Moo is the password

This past week’s highlights are nothing short of anything I would ever have encountered in Massachusetts. Starting off with a trike ride home after sunset to a dark road and a questionable lump in the road. As I walk by the hump lets out an angry moo and I realize that the hump is a cow announcing its prescence and demanding that I announce mine. It was so funny to me that I had to go back and try to get a picture.

Thanks to my host mother and father’s involvement with the Dumaguete Rotary club I got to partake in two great events this week. Starting off at 5:30am in the morning the Rotary club and pretty much all of Dumaguete showed up to walk in a procession whose proceeds benefited underprivileged college students. There was a variety of groups ranging from High Schools to Government offices to Senior clubs.

After the walk and posing for pictures, the Amasura’s and I were off to the Valencia Farmer’s market for some seasonal fruit. We scored Marongs, Lansones, and Bananas and a variety of freshly picked veggies. The town of Valencia is the next town up from Dumaguete heading towards the mountains. It is where the electricity (geothermal and hydro) of the whole province comes from, so those living in the town get free electricity.

Filipino fruit going from left to right clockwise: Marong (tastes like pudding), bananas and Rambutan (red fruits that have a jelly like consistency and taste like tapioca balls or Lychee fruit), the rest are veggies.

Then I headed to the beach where I encountered probably the only Bassett Hound in all of The Republic of the Philippines. It was porcelin and hard but thanks Malias love for her hound, I had to give it a hug!

Hi Malia!

Here is another picture of my host family, The Amasulas.

On the left is my host father Caloy, the Architect, in front of him is his granddaughter Ella, my host mother Babie, Ella’s father, Ella’s mother Gloria (B and C’s eldest daughter), and Nicole the youngest of B and C.

The next weekend I got to tag along with Sarah's Peace Corps host family to the mountains of Valencia called Red Rock. There were beautiful waterfalls and pools for swimming. There were also trees bearing lots and lots of yummy Lansones fruits. The cool climate fostered the abundance. The price was just right also and so I bought 4kg worth, and we feasted on this fruit from the gods!Lansones fruit tree.

After the waterfalls a few of us headed to Sarah's host families house for a Videoke (Karaoke) session, where we all got many songs in. Sarah's host mother Lut-lut has four kids including this beauty who towards the end of the evening was singing also. This family was sooo generous, and fed us two meals drove four volunteers up to the waterfalls and then kept juicing us with yummy drinks.

Bam-bam (good friend of Lut-lut) and Lut-lut (Sarah's host mom)

Fellow Peace Corps members Sarah and Claire and Bam-bam.

I also discovered that I have been saying our dogs name wrong since I got here. I thought his name was Gutom which in Cebuano translates to hungry. It turns out that everytime I come in the gate to where I live, I have been greeting the dog saying "Hello Gutom Gutom". When I get inside the house my host mother is always trying to feed me. The dogs real name is Goton, which translates to cotton, named after the consistency of its fur. My host mother has been thinking that I have been saying that I’m hungry when I come home, but really I have been just trying to say hello to the dog.

This week we start co-teaching with our counterparts so stay tuned for lots of stories.