Araw 32

Today I woke about 6am, but dozed until half past, by which time I was getting restless. When I got up we were keeping an eye out into the road for the runners in the National Marathon from Silay-Patag, a mere 43km of bad road, travelling up a mountain for the final 25km. A hard race! By the look of the runners, they were all African or Filipino, but as the prize was php200,000 for the winner, I didn't blame them for trying. Everyone who finished the race also received php10,000.

After most of the runners had passed and we had eaten breakfast (chicken n rice) me, Shine and MJ's brother Nanoy headed off to get some fresh buko. We didn't got far, past some houses, up an alleyway, over a stream and into the trees. Nong Noy put down his big knife and sack, and headed up the tree barefoot. When he got to the top, he use his foot to kick the buko off of the tree, and we kept out the way, picking them up from wherever they had rolled. Sometimes they broke open as they hit the ground and Shine said they were good. She cut one open and we had a try of the buko flesh and juice. It was really good. Once we had got 9 buko Noy came down and we collected them all. I carried one in each hand, Shine too, and Noy carried the other 5 in the sack.

We stopped of at Noy's uncle's house, the man who owned the trees, and picked a cacao pod from a tree as well. (Cocoa bean) we carried them all back to MJ's and broke open the cacao pod so we could eat the flesh around the seeds. Some of it was very sour, others very sweet but it is a nice fruit. MJ used the juice and flesh from the Buko's to make a chicken soup and other food to take up the mountain for Shines baptism lunch. We joked and ate all morning until Mamzet and Pastor arrived at around 11.30. Shine started cooking popcorn so we all sat in the kitchen munching and chatting. Once everything was ready it was time to leave.

- Shines Baptism

- chatting to pastor

- motorbike back

- looking after the kids