Odds and Ends

We have another weekend coming with no electric and no water....so no computer work unless I take a van to the nearest city for the day. It's not too bad really, especially if you know in advance so you can charge everything you own with a battery and collect water in trash cans and buckets.
Before I came to the Philippines I thought there was just a few kinds of rice but take a look at this photo!!

I am still amazed at the variety of fruits here, there must be 50 I never heard of before. This tree is called Rambutan, the fruits have large soft spikes sticking out, it is a reddish ball, you eat the inside.

Rambutan tree

Filipinos also love getting their picture taken. When you are done everyone screams "wacky" and you take a second picture with everyone doing a wacky pose. These guys were at a street vendor, there are a lot of them selling grilled chicken and other unusual things like chicken intestines on a stick.

Check out the ads.....

The BIG news in our town is we got a 7 11 store, I have yet to go in. Open 24 hours, wowee we have arrived.

I spent the first few weeks of school in Grade 1 helping my counterpart, Ma'am Veron. There is this absolutely adorable little boy named Darck who ALWAYS raises his hand, wants to be a leader, etc.
Before lunch the kids say a blessing (remember a very Catholic country) and you can hear his voice way above all of the other kids. I tried taking a video of him while the class was saying it but he kept smiling too much. So here is Darck saying the blessing.

I think I mentioned awhile back the practice here called "Mano Po" - where a child comes up to an elder or respected person and takes the hand of the adult and placed it on top of their head, and the adult "blesses" them. Even adult kids do it. I must "bless" 100 kids a day, it is really humbling to have a child come up to you and bow their head and say "bless" - I am the one getting the true blessing being surrounded by these sweet children.