bohol, Philippines! I am very relaxed and enjoying the live-one-day-at-a-time philosophy here, slower pace, and still very good food which each day offers new, unique, and tastey food, for me the food lover, amateur chef, and food critic. Each day I wear relaxed shorts, sandals, and a baseball cap! Cecil and I grow ever closer each day, and will keep you posted this month of our future plans, God's Will be done! :)

Friday, May 1, 2009

Met at 8am at the Cathedral. Today was the local festival in honor of St. Joseph the Worker. We prayed at the cathedral, thanksgiving for St. Joseph's patronage. Viewed some of the local festival. In a festival, the town honors its patron saint with traditional music, dancing, and costumes, and of course food. Families of means will butcher and roast a whole pig for the dinner table. The roast pig is called Lechon, served with many traditional dished and desserts, and doors are open to neighbors to stop by, sample the food, or at least maybe a piece of crispy pig skin which tastes like candy, and to wish the family a happy feast.

We grabbed some Dunkin Donuts before boarding a Jeepney (see photos) for Panglao resort island. Ate sweet and sour pork by a beach-side restaurant, with one side of the dining room completely open to the ocean just feet away! Jumped on the back of two scooters for a ride to another beach--rented a table and snacked on potatoe chips, San Miguel beer, and Green Tea between swimming. Got lucky to catch an air-conditioned van back to Tagbilaran for a low fee, with the van to ourselves for a scenic ride. Arrived at Momma Roses for a festival lechon dinner.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Invited Cecil's friend Felmar to Chocolate Hills, 1000 plus perfectly cone-shaped (not man made!) hills covering maybe 100 square miles and once one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Took a van with AC to one of the Hills, trekked up it along a winding road to a public restaurant, and then climbed 200 steps to the top of the peak where we found a bit of shade for a picnic. Felmar shared with me the Filipino concept of "Carinosa" which refers to how Filipina women tend to be very caring, giving, concerned for welfare, and attentive to their boyfriends or husbands, but also to others as well. Took photos of me and Cecil overlooking this natural wonder (see photos).

Took a bus with open windows for a relaxing breezy ride back to the city, in time for choir practice back at Mamma Rose's and leftover lechon.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

WOW!!! Today was maybe one of the top 10 days of my life! I really enjoyed a trip Cecil and I took to a village 40 km north of here, invited by her friend Felmar to visit a famous chapel-shrine, have lunch at her home, and go to the beach.

Since we are traditional Catholics, we only attend the traditional Mass; so since there was no scheduled traditional Mass (a missionary priest comes 2X a month), we had a holy hour (saying the rosary) at this chapel devoted to an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Several generations ago, so an old lady there in charge of the chapel conveyed to us, her grandfather had found a beautiful sea shell, but threw it back into the ocean. 3X it came back to him after he threw it back, but to find it again on a later day. So he kept it. Later, he had a dream where Christ appeared to him and said to keep the shell, carve a statue of the Blessed Mother into it, and to build a small chapel for this "sacramental." Later he made the chapel, and pilgrims came for devotion. Soon they noticed the statue kept getting bigger, actually growing in size. To this day, the statue and shell has tripled in size!!! The old lady had us kneel before the altar and she blessed us and the other pilgrims with the miraculous image. I prayed for blessings for me and Cecil, and for our families.

Later, we came to Felmar's house, a large, two-story ancient wooden house built on stilts next to a bridge with several other homes on the edge of a river. It looks like a small fishing village. Before lunch, we sat on the back porch, and to one side we could see the mountain-fed river empty into the ocean and turning to our right we saw the mountains just in the interior covered by majestic cloud covering. It was very inspiring, and sea breezes filling their ancient home, a very traditional lunch of seafood and soup (and always a large glass bottle of Coca-Cola), and plenty of laughter really made me relaxed and enjoying my time there.

This town is very clean and developed, with nice stores, and a 500 year old Spanish basilica, really huge and Gothic, and full of color--bright blue and white (See photos later). For maybe $5K you can buy a nice piece of property right on the ocean. The mayor and his family live like royalty in the town mansion next to the plaza and cathedral. Perhaps one day Cecil and I will build a house here, a home away from home in the Philppines, while also having a home in the US! :)

After lunch we paid a cab $2 to take us to the beach and wait for 1-2 hours while I swam (Cecil and Felmar watched). This long floating, bamboo bridge goes out into the ocean, connecting several bamboo huts that are built on stilts. The ocean water was crystal clear and cool! I saw fish and crabs, walked through patches of seaweed, and found once nice small shell. A family in a nearby hut invited us to their hut, sharing with us liberal portions of fruit and Coke-and-Rum. They joked to me, trying to get me to take more drinks, whiling asking me about America!

Later we said goodbye to Felmar and her aging mother, and caught a van back to the city!

More photos to come....!