Lechon

The pig (lechon baboy) you can see on the picture is a very typical dish for birthdays or other celebrations. It is grilled as a whole and also served like that. The thick skin supposed to be the best part! Additionally, there's a bowl with  only that skin on the table. But other typical dishes get also served like papait (the inwards of the pig which sometimes gets mixed with blood), (sweet) spaghetti (they add banana ketchup; long noodles represent long life), pansit (asian noodles with some veggie, seafood and meat - also very typical!), several kinds of fish (soup), goat meat, chicken bbq  and for dessert sweet noodle salad (with fruits), fresh local fruits and many more... of course, no meal is complete without rice!

Iris (on the right) was the birthday girl and May An is another classmate from High School. I was sitting at the end of the table. Iris cuts some meat off for me and across were sitting nuns, a priest was also around. Representatives of the church are very welcome and common guests for these occasions but they usually leave after dinner. If you take a closer look you can also see (one half of) the last supper hanging on the wall, you can find it in every catholic house! This little wooden square over May An's head adheres to some tiny forks and spoons (you usually use fork and spoon instead of fork and knife), the cutlery hanging on the wall can also be huge! After dinner karaoke was on the menu. It was nice meeting my old classmates again and other people from Bansalan, also getting into "community life" because the party was quite big - we even had two lechons! 

Karaoke

Birthday Party, Saturday night: May An, BopBop & Iris

Filipin@s love singing karaoke !!!

My cousin Rojenn and his friend Don singing in a bar. Karaoke is really common here! Almost everywhere you can find a Karaoke machine or a TV and a microphone, even in the countryside where everything is made of bamboo and the rice gets boiled on a fire stove but there is a Karaoke machine in the barn (besides it can also be a way to earn money). The songs are mostly (US) pop songs or love songs from the 90s. But of course there are a lot of local Tagalog and Bisaya songs too! Not only in public places, on birthdays or big celebrations you can hear voices singing - also at home! Almost every evening I can hear a mellow voice singing next door. Men and woman, children and seniors - everybody knows how. Like they're voices are all trained for singing not seldom quite high! Your friends & family become your fans, they support you by shouting, dancing and clapping hands. Even when there's no music around people are singing or humming all the time. 

How to ride a jeepney

This  driver has to move his windshield wiper per hand. 

One of the first things I've learned (I'm learning) is how to ride a jeepney. Besides of

 motorcylces, tricycles, cabs (or cars) are jeepneys a quite common means of transportation inside the city. There are no certain stops, in some places (like where there are yellow markers) more jeepneys waiting or stopping but in fact you can get on and off where ever you want. If you want to take one you have to beckon the driver so that he will stop and you can get on. But not all jeepneys take people or the same route so you have to read the little

 signs in the front window. Even that could be tricky (for foreigners) because the signs are written in shortcuts and they're quite small when they're coming from far away. On my way to school most of the jeepneys are already pretty crowded but luckily they never get full enough! I have to take a double ride to the school which takes about 45 minutes. Once you're inside you always have to duck to see where you are going. Usually a ride within 5 km costs 7 Peso (0,10 €) and with a tricycle it's 5 Peso/5 km. These two vehicles have no windows (open air) and leave a big grey cloud behind them, sometimes I even get a headache from all the exhaust gas pollution (combined with permanent beeping and honking sounds). To escape some dust you see people, mostly women, on the street carrying a napkin and holding it infront of their mouth ("to breath throu"). 

The last step: getting off. There are several ways to stop a jeepney, they stop where ever you have to get out. You can say "para" or "lugar (lang)" to stop the driver. Some people make a sound as if they would call a dog or a cat, that works too. Alternatively you can also take a coin and knock against the iron stake. 

carabao

hello everyone,

I'm doing fine here spending lots of time with my family talking, shopping, travelling, eating (I really enjoy the food here!) and most of all: learning Cebuano / Bisaya! I apologize that my blog isn't adequate to my adventures! Also: I don't carry my cam all the time and I don't spend so much time in the internet like in Germany... Most of you are asking for pics, so here they are. 

(I hope I can get you a better shot of the carabao (Wasserbüffel)! The peasants use them for diverse works on the field, you can also ride them but usually they are pretty dirty!)

Kialeg

JD climbed up a palm tree with rope and knife to get some coconuts, hmm delicous!

This is Vicky, Jen and Uncle Boy sitting infront of a rice field... 

My cousins Chrismon and Jay, as well as JD...

Bansalan

This is my lola's (grandma's) house in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, where we cooked rice with an open fire... 

... played with some puppies and had lunch. 

This is for Mom: the "new" bridge infront of lola's house which you want to see...

My first day

On my first day I went to Bansalan and Kialeg with my Uncle Boy, his wife Jennifer and two of his kids: Chrismon and Jay, as well as JD.