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....!