General Santos, Philippines - December 24, 2005

Christmas Eve. Actually today is the big day for my girlfriend and her family. Its a huge family reunion. However, I'm utterly exhausted from the event. Mainly because ZERO of her extended family speaks any English whatsoever. ZERO ZERO ZERO. Every stereotype/image/etc. I have ever had about all filipinos speaking English has been completely destroyed. So strange as everywhere else I seem to go in the country, people seem to speak quite well.

Also, almost everyone lives within a 5-minute walk from her parent's house. They will take an acre of land, and everyone you can possibly imagine seems to build a house on it. I heard housing regulations were extremely relaxed, and I can definetely see it here. A few blocks over, they are called squatters. But her block, its all legitimate, but they just keep selling off little parts of their land to all kinds of other relatives, etc. Its interesting.

The new years festivities were cool though. They had a lot of games for the kids. My girlfriend and a few aunts organized the games. Ther was one where you drop straws in bottles and race with the kids to pick them up. I was most surprised with how seemingly everyone had so many kids in her family. How do they support or raise them?

Unfortunately, no one spoke any English within her family though. So it made it a very difficult day for me. I couldn't speak to anyone.

Continued journal entries in the Philippines:
December 25, 2005

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