Wednesday April 26, 2006

20:49 -- Too much to write about, not sure if I can do it in the time alloted.
I am now sitting at Ninoy's internet cafe called Internet Extreme in Compostela. It seems really busy here and successful.
On Thursday last, we all went to Bantayan Island

After driving up the east side of Cebu Province for about 2 hours, we made it to Hagnaya, the port for the ferry ride across to the island of Bantayan. After lunch in Hagnaya, we boarded the ferry with the car, and had a nice ride over.

There are 3 towns on Bantayan Island, Santa Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos. We left Santa Fe, the port and headed towards Bantayan.

We stopped in Bantayan for bread ... mmmmm bread.
After the bread, of course we drove to the school. The weather here was really really really hot and sticky. The school has come along. The main school building has a large addition. Ma tells me it is to meet with Philippine standards. The old 3rd and 4th year building is soon to come down to be used for something else. I am told that Ninoy was instrumental in the construction of the new building. Also changes and improvements have been made to the dirty kitchen and other buildings as well. The school grounds are beautiful and green with many local varieties of plants. The grounds are a little brown now as it has not rained for some time. We got to the school and slept there the first night. It was hot and sticky even with a fan. The next day I awoke with a sore throat -- probably jet lag and an adjustment to the environment. I always get sick when I come to the Philippines -- it SUX!!! The rest of the family showed up on Friday with all the kids. Dondo and his family -- and Sandro, Mina and Ajoe. The kids were not too happy with the arrangement. Ajoe cried alot and Vivian got sick. I also got worse with my sore throat getting so bad it hurt to swallow. On Saturday we went to the beach in Santa Fe. We had a family picnic of crabs that we bought that morning in the fishing village in Madridejos. The Kota Park has really come along and is a great place for tourists looking for a fun out of the way historic place to enjoy. After I napped at the picnic, I waded in the waters at the beach -- it was nice and warm and pleasant and made me feel much better. I hung out with Dondo and the kids then went for a swim with Ninoy. My fear of harmful aquatic life abated much even in the light of seeing a small jellyfish swim past us. Ninoy and I actually swam/walked to the nearby resorts looking for a room for all of us to stay. We all sort of agreed that if we stayed at the school it would be uncofortable and the kids would want to go home early, so an airconditioned room in a resort would be a nice place for us all. The resort we wanted -- Marlin, was full, so we went to Kota Beach, which is where Suyen and I stayed on our first and third trip. We got a room for all of us at Kota beach and had a nice stay, even though brownouts (blackouts) kept defeating our air conditioning. We got up early the next morning (Sunday) to go to church in Madridejos. We brought Pa along so the priest could do a private service with holy communion with him. Pa is very immobile due to losing his hip and the ravages of diabetes. So the priest did a service for him in the pickup, then we had church service. I didn't understand a word -- it was all in Bisaya. Then we headed home for lunch. More awful throat was not getting better. The family all left, except me, Suyen, Ma, Pa and Ninoy. We were to stay one more night and leave monday at about noonish. That we did in the Isuzu pickup loaded with us, a lot of stuff, and four pour helpers who were crammed in the back for a four hour trip. The weather on Monday was much cooler and nicer. The Island was gorgeous when we left. The ferry ride was great with the calmest seas I've ever seen. Monday night we reposed. My sore throat was even worse, so we got stronger meds for it. Tuesday I was feeling a little better. We went out shopping in the city, and ate Korean, which Ma didn't seem to enjoy. I thought of my friend James when we ate there. The food was really good and cheap for a Korean resturant, by American standards -- quite expensive by Filippino standards ... most of the clientele seemed to be Korean ex-pats with some Filippinos mixed in. We came home last night and all was good except that I got into one of my dry throat coughing fits just as Ajoe started crying and the dogs started howling all at once --wierd. Today, Ninoy and I went into the city. We got some things we wanted to look for done -- I called it our safari. We looked at professional espresso and Ice cream machines. We'll find out about the prices tomorrow. Then we went to Bo's Coffee Club at SM mall. It is good to be away from the "Joe with a Ho'" fishing holes. Then we got to talking about furniture and native woods and crafts and looked at a native craft store. Then we went in search of CD's for the pictures and home. We ate at home then came here.