The Rottweiler and the Mini Pincer

No matter how many times it happens, I never get tired of seeing our rottweiler puppy (male, six months old, about two feet tall and two feet long) hump our mini pincer (male, 10 months old, about six inches tall and one foot long).

Credit in the PI

Just got my first credit card in the PI--quite exciting, namely because the banking system here is quite archaic (compared to US). Typewriters are used, passbooks required, and you must go to your specific branch for many transactions. The interest rate is 3.5%.....a month!!!! Needless to say this is not a card we will keep a balance on.

Questions Kids Ask Me

There are tons of kids in this neighborhood--well to be completely accurate in the Philippines. The majority of the population is under 24 and the population is expected to double. No matter how many kids I meet, there are always more. The following are some of the questions they ask me (some over and over and over again):

-What is your name?
-Where are you from?
-Are you rich?
-Are you married?
-Why are you with a girl if you are a girl?
-How old are you?
-Can I kiss you?
-Can I have your nose?
-Do you have any kids?
-Where is your mom? What is your mom's name? What is your dad's name?
-Why are you so tall?
-Do you speak tagalog?

I get few of these questions from adults. I do however often get weird comments. The other night we walked up to the drug store and a pedicab driver was parked out front. He says to me, "Can I go to America with you? I don't want to work in the Philippines anymore." I told him "sure, let's go".

Kids in the Philippines

Cute Kids--
notice all the boys do the weird hand thing under the chin
--means "pogi" or handsome (or so I am told)

Again the weird hand thing

Fiona, the little girl who hates me

Big Kids

This is a Jeepney.....

...they are all over the place and the main form of public transportation. 7.5 pesos will get you one ride.

http://my_sarisari_store.typepad.com/my_sarisari_store/ (Coolest Photo Blog)

Fallen Tree

We have a partially demolished lot on which we will build our future home and there were two large trees. One we want to remove and the other we were happy with. The tree we were happy with was a casualty of the typhoon. You can see it in the background. The one standing room is a toilet. Here the builders "stay-over" which means you need a working restroom as they will stay onsite.

Finally have lights

There was a typhoon on September 28th here. They said it was the biggest to hit Manila in over a decade. Most people got lights within a couple of days but we did not get lights until the following Wednesday night. The water pump is electric so it meant no water as well. The rumor was the reason we were delayed was because a fallen power wire was stolen and Meralco (the power company here) was not going to restore until it came back. It sucked and we stayed with friends for a couple of days. It is hot here and sleeping with no fan or aircon is deathly. In the nights following the typhoon we slept in the following places:

Night One: Floor of the Balconey (marble so it is colder but also very hard. Got eaten alive by mosquitos)
Night Two: Floor of my Father-in-Laws bedroom (Room has more windows so a little colder. Floor was hard).
Night Three-Night Five: Friends house in Alabang...we had bed and aircon. (Heaven. Love my friends. Too sweet.)
Night Six: Floor of sister-in-law's bedroom (slept horrible but there was aircon. One of those nights where you feel like you never really sleep, just toss and turn all night).
Night Seven: Lights came on for good at about 7PM. Slept in bed with air con running.

On the final day we had electricity from 1PM-4PM and then it went out again until seven. During the first few days we also had no cell phone service.

The actual day of the hurricane we had some friends visiting from the states. The storm hit and passed and in the afternoon we went out. There were no lights so most stores were closed. We ended up walking about 15-20 blocks as the jeepneys were not in certain areas due to the flooding. We finally made it home.

Electricity is the best thing in the world.