CACAPHANOUS COCKS AND COCONUTS

I had a great time this weekend going with three of my new Filipino friends to the provincial city of Liliw for a short, one night trip. We took off from Manila around 8:00 on Saturday morning. As the trip progressed I became aware of one universal truth – that when woman anywhere get together they like to shop, eat and “chica-chica,” talk and laugh!! It’s true; we did a lot of all three! Liliw is the “slipper” (sandals and flip-flops) manufacturing area in this region and there were lots and lots of shops to buy from. Alas and alack, for this American size 11 shoe, there were not only few choices, there were no choices! But, never fear, I was able to buy a really nice purse. The girls I went with were: Lorna, Beulah and Pap. Lorna is from Lilew and it was almost like being in a small southern city – we could not walk a block without running into another cousin! It became quite a joke. One cousin owns and runs a small Italian restaurant and we had a great lunch. Another cousin owns an older, very natural open house on a beautiful landscaped spot out in the country. They are turning it into a bed and breakfast and I can’t wait to go there and chill for a weekend. Another cousin owns a bakery – needless to say that was one of our eating stops! They make several different types of rolls – one called a “bunneta” which, I think, is Tagalog for bonnet. The ovens are huge brick ovens heated by wood. I counted as they unloaded and it had 23 large trays each holding 12 bunnetas! Which with my brilliant mathematical mind I quickly deduced was 276 rolls! It takes only 5 minutes in these ovens for the rolls to bake. So, even in this old fashioned way of baking, you can see that they can make quite a few bunnetas every day! I must tell you that I almost burnt my fingers trying to eat them as soon as they came out of the oven. They were MASARAP!! The Filipinos make great use of their agricultural land sort of layering their crops. You will see pineapples growing and then you will see banana trees and then towering above you will see coconut trees. There are literally millions of coconut trees in the Philippines, the mountainsides are covered with them – with the smaller mountains all the way up the sides to the top. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera this weekend so you will just have to take my word on all of it. We stayed in the house of Lorna’s parents. It was a very beautiful house, but they were having trouble with the electricity so the air conditioners kept popping off last night as we were getting ready for bed. It had been raining all day, so it was okay with just fans in our bedrooms. The only hardship with that started about 4:30 this morning – The awakening of what sounded like hundreds of roosters!! I thought I was going to have to go out with a stick and just start wacking away at roosters! Cock fighting is very big here and there are many roosters bred and treated very well for this sport. Well, in the provincial areas there are lots and lots of these fighting cocks and they are loud! Needless to say there was much tossing and turning and little sleep after about 4:30. Well, probably more than you wanted to hear about my weekend excursion, but it was a great time for me!! I so enjoyed being with the girls and spoke a lot of Tagalog and ate a lot of Filipino food. God is good and gracious to me to answer my prayers about forging relationships with my Filipino sisters!