Sacha's October News

September and October have been busy months. So last I updated you it was the end of Penafrancia which was almost a month ago today. So a few days after Penafrancia there is MORE fiesta. It's a period of about 3-4 days where people are constantly visiting others and eating. My tita and tito told me this year they were going to try and make sure they knew who was at the house because last year the neighbour's, neighbour's, neighbour's, friends were comming over. Apparently people are always asking for cash advances to pay for enough food to entertain any guests that come over. People even pawn off jewlery and buy it back later so they can have a stocked table. So for these three or four days there is food everywhere and drinks everywhere and people constantly in and out of the house. We hired a chef and a team of cooks to handle all the food. Ah then there is the fluvial procession! they carry the image of Ina along the river while she is pulled by dozens of boats of men paddling. Its very beautiful and people are calling to Ina and waving white hankerchiefs or burning candles. Helecopters even fly by and pour confetti into the crowd. Just a few days ago I went along with my Tito's biking club. I rode in the back of a truck but we were going up and down a mountain road right beside the ocean. This road isn't very used and people were coming out of their houses to stare at us. Some people were still living in the nipa huts which are built from sticks and fronds. They have electricity there but no poles to cary the wires on so they hold them up with bamboo. Bamboo is used for everything here. To get water to the side of the road to do the washing these people were using giant 20 foot pieces of bamboo as piping. I even saw an extra thick 20 foot piece used as the arm blocking entrance at a gaurd station yesterday. I've joined the Rotaract Club at my school and was actually voted officer of international affairs. This weekend is our local RYLA and its very exciting because the major schools now all have Rotaract clubs to attend now. At the end of the month is the district RYLA so I'll be travelling north for a few days then. I find myself becomming really relaxed here about all sorts of situations. If you tried to fight all the new things here you would just be so upset and frustrated. I've made lots of friends at school and am always joining in their events so no matter what there's something to do. My family is amazing and my eldest host brother will be comming home soon for his semester break. I think we'll go on a small vacation when he gets here. My parents went to Hong Kong last week to visit some friends and it was very nice to have them back. The house feels almost empty with only about 10 people here. I've started exploring the town a bit more now and I really love it. Small back streets and wooden houses. Barbeque on the streetcorner. the man on his bike who sells bread. It's home! Words aren't enough to even express a fourth of everything I've seen here. I wish I could bring every Canadian here just for two weeks. The things they would see and learn are amazing. This country is beautiful but it also makes me think a lot about life. Your perspectives really change here on what "life" is. Time to head over to the other Exchange Student's house we're going to open a coconut tonight. oh, there's even three words for coconut depending on its age. a buko is a young green cocnut with sweet juice and soft flesh. A macapuno is mostly ripe and the meat on the inside is still soft enough to eat with a spoon but it looks more like the older coconut and is quite oily but delicious with sugar. The old coconut that you can find in Canadian grocery stores is called a nyog(o as in bog) and it is scraped from the inside of the shell by a rotating electric grinder or by hand with a metal point attached to a stick you sit on. Nyog is always cooked with vegetables and 70% of all vegetable dishes are cooked with nyog. So that's the coconut lesson! I hope you are all doing well even though it's so terribly cold there right now. I am getting the weekly updates from the club without fail.