First off, this post is going to be long, I am stating that now, because today was just a full day… and I am not even done with it!... yet. Well, if you may or may not know, which I would assume the majority of you reading this already know, but today is my brother’s birthday… very exciting… especially if I was in Sydney, but I am not so I celebrate without him anyways. I went to the local liquor store and purchased a bottle of the finest they had… Johnny Walker Black and am having some currently (another reason why this post may be a little long). Additionally, yesterday was my pal Bembooy’s birthday, I told him he was in good company. Or maybe my brother is in good company, the latter is probably more accurate. So, tonight Bembooy (pending his wife’s approval) and I are going to have two beer and I am going to introduce him to American whisky… or Scotch. Before I get to that, however, I have to tell you about my day… very exciting.
With cock fighting, motor bike riding, videoke singing and having two-beer it is hard to believe that the people of Northern Samar have time to have more kicks… but they do. It is called bus-riding. A bus here is called a Jeepney (I will include a picture at some point), but it is just a Jeep front with a bus back. You may say, “what fun is this?” I can answer. First of all, the bus is loaded to the gills, then, if you are so daring, they overflow the bus. People are crawling all over the outside of the bus like ants, really big ants. They are on top of the bus, they are hanging from the back and the sides, it is very impressive. The last equation to this “Jeepney Riding”, which I equate to volcano leuging (spelling?), would be that the bus does not stop. It slows down, but does not stop for experienced riders. Luckily for me, they stoped and I was able to board the bus and have a seat inside. The operators of the bus are the bus driver and the token collector. The token collector reminded me of those train operators you see in the movies that hangs off the side and checks up and down the track while people board at the last second. Except this train operator hangs off of the back of the Jeepney with one arm.
Other than that, the day was a typical day (later in this post I will discuss about my night of debauchery with the fellas). I went to a center meeting with some of the people of the San Jose Branch. It was very interesting and my first experience with a disgruntled customer (I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but I could tell she was perturbed about something). We also had a spectacular view from the top of the San Jose Branch. San Jose is a very small town, probably half of the size of Catarman, but it has a very proper looking “main” street. It had buildings up and down the street that were about two stories high and it reminded me of New Orleans’ French Quarter (ironic that the Philippines was mainly developed by Spanish). I learned a lot about the branch and what types of issues and successes they have had over the past year. I look forward to tomorrow and going to another center meeting, as well as riding in another Jeepney!
Also, on my way to getting water, I was greeted by approximately 20 little kids who I had met a few days prior. These were different kids than the “peso” kids, but they were just as enthusiastic. When I had met them, they just said, “Hello, what’s your name?” and I responded, “Jon”; a frenzy again. Then today, when I was walking on the street, they all gathered around me and yelled, “Hi Jon! Hi Jon!” I asked how they were in tagalo and they laughed and responded, “Good.” They could probably tell I was still learning. It was a treat and I appreciated that they remembered my name.
Well, the night wasn’t like previous nights out in Catarman. I actually got home at a reasonable time. I did take over the bottle of Johnny Walker to Bembooy’s mother’s restaurant. I met one of Bembooy’s long-time friends, Noah, who worked as a salesman for Nestle Corporation. He was happy to join us for a few drinks, but admitted he had to work the next day, so Bembooy and I finished out the night… and the bottle. I met Bembooy’s mother and family, very nice people and I will visit her restaurant again!
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