24 September 2005

  Saturday and I have done not a whole lot, but I have hade a good day. After being up to 4am typing in my belated entries I really didn’t want to get up this morning. I ate a late breakfast about 10:00 and about 11:00 Andrew, the resort manager and also the resort transportation, via his motor scooter took me to Jim and Let’s house. Neither Jim nor Let was there, but there house maid was. I dropped off a small travel bag I had barrowed and asked the maid where Jim and Let were. I haven’t a clue weather the maid can speak a word of English, or understand a word I was saying. Being a very shy girl, your privileged if you can get a word out of her at all. When I said Jim and Let she honored me by saying Maasin (Maasin is a larger city in southern Leyte). Ok so I know that they are not home and may not be for a while. I then walked around Jim’s local neighborhood and took pictures. Jim’s neighborhood is a rather good example of many typical neighborhoods. I then proceeded to walk through the town and take pictures so that I can show a good example of what many of the local towns are like. There is also a 16th century church here in Hilongos that provided some interesting possibilities for photographs. The church has gone through some renovations and repair over the years, and the newer part of the church is quite distinct from the older parts, though I cant tell if the newer part is just a new facade on an old building or weather they had to rebuild it. After I finished taking pictures I took all my used film to the local Fuji center and had them develop 14 roles. About 2 hours later I returned to pick up the film. Andrew who had introduced me to Jacqueline, had also invited me over to her house for her. So at about 4:00Andrew took me over to her house. At first the conversation was as strained as the day before, so I asked her to show me around her neighborhood knowing that she had family close by. She began by taking me to the local high school which was about 10 yards from her house, and then to the local elementary school which was about 50 yards in the other direction. Her neighborhood is essentially one long road lined by houses and rice fields that leads from the main highway and dead ends at the beach. The whole area is actually rather beautiful being lush green with rice fields surrounded by jungle and a back drop of mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. We walked along the road toward the ocean, and talked again mostly about simple things me asking most of the questions. She would point out anyone she knew that was a friend or a relative and introduce me to them. I got a great deal of stares from many of the local people. All her friends and family seemed to have two questions for her when she introduced me. The first was where did she meet me, and the second was how long I would be staying for. Most people seemed rather shocked when they learned that I only had 4 days left here, but I think most of them were misunderstand me and thought that I was only going to be here for a total of four days. It also seems to be a similar expectation that if an American or other foreigner is single and in the Philippines then they are looking for a wife. While I am not particularly opposed to the idea of marrying a Filipino, I am neither greatly inclined. It seemed that most people were thinking that if I was with Jacqueline I had the intention of getting to know her to marry her. Now Jacqueline is an attractive lady of 24, sweet, a bit shy but more so of speaking English than meeting people, hard working, and very intelligent. This given neither I nor anybody else seems to think that 4 days is enough time to get to know each other and get married. So some of the locals seem to be confused as to the point of why I would care to see her, or she me if it is not going to go anywhere. For me I would just like to get to know her be it as a friend or anything more and have someone to spend some time with. As for her I don’t know, but I did find out that it was her that asked to be introduced to me. As we walked along we reached the end of the road and the last of her relatives, and so we walked past a couple of canoes and onto the beach. It was about 5:00pm and the sun was low in the sky, but not yet sunset, we walked a short distance on the beach and turned around and came back to a thatch roofed pavilion set among coconut trees and canoes near the end of the road we had just walked. We sat and talked for a little longer. After about 15 minutes she suggested we start back before it starts to get dark. We walked back to her house where she lives with her father of 63 and her youngest sister of 20. On the way back she asked me what I was doing for dinner, to which my response was, oh I don’t know. I could tell that she was uneasy about this point as she seemed to want to invite me to dinner, but was hesitant. So I asked her what she was doing for diner, she said she didn’t know because she didn’t know what to fix a foreigner. I told her not to worry about it she could fix what ever she would normally fix and if she would like I would stay, but if it was an inconvenience then I would go back to the resort and have a diner there. Now it seems that Joel had talked to Andrew the previous day, and informed him that Americans ate bread instead of rice, and Andrew had passed this information onto Jacqueline. Now as Jacqueline’s family eats a lot of rice as most Philippine families do, she substituted bread for rice, which meant that she was offering me bread and fruit, and she didn’t know what else I would eat. Well I’m not about to complain and so I indulge myself with some of he bread. She thinking that this was rather plain asked me if I would like some chesses spread. Now I’m not normally one for cheese spreads but in this case I made an exception and was grateful I did, as the spread was actually pretty good. I felt bad for her because I didn’t want her to go to any trouble for me. But she obviously didn’t know what to do for me either, despite my insistence that whatever she would normally eat would be fine, I could eat it too. After finishing eating we sat and talked for a little longer in her living room. I suggested that maybe I should get going, and she asked me if I wanted to go, I said no that I would like to stay, but maybe about 7:30 I should go home. 7:15 rolled around and Jacqueline brought up that on most nights they go to sleep early. Early to me is about 10:00 so I asked her what time they normally go to bed. She said 7:00pm maybe 8:00. I’m not very good with hints, but this seemed like an opportune time to suggest again that perhaps it was time for me to leave. Before we left her house I asked her if she would come see me the next day at the resort. She asked me what time, and I said whatever time was good for her. She suggested 7:00pm and I said sounds good, I will be waiting. She asked if it would be alright if she could bring a friend, and I answered of course it is. Now as there are no sidecar motorcycles staying on this remote road and Andrew had left a while ago the only way I had back was on the back Jacqueline’s motor scooter. She asked me if I knew how to drive a motorcycle, and I answered honestly, that no I don’t. So I climbed on behind her, here I am, probably near twice her weight climbing on behind her. I’m not embarrassed at all I’m just worried that I may be too much weight for her, but I had seen her the previous night load two of her friends on the back of her scooter with her, and she handled it with no problem. She did quite well with me as well delivering me to the resort in one peace. I thanked her much for diner, having me over and, bringing me back. She then turned around and left, and that is where my night ends.

Typical example of many town or city neighborhoods and what happens when it rains.

Daycare Center

Town Proper of Hilongos with open air markets and shops.