October 22, 2010
This past week was quite a week. We took a break from the normal and lived it up a little. Wednesday was the 66th anniversary of the Leyte Landing during WWII, and of course this is something to celebrate.
On Monday night they had some bands and plenty of street vendors but nothing too big.
Tuesday was a different story. We volunteers got invited to a special dinner. It was quite a set up. We had three tables reserved for us right next to the veterans. Their was all sorts of ambassadors and embassy representatives, but I none from the U.S. that night. They’d asked us to perform on stage that night, so some of the volunteers had prepared You Are My Sunshine and Country Roads. Then they had several other performers and hot air balloons. This part was so cool, and maybe my favorite thing of the whole week, maybe. They had lanterns made out of oiled rice paper with a little fuel cell you light on fire. When it is full with hot air away it floats. They made us all light ours with or in the vicinity of the mayor for ideal photo ops for all involved.
Wednesday started early with a walk for peace from Palo proper to the beach memorial. This is the first thing in all my time being here that started early. It was scheduled to start at 5:30, so I left my house to pick up the others around 5:00. While waiting we had a coffee spill and that put us slightly behind schedule. By the time we got to the plaza at 5:20 the procession had long left. So we took the short cut and ended up just behind them, but our group was towards the front. Thankfully we have longer legs than everyone and quite quickly made our way up to them, but also got to chitchat with the Filipinos in between.
There was events going all day, and we were even able to squeeze in some beach time. Then at night they had another ceremony and asked us to perform once again. We did You Are My Sunshine, and they loved it. During the war they used that song as a moral booster. Then they had sons and daughters of the veterans speak and lit candles in the memorial water and had a 21-gun salute.
But wait, there is more…
Thursday was my last day in my Palo Central Class, so the kids had a fun party for me. They brought in their plates and food. Lots of food. We had boiled bananas, 6 loaves of white bread, 3 loaves of banana bread, a huge pile of cheesy pan de sol, a huge pile of rice pan de sol, pansit, boiled gabi, roasted chicken, fried chicken, sticky rice, cake, and several litres of coke. We just chatted and had a good time. Took some pictures with the kids and said my farewell.
And with that, everything is going to be a whirlwind up to swearing in.
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