Torres Says…

12:34am Monday, Jul 9 |

Magandang Tanghali Sa Inyong Lahat (Good Afternoon folks)

It is day 5 of my adventures here in the Philippines. I am currently in Anuling Mendez, Cavite - my mom’s town. It is about 2 hours drive from Manila. Let me tell you something - life is extremely simple here and I’m loving every bit of it.

I’ve taken pictures of our humble abode here where we are currently staying. We arrived last night at about 4pm. The drive here was pretty pleasant. It was less "fear factor"ish than driving around the city. My mom and I chartered a jeep for the trip for 1000 pesos ($25.00) and that covers the rental, "crudo" or diesel, and the drivers fee. We stopped by at a local market in Tagaytay, the town before Mendez to buy meat and vegetables for dinner. It was pretty cool. We went to this bucher place where beef & pork hung from hooks. Fresh vegetables were sold on the street. Too many vendors come up to you asking you to buy their goods. Mom because the local celebrity finding people from her childhood and other cousins. Seems like everyone in this part of town is somewhat related to us.

We drove home to surprise my Aunt (mom’s sister). She was surprised and ecstatic! It was really weird seeing the old house in Mendez because it is A LOT smaller than what I was used to. I thought it was gigantic when I was little. The house is in better condition - I guess a lot of things can change in 10 years.

There were teenagers playing basketball on this bball court that they made themselves. And no suprise, they were apparently my cousins.

I was reconnected with 2 of my cousins that I grew up with. We were on the same "batch" - same age bracket and we used to play games on the streets when we were young. It was pretty cool to reminisce.

I went to bed at 10pm but was up at 430am. At least I’m getting better with the timing - I’m less jetlagged. My Aunt who we call "Ina" (translation is "Mother") candidly joked around that she’ll catch fresh chickens for lunch tomorrow. I laughed it off but I didn’t actually know she was serious. I’ll get to that story in a minute. It was the weirdest thing to find out that the chickens slept on the tree. They’re wild chickens (not caged) and they were free to roam around. I had the pleasure of feeding them at 5:30 this morning with rice and corn. There were a lot of them.

I could honestly say that I’ve successfully watch a rooster mack a chicken and get laid. It was a hillarious sight! First the rooster chased around 4 chicken hens and then successfully jumped on the back of the hen and bite the back of the neck of the chicken. It lasted for about 5 seconds and it was over. He walked away with great pride, his beak was as high as the skies. - Hillarious!

My other cousin came by and we went to his house which was about 10 mins away from the house. He drove a motorcycle and I rode on the back. It was cool but a bit scary because we currently are on top of the mountain and the rodes have some slopes and riding the motor cycle doesn’t seem to be ideal. So I kissed my safety away and off we went. He showed me his pigs and piglets (it smelled so bad) and his chickens. I used to sleep over his house all the time everytime we were in town. Again, the house seemed a lot smaller.

When we came back, my Aunt was waiting on the foyer holding a chicken. It was still alive. She then instructed my cousin Wendel to catch another chicken. At first I thought it was very cruel but then I wanted to experience what it was like living here so I participated in catching one. They used this cage tilted on its side and wedge a stick on the other side. He threw a handful of rice to coax the chicken and then BAM! They caught another one. It yelled for help but it knew that was the end of her tenure. The gross part was seeing my cousin kill the chicken. Ill spare you the gory details but it was gross. I didnt stay behind to see how they cleaned it.

The most disappointing part of my stay here is that THERE ARE NO FRESH MANGOES ON THE TREES!!! I guess the season is done. I had a fruit called Santol today and it was good. I’m looking forward to my fresh coconut fruit when I get home about 10 minutes from now.

I’m having a great time here. The only somewhat hard part is that again adjusting with the ammenities. No Microwave (yeah you’ll appreciate the value and convenience of this device when you go to the Philippines).

I hope you can see what I see here. Life is simple, but its great.

I will post the pictures when I get back to Manila. I’m here for another week.

Please keep in touch and update me on what’s up.

Mikey