It is deafening now as rain pelts against the massive tin roof above me ridding me of the last few scraps of sanity that I had left after returning home from shopping in Marbel. There is no way for me to mentally recap the full events of today, however I shall do my best to pick out the highlights. Emily, Jiji (I've been spelling it wrong) and I left around 9:30am for Marbel, a town about 45 minutes away from us and significantly larger than Surrallah; the reason for this is because this Saturday is "American Day" and we need some serious supplies. After the trial run/fiasco on Valentine's Day, we decided we'd rather over prepare than be short on foodso we went to work. We got to the grocery store, located inside the mall, and it took all of 2 seconds for every eye to be on us. Every now and then I just feel like snapping at someone and saying, "DIDN'T YOUR MOTHER EVER TELL YOU NOT TO STARE?!", but then I realize the answer would be "no", and I control myself. I guess we were kind of making a scene though as we were buying all American food (or American food substitutes) and in rather large quantities. We are going to be serving french toast for breakfast (we found mapel syrup!), cheeseburgers for lunch and chicken fajitas for dinner. The
quote of the day goes to Emily who, while we were shopping for American food in the Philippines asked, "Do you think they have a Mexican food isle?" Both of us totally consider fajitas as American as it comes, but this is truly more international.
After we got everything we could need for the meals (except meat which we decided we get right before we left) we moved on to lunch at Greenwich Pizza. This was a serious treat for Em and I as we indulged in pizza and lasagna. Luckily Jiji was also excited for a change of menu scenery and indulged with us. As delicious as this was, we really couldn't ask for better food than we get at the orphanage, and we were no less thankful for our pineapples, rice, veggies and chicken when dinner came around. We were perhaps even more thankful tonight because unlike the Greenwich staff, the children did not gawk at us as we ate. :)
We stopped by a store called "Chocolate and Wine" with big smiles and high hopes. Those hopes were certainly not dashed when we stumbled upon Hershey's Chocolate (which we need for a bonfire on Wednesday) and Reece's (which we have beencraving for a month). The last stop was a department store type place where we needed paint and t-shirts for an activity we are planning. Before getting to that part we found a whole section of board games and the like and we able to find some great prices on games I know the kids will love.
So the shopping rapped up around 3:15pm and we exited the mall with two very full and very heavy boxes and about eight Fm 1 5 h t t p : / / k h . g o o g l e . c o m / f l a t f i l e ? f 1 c - 0 2 1 0 1 1 3 3 3 2 3 2 0 - t . 3 6 7 and motioned over to by several trycycle drivers, and the few overly persistent ones followed us for a while as we ignored them completely. We did end up getting all of us and our stuff onto a tryc and had a very slow and terrifying ride to the bus terminal. When we arrived there we once again invited some very odd and unsettling looks. As I was packed in quite tightly in a line trying to board the bus I looked to my right and an rather old filipino in a Dirk Nowitzky jersey gave me an almost toothless grin as
the smoke from his last drag blew on my face. Deeeelightful. We got all of our purchases loaded into the lower compartments on the bus and got on all to find out there were no seats left, and to my complete shock, they actually don't allow you to stand on the bus. I couldn't believe there was actually a rule that had to do with safety in this country. So we got back off and got all of our stuff of and slumped into a pile of exhaustion and melting chocolate and thawing meat as we waited for the next bus to arrive. That one thankfully took us all the way back to Surrallah. The last leg of the trip was to take a jeepney from the terminal to the stop near our house. When I say the jeepney full of passengers I did not think we
would fit, but somehow we did, along with our boxes and bags. Everything in the Philippines is like Mary Poppins' bag; the possibilities of what you can fit in here are endless. This trip was about 15 minutes long and for every second of the trip a man in the corner looked at Emily and I with such a deeply disturbing look that we knew we would not feel good until we were back inside our safe and secluded little world. We have both been here several times and experienced this same thing dozens of times, but it never stops being weird and uncomfortable. It is no longer unexpected, but it is ever appreciated. So as nice as it was that the driver took us all the way to the entrance to UDH so we wouldn't have to carry all of our stuff a long distance, we did not like the idea of that purple-shirted man knowing where we live. I think we have both been here
long enough that we are starting to psych ourselves out a little. Sleep deprivation will do that to you. That and having a mouse fall on your shoulder (I am so thankful to say that this was Emily's fate and not mine... though I'm sorry for you, darling!)
Hopefully we will both get some rest and retain some much needed sanity and rationality before Saturday. We are both very excited about American Day but it is going to be a huge undertaking. Jiji said we should teach them our "traditional folk dance." Emily and I about died laughing when she said that, not having a clue what we could possibly do that wasremotely close to that. Texas and Mississippi are represented here so we think we'll be teaching 50 filipinos to line dance to "Sweet Home Alabama" (I really wish Sarah, Jono, Kevin and Jeremy were here for this; any chance you guys can take the weekend off???)
I am excited to be able to tell you all how this day goes. As for now I am off to de-bug my room and nap before washing clothes later on. I have enough clothes to take me about 3-4 hours, so I need to be well rested.
This post is for my dad. Baby Bob saw a picture of you and said, "Daddy!" :) Come see him.... AND ME!
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