One of my activities in Tubas was watching movies that we had rented in Gumaca. Some of these were films that were just being released in the United States. One even had a superimposed notice stating that it was a promotional copy and that if someone had rented it that they should call a certain phone number to report the crime. All I had to do was catch the next Jeepney to Gumaca, ride on it for an hour, walk over to the phone store, and place the call. Oh, darn it, there aren't any jeepneys running in the evening. The main problem watching these pictures was that the volume was low in most of them. This doesn't matter to Filipino renters who don't understand English, but it mattered to me. At times I would have my ear a few inches from the speaker to hear, but looking away from the screen because it hurt my eyes to watch it from such a close distance.

Lyn and Joel riding on the carabao, with Joel wearing the crocheted hat.

One day, we were watching a movie, when Tatay, Lyn's father, couldn't wait for it to finish. He said we must come outside because they had brought the carabaos (water buffalos) from the fields for us to see. There were two adults along with the child of one of the adults. It became a Kodak moment as several people posed on or near the perplexed animal. Jun-jun rode over on a horse for yet another picture.

About three years ago, Lyn sent some tennis rackets and balls and some ping-pong paddles, balls, and a net. I told Lyn that they don't have a tennis court and they don't have a ping-pong table. Minor details like that didn't disturb Lyn and she sent them anyway. I brought something which I thought was more useful - foam balls with foam paddles. I thought the small children would use them the most. Well, some of the larger children had fun with them as well, batting the soft balls back and forth. This led to the ping-pong paddles, which had been gathering dust, being brought out and some of Lyn's younger siblings started playing on the floor, batting the balls back and forth to each other. Well, Tatay decided it was time to build a ping-pong table and set it up in the community hall. It wasn't regulation dimensions and it didn't always provide true bounces, but it provided lots of entertainment.

Randy and Joel learning to juggle.

As with all trips, I brought along my juggling balls. Little did I know that there were several other budding jugglers in the group. Suddenly there weren't enough balls to go around so we opened up a can of the well aged tennis balls. Both Jun-juns (Lyn's brother and Ate Rosie's son), Randy, Joel, and some of the smaller siblings tried their hand at it.

Lyn's crocheting was also a hit. She had made hot pads for Christmas gifts and she continued to make them in Tubas. Lyn had several students, both male and female. Some gave up after awhile, but Ate Rosie seemed to have the greatest potential. A large incomplete hot pad was actual found to be quite an attractive hat. It was shaped like a large rectangular pocket, but when you rolled the edge of the hot pad back over itself to form kind of a cuff and pushed in the two other corners and slipped it on your head, it was the most attractive hat in town. Red in color, anyone could spot it and everyone took turns wearing it. Another hit was the licorice barrel. They were slow to take to it, but once they got used to the taste, they really liked it. The barrel was almost emptied of its few hundred sticks by the time we left.

Us with a couple of kittens.

In the Philippines, pets are not fawned over. You don't see people petting dogs or cats. Rather, cats keep down the mice population and dogs are used for security. They are fed table scraps and whatever they can scavenge. As such, they are skinny and small. The family cat kept her litter of two very young kittens on top of a chicken cage behind the house. The mother would take trips through the house looking for food, while the kittens waited. They had no contact with humans and were understandably timid. Lyn grabbed one and held it. It shivered in her hands. After a little petting it calmed down. Each day the kittens got more adventurous. Soon we were petting them on the front porch and later they were exploring the house. They picked a bookcase shelf as a good spot for naps. One night I was awakened to the meowing of one of the kittens in the living room. The mother and the other kitten were outside. Hoping that someone in the living room would handle the situation, I waited. A few minutes passed and I realized all the others were asleep. I got up, gingerly stepped over the sleeping bodies in living room, fetched the kitten, and showed it the door, waking no one.

The Alumni Homecoming Party for Lyn's school was held while we were there. Small sheets of paper with the agenda were handed out to notify people beforehand. It was to start at 7:00 a.m., with various events occurring throughout the day, capped off by a dance in the evening. We decided to check in at 10:00 a.m.. We took a short walk over to the school and found -- two people there, both of which were providing the festivities. We waited around for awhile, but eventually started to walk off. All of the sudden, we watched the "motorcade" roll by. Consisting of two jeepneys and three tricycles, it was nevertheless quite impressive for around here. Colorfully decorated with signs and balloons, they drove by apparently travelling through some other barangays to drum up interest and then drove back past us again. People were hanging out the windows and riding on top, enjoying the motion induced breeze in the hot weather.

Mylene, Lyn's youngest sister, had a school party of her own to go to. You know it's a special event when a Filipina takes off her chinelas (thongs) and puts on a pair of sapatos (shoes). She asked Lyn for 100 pesos spending money. Lyn forwarded her to me. I said she could have it in return for a hug. Now Mylene was on the spot and she knew it. She paced around and thought about it for about ten minutes before working up the courage to complete the act. Filipinos are very shy in this respect. They generally live with their parents until they marry, sometimes even after marriage. This might not occur till the their twenties or even thirties. Dating is generally just conversation, in full view of the parents.

Lyn's 4 brothers: Jun-jun, Joel, Alex, Randy, plus two cousins (left & 3rd from left).

Not that there isn't physical contact, but it is friendly rather then romantic contact between friends and relatives. And there is loads of it. You constantly see people sitting or walking with someone else who has their arms around them. Westerners may be starved for conversation and physical contact, but not Filipinos. There is no homophobia here. Touching is considered friendly here, not sexually provocative. On the other hand, if a son is a "bakla", a homosexual, it doesn't seem to matter. There are bakla celebrities and bakla teachers and no one seems to care. But, of course, there seems to be little that worries the Filipino.

In the days leading up to New Years, many very loud fire crackers were exploded. This differed from the relative quietness of two years ago. Could this be a measure of prosperity? For Tubas, most of the fireworks had been used up before the start of the new year. We still had the bulk of ours. We watched the snow filled picture on the television as the last few seconds of the year expired. It would be another eight hours before Los Angeles rang in the new year, eleven for New York, and sixteen for London and Paris. Though the signal was poor it remained constant. No Y2K glitch here, as live feeds from several different locations in the Philippines were shown.

For the fireworks fun, I expected to walk down to the road, but everyone started lighting them from the porch. I was excited myself, however, I did want to return to the states with my limbs intact. Forever etched in my mind will be the visions in the newspapers and on television of revelers who had fingers and hands blown off, powder burns over their body, charred skin, eyesight ruined. Americans would never be allowed to see such horrible sights in the media. I was not able to buy any punk, which is kind of a lighted chicken stick. This would make things safer, something Filipinos don't seem to be too concerned about. I lit off a few skyrockets and realized there was too much going on around me for me to be able to concentrate enough to watch out for my own safety. I stopped, but there was plenty to watch. Fountains, pinwheels, firecrackers, and more skyrockets. Adding to the thrill was the uncertainty of when or if they would go off. We managed to get through unscathed, save for a few minor burns from errant sparks.

Towards the end of the fireworks show, Ate Rosie started to bring out the meal. Yes, just when I was thinking about going to bed, here was more food. There was spaghetti and buko salad. The buko salad being made from strips of young coconut with its juice, canned milk, sugar, and various types of fruit. All I had room for was a little of the delicious salad.

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