ferries, fotos and filippino families, oh my!

all aboard the inter-island express! after one last day a good diving, but spotty weather we decided to move on from sleezetown, philippines and try our luck further south on the island of mindinao, and this time we traveled by sea. lucky for us in-ferry entertainment is much more interesting than its in-flight counterpart. we were graced with a performance by a live 3-piece band. the group consisted of a middle-aged man with a ponytail on the keyboard/synthesizer and two ladies on vocals clad in blouses with sheer tummies doing passionate renditions of smooth rock karaoke hits. however, amusement quickly gave way to bleeding eardrums and we fled the dining area for our bunks on the lower deck. but alas, the voices and microphone reverberations carried swiftly over the open sea and right onto the philippino-sized mat onto which i was trying to make comfortable my american-sized body (this is no small feat, i assure you). after tossing and turning for several hours i awoke to the sun rising over the open ocean and our island destination approaching on the horizon. as we got close to port a throng of banca's (catamaran canoes) swept toward us. my dad and i stood memorized watching them from the railing, wondering what in the world they could be doing. they came right up to the side of the ship, grown men with small children sitting in the front and they were all yelling something up to us. it wasn't until someone beside us dropped a coin over board and the nearest boy dove into the water to retrieve it that we realized they were begging. once off the boat we boarded a bus bound for the town of malaybalay where my dad lived with his family for 14 years. about three hours, three canyons, one banana plantation later (fun fact: dole and del monte plantation security guards are licensed to kill. where one applies for such a liscence i dont know, but i wasnt too inclined to find out.) we arrived at bethel baptist hospital compound, the establishment my grandparents (with the help of a handful of others) built up from the ground over 50 years ago. immediately upon arrival we were treated as honored guests. a woman named lilet dragged us into every room and office in the hospital to give us a theatrical introduction, complete with full gesticulation, to every nurse, doctor, accountant, receptionist and passerby. never have i ever been hugged and kissed and squeezed and stroked so much. afterward we were shown to the guesthouse where we would be staying, which turned out to be none other than the very house where my family had lived for all those years, a very nice surprise. i slept in the room where my dear aunt susie had taken running leaps onto her bed as the only defense from the torments of her incorrigible brothers. however, this was not until after i walked in on four of the most enormous cockroaches i have ever seen (come to think of it they may in fact have been extraterrestrials) one of which was cozily nestled into the bristles of my toothbrush. i did not scream, i was too shocked and awed. i calmly called for my father who frightened them back into the walls and began brushing my teeth with cockroach saliva, or some other form of excretion i'd prefer not to think about. whatever it was im sure its full of wonderful nutritional value, those extraterrestrials are so advanced.

PS I have decided to call off my tally in the scrimage against my tiny tropical nemises. their hits are now well into the thirties and i've managed to snuff out only four of them. what can i say... im a lover, not a fighter.