Monday, December 12, 2005

The Unexpected Disco

So upon coming home from Thanksgiving I was tired. I had what was to be the most busy week of work yet in front of me (it was that busy, but it left me with nothing to do the following weeks). All week I had to wake up early for trainings and meetings. On Monday, while I was coming home from the office, I was just thinking of how I was going to cook dinner, read and go to bed very very early.

A little bit more than a kilometer from my Barangay I heard it. My head dropped. I wasn't angry but I was upset with myself for forgeting. My weekend away eating turkey had lead me to forget that this Monday and Tuesday my Barangay was haveing a Disco, for the National Holiday "Benifacio Day." (That, and up until 5 years ago these were the days of the Fiesta till it got changed.) So are you asking yet "what did he hear?" Look below. It is the Philippino sound system, with all the shake, rattle and distortian of the car of a 16 year old with to much money. But this is way way way louder, and located less than 30 meters from my house. Did I mention discos don't end till 2 or 3 in the morning, if i'm lucky. So what was I do do...no reading could be done, no relaxing, and surely no sleeping. Ear plugs have the same effect against that sound system as a of a flyswatter against a dragon.

So I joined in the fun, I figured I would be tired for my meetings regardless, I might as well go knowing I had fun the night before.
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Below is "uncle Eddie." He is one of the guys in my barcada (group of friends). He had a grand ol' time, mind you the multipal bottles Tanduay wiskey may have helped. He may have even been seeing those trails at that point.
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Now I would much rather have a filipina than a filipino sharing my hammock with me, but I can't begin to explain the differance in culture between the philippines and the states regarding male friendship. As I type that I can hear some of you laughing already. Its true though. It is nothing to see two guys walking down the street, either holding hand or with ones arm around the other. They are not gay, its just a much closer culture. When I meet other men often they will just hold my hand through the whole begining of the conversation. Anyways......the guy in the hammock with me is my neighbor, Jo Jo. He has borrowed my hammock almost every night since the Disco, and uses it for his bed now....(yes, without me)
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This last picture is of Mike. Mike is very very funny. Doesn't speak the best English but he is funny. He has a crippled leg and is always about town, I give him some cigs or money once in a while, as does everyone in town when they can afford it. If you havn't gathered up to now, I like Mike. He was one of the first guys in town I met, and he sits at the waiting shed by my house all day, almost everyday. So its a bonus that one of my friends is always there to watch my place. If you look behind Mike that is were my barcada sit, drinks, and eats most nights. The house on the right is Jo Jo's and to the left is where mine is.
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Well I think that is all for today. I am heading to the market to get some food for dinner and will probably go home to start cooking and mabey do some reading. I'm currently reading "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. I have had the book for a long time and was intimidated to start a 1100 page, small print book. I was mistaken. It is great thusfar. I have had a good string of reads. While I am talking about books I will suggest two more for you all. The first I rate as one of the better books I have read, "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver. The other is good as well, I found it theraputic. I think it would give you a good idea of some of the concepts of my experiance thus far. It was written by a Peace Corps Volunteer in China in the late 90's about his service. Its another country but many of the themes are eirily similar to what I have experianced at times, its call "River Town" by Peter Hessler

Halong Kamo Permi!

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