Family news

Internet just popped back on after a week off line.

Everyone is still cleaning up after the typhoon two weeks ago. We are harvesting rice but much of the local crop is lost or poor quality due to moisture.

Yesterday heavy rain from the edge of another typhoon but no flooding.

Today is All Saint's day: The country shuts down for the weekend so people can go home and visit/clean up the family graves. I went with Lolo yesterday morning  before it got hot, and before the rain struck.

Usually the cemetary is crowded, and you can't take a car into the grave area during the holiday, and Lolo is having trouble walking more than 50 feet. Everyone cleans up the trash/dead leaves, repaints the gravesite, picnics and lights candles and says a prayer when visiting. Due to a high water level, the concrete boxes are above ground. We have this type, but Dr. Ito has a canopy over his grave.

Some folks have a canopy to make it easier for visitors, and a few rich families have small chapels...

If you read about folks "living in cemetaries", it is in these chapels (some are two stories high) in places like Manila. Usually the family gives up chasing the folks out and merely pays them a small fee in exchange for "watching" and keeping the site clean.