Family news: FIesta time

May 1st is the day of our city fiesta: Celebrating Mama Mary under the titles of Divina Pastora (holy Shepherdess of our souls). The story started when a local family asked for a statue of the Virgin, and the priest gave her a small statue of Mary caring for sheep. Full Story here.

so every year we hold the fiesta on May 1, but the parade will be this afternoon. A long video of last year's parade:

when I first came here with Lolo on a visit, he would have his friends visit: they were all veterans of World War II, and would lead the parade. They spent a few days at our house drinking and playing cards and telling stories. Then, year by year, there were fewer...and they led the parade in cars, not marching, until then even Lolo was too weak to lead the parade. Sigh.

well, anyway, the parade is this afternoon: no I won't be there: It's hot season, the hot time before the monsoon hits and we have cooling rains in the afternoon. Usually families visit here from all over the world and we often have a family party. Our granddaughter will come  for the weekend, since she is working.

The parade is this afternoon, with music and celebrations in the city plaza down the street, including fireworks...meaning all the dogs will probably ask to hide under my bed.

In other local news: The yearly US/Philippine military exercizes are being held in nearby Ft Magsaysay.

 Usually this is a twofold exercize: Teaching the Phil military to use modern weapons, and the Philippine special forces teaching jungle warfare/survival to the visiting Yanks....This year the emphasis is teaching how to use modern weapons or some such. 

Usually we see helicopters, and smaller airplanes, but yesterday I spotted an Osprey...hmm. 

Ironically, the joint exercize is also about coordinating for emergencies, of which we have plenty. Our area is hit by a typhoon about every three years, and twice the eye of the hurricane went over, which is a really scary thing to happen. But only once was it a major typhoon leaving us without power, water, blocked roads, and no electricity for a week. Luckily Lolo built the house when brownouts and low water pressure was the rule, so we just turned on our pump and generators and did fine.

The planting season will start as soon as the monsoon starts, which should be in the next few weeks.