The Curse of Not Speaking Tagalog (Yeah right, like this would happen to anyone else)

To truly appreciate the bizarreness of tonight, I will have to start with dinner. My father-in-law was going ballroom dancing so he was dressing up and headed down first for dinner.

When I go downstairs, to the living room I see him arguing with one of the guys in the neighborhood (N). My father-in-law keeps grabbing (as it appears to me) at his crotch. A random guy (R) who I have never seen is sitting on the ottoman so I ask him what my father-in-law is doing. He tells me the neighborhood guy has a knife. I am already confused at this point. My father in law gets the big scary knife from N's pants and that is when N decides it would be a good time to take a swing at R. They start fighting with my father-in-law (who will be 79 next month) trying to keep them apart.

I decide to be of some use and hold back N (who is too nice to hit a woman) until R gets away from my father-in-law and starts coming forward to attack N at which time I decide I will get a big man from outside. (While the fighting is happening, Ado is nicely tucking away the knife and the maid is taking my mother-in-law to the courtyard to make sure she doesn't get hurt). The only guy I can find outside (the streets are randomly very empty tonight) is the maid's son who is 21 years old and stands at about 6'. Unfortunately he can't weigh more that 160 or 170 pounds, but pickings were slim.

When I get back (10 seconds later), the mini fight is over and a third guy is bleeding under the eye (he may have been here the whole time...I am not sure). We get N out of the house. R is still sitting downstairs with the bleeding man. I make the bleeding man put Neosporin on his cut.

Everybody is talking and during this time, N comes back for round 2. They get N out and the Barangay chairman comes and everybody talks to him. Barangay chairman leaves. R is still here. Actually, at this very moment R is still here with bleeding man. I assume he is here because if he tries to go home then N will kill him. Also, I was given the knife which was disgustingly sharpened to a psycho point and is now residing safely in my nightstand. (Thank god that most people here do not have guns!!!)

Now, what is the purpose of this entry? Since I do not speak Tagalog, I have NO IDEA what this is about. I have no idea why these guys are fighting, why they are doing it in our house, and why they seem intent on killing each other. The people that speak tagalog well enough to translate for me at too involved with talking to people right now so I have no clue what is happening. R who hasn't spoken much since round 1 speaks great english but I figure he is a little busy right now with the man who is trying to kill him and likely does not want to be a translator.