Family news

It's hot again so I am staying inside most of the time with the airconditioner on.

The good news: The monsoon should arrives soon, and indeed, we are seeing cloudiness in the afternoon which helps with the heat. Right now, it has started thundering, which is a good sign.

We are now having a huge thunderstorm, with lots of rain.


Ruby is teaching 10 year olds in her church's vacation bible school. Joy is going to meetings.

Chano is fixing the fish tank/fountain  so we don't lose more fish from hypoxia in the heat (from algae overgrowth).

Here is Lolo sitting on the fountain/pond/fishtank.

I wrote a few days ago that most of the politician's posters (we are having an election next month) were for Trillianes for VP and Duterte.

Well, now one neighbor, a strict 7th day Adventist, has a poster up for Poe, with her mom (a famous actress who adopted her) smiling at her daughter saying" My heart".

Downtown at the square, the fence is now covered with Binay stickers... I think he will be giving campaign speech for the fiesta.

Yes, it is the weekend of the town's fiesta.

When I first married my husband, he would fly to town yearly for the fiesta, and he and his friends who fought in WWII would march at the front of the parade.

He would carry a couple bottles of expensive whiskey with him from the US and they' sit around drinking and playing cards for the weekend...

But alas, slowly one after another died, or got too sick to come. Now I doubt any of them are left. Sigh.

The family usually gets together and has a big party, including the traditional lechon (barbecued young piglet) and lots of food.

But with Lolo dead, his son resents the rest of the family so we probably won't be invited, although I might sneak over with the cook after supper.

Usually there are parades (held yesterday lots of photos on the local news facebook page) and a special mass for Maria Divina Pastora: Mary the Holy shepherdess.  A Spanish madonna. Someone gave a family who lived here a statue, and voila lots of miracles, so a shrine spontaneously grew up in thet area. Which was ironic since no one had sheep back then. But the idea was pretty easy to grasp, and here Mary is "mother" and Jesus is an older brother, and God is the father. Not quite theological but God cares more that you love each other and don't steal too much than strict theology.

However, things have changed and we now have a neighbor's sheep and goats who graze on the local vacan lots.