Day 4 26/11/16 (Saturday)

Wide awake at 5:25. The Australian time zone has an iron grip on me it seems. The exhaustion will catch up with me at some point I’m sure of it.

Breakfast came in the magical form of small purple vegetables known as “Kamorte”, I think they are the Philippine equivalent of tiny purple potatoes. I also was treated to a boiled egg which the duck had hatched last night. Luxury.

I had my first jeepney ride today! Personal space is not a recognised thing here and I’ve managed to learn all the Tagalog needed to pay the driver and stop the jeepney. My friends are testing me on my Tagalog a lot now which is very helpful for practice. Except when I try to say “that was good!” and I mispronounce it to form “that was angry!”

I have been transported to a parsonage which is a little settling above a church where the pastor and his family stays. When I first walked in the church it was still being painted but by the end of the day it looked rather grand indeed. The walls and even adorned with curtains of brown and gold and the pews were lined up like warriors in a holy war. First of all I played ukulele vs viola with Kuya A and then we improvised together which caused an eerie combination, not because of the notes or harmonies but just because the sound other two instruments mixing wasn’t quite the same, the finger picking of the uke and bow of the viola. It’s an interesting effect and one I would very much like to explore later.

For the record: my first injury in the Philippines is a burn to the side of my ankle where I sat the wrong way on a tricycle and caught it on the motorbike engine. It’s not too bad but I know I’ll never sit “sideways” again.

Later I had a small nap which I think you can all agree was probably long overdue. In the peace and quiet of dogs barking, tricycles revving, children shouting and roosters crowing I managed an hour before I went off to help set up the church.

It turns out I’ll be playing and singing tomorrow during service and so I had to hurriedly learn 8 hymns on the ukulele and learn to sing in a style that’s quite unfamiliar to me. Personally I think they should bring back hymns in Australia. There’s just something strong about then where you can really sing praises and (perhaps through the eloquence) take joy in worshipping. I met another brother today, Kuya Joel, we say he’s my brother because he looks like me, loves Japanese food and is my brother in Christ so we became fast friends and he helped me to sing in the choir as he is a tenor and I struggle slightly to reach the higher end of that spectrum. Kuya A expressed a desire to learn the ukulele, so we swapped knowledge. Music for language. He now knows “the” 4 chords that every pop song is composed from. Perhaps I am an evangelist for the ukulele… Setting the trend in the Philippines.

After 3 hours of hymns (and none of us were tired of praising) we called it a night until tomorrow morning and I found my favourite Filipino food for dinner. It’s scarlet coloured sweetened pork and a helping of rice. That’s it. It’s quite similar to sweet and sour pork but there’s no shame in liking it because it’s authentic (insert an impressed but slightly sarcastic gasp here).

Finally after a quick shop in the markets with Kuya A we went back to the first house to stay the night and collect the rest of my luggage. We stayed up till 10 discussing English accents and how many different types there are. Oh, we also compared our skin colour because after 40 hours of friendship you’re totally ready to break down the cultural differences barrier. I was amused to see that my “tanned” forearms were paler than his “pale” shoulders. It seems both of us and our skins are able to be sunburnt and develop tan lines.

A final thought. You know you’re are in hospitable hands when after you wake up from a nap the father/pastor comes in and hands you a loaf of bread, a spoon and a jar of peanut butter. They don’t use knives over here they use a spoon and fork but the spoon works well as a spreading tool as well. Typical … I should be making deep and profound statements between the cultural attitudes of the two nations and all I can focus on is that they use a spoon to spread peanut butter.

If you still follow this journal after insights like that you’re either really bored, in solitary confinement or you actually like me. So thank you.