July 19, 2006
Patrick school had a field trip to the mall in Cabanatuan to see a movie so we decided to hop on the bus and get a free ride. We were told to be at the school at 7:30AM and yet we did not leave until 9AM. We were stopped on the way because there had been some kidnappers/ highway robbery's lately so the police wanted to actually do a check. They had hand guns the size of half on arm's length. Always fun to see! The movie was hilarious in the sense that first of all it was in Tagalog. But we arrived at the mall before the mall even opened and when we got to the theater on the 3rd floor the movie was already playing! The place smelled like musty wet feet, b/c we are having a Bagyo right now which is a Typhoon. The editing of the movie and the film angles were so quick and choppy you wanted to vomit. Even though we did not understand everything, we could still predict who was going to die. It was very melodramatic. Every time the young people in the movie kissed the theater would erupt in laughter and cat calls. Every time there was a fight the students would cheer and every time a particular actress would cry the students would mock her "crying". Now they get to walk around the mall until 3PM and we get to use the internet!

We have ourPC Regional Manager (RM), Ambat visiting us August 1st. He's a great support system for the lucky PCV's who are assigned to him and in fact those who are not go to him too b/c he is so kind and resourceful. He will meet with Patrick school, the principal, teachers and his counterpart and then do the same with my agency. This will also be when he looks at the house we hope to rent to go over safety and security issues. The house is in Palayan City near where I work. Don't let the name fool you, it's hardly a city but for some reason a few years ago the governor decided to move the capital buildings from Cabanatuan to Palayan. There are no available houses to rent and have only found this one. It's made of concrete with three bedrooms. It has running water INSIDE the house and a flush toilet. The host family we are living with has a pump outside their house and we fill buckets up in order to flush the toilet and take showers, so the idea of having running water inside our house is like GOLD!! So wish us luck on August 1st that the house passes inspection. We are more then ready to be out on our own. Our host family is wonderful, but it can be difficult to maintain a relationship when you constantly have people around you and in order for both if us to be in our room, one of us needs to be on the bed, as the room is small. Plus...It looks a little anti-social if we just stay in our room. I am sure you can see why we need our own space. We are already looking at appliances to buy, like a refrigerator. We miss cold water, cold beer, cold anything. Our host family does not own a refigerator which is common in the Philippines. As for the cold beer, Pat can drink it, but women do not drink here. If they do it's in the cities, but not in the rural area's. PC advises the females to take our cues from our host mom and our host mom does not drink, so therefore I don't.