My first whole week in the Philippines! Ta da! As a bit of a treat my body has finally adjusted to the slightly off time zones. Experienced travellers have told me that it’s actually more difficult to adapt to a timezone that is slightly out compared to one which takes your native clock, and practically turns it inside out. The thought being it messes up your routine just enough to make you fatigued but not enough so that you can easily just shift your sleep by a few hours. But, I’m alive now so let’s get on with the day.

My day was a little less chaotic today but not any less full. It’s the 31st anniversary of the bible college and so normal lessons are suspended. Instead there are conferences held that are compulsory to attend. Today focused on “right worship” and “wrong worship” and some very interesting commentary on the 10 commandments (number 2 is not a repetition of number 1). This lasted until 3pm and I was drowsy to say the least.

From here I settled into the dorm bedroom for 3 minutes before the Filipinos dragged me to a basketball game which is played 300m off the ground. Here in the Philippines basketball is considered to be the national sport. They have basketball courts in every imaginable location, including on the roof of the bible college. They have a cage on the roof which stops the slightly irritating “falling to my death after a failed slam dunk” scenario. When they play, they harness the spirit of Michael Jordan. I played for half an hour and even the older pastors ran rings round my clumsy attempts at ball snatching. Thoroughly thrashed I retreated to the dorm again to sort out the mess I had made when I first entered in.

I initially thought the dorm was in the bible college but it’s a couple of streets over and apparently I now walk confidently through Manila traffic. The key is insolence. Of course you look both ways first, but just assume you always have the right of way, the trouble starts if you’re hesitant and polite. Then people have no idea what to expect, the “me first” attitude is at least predictable.

Kuya A and I went out to the University of the Philippines to view a piano concert. The fact it was a music college was obvious as from behind the banisters and under the staircase came isolated blasts of trombone or mystic strains of Chinese drum practice. Everyone just practices all the time and absolutely everywhere. The concert itself was a lecture on the life and work of a Filipino composer called Dr Corneho. This was very special as his two eldest sons attended the lecture too. I learnt plenty of things and was thoroughly impressed by the playing which was both interestingly creative while using classically correct techniques. As Kuya A is undergoing a music major he has to attend a minimum of 15 concerts. As you can see:

Once I had thanked the performer for the evening’s entertainment (for some reason she thought I was French) Kuya A and I went off to find a spot of dinner. For the price of 50 cents  I ordered this:

The Filipino cuisine is really not up there in terms of fame and popularity but their sweet meats are to die for. Simplicity is sometimes the tastiest option. When we had finished dinner and were still a bit hungry, but not enough for another full dinner we went Merienda hunting. Merienda is snack food and is part of the diet that Filipino society runs on. We chanced upon some meat filled breads as well as apple flavoured Spanish bread, but my latest new experience was orange juice in a bag…

Yep. In a bag. Some stores won’t actually sell you the bottle because they need to recycle them so badly. But it’s less bulky, very squishy, refreshing and designed to be drunk whilst walking. It gets a thumbs up from me.

Meanwhile I finally drew the short straw and found the insanest jeepney driver in the Philipines. He was singing while he swerved across 4 lanes of traffic! Singing I tell you! Filipinos make excellent Christians, I believe this is in part due to the amount of faith in God they need to make it through the traffic, they’d be confined to their bedrooms otherwise.

I also spotted a pair of teenage boys practicing with Escrima sticks in their front yard. The Filipino art of stick fighting is something I’ve had the pleasure to dabble in before, you wield a pair of (roughly) one-metre wooden sticks and whirl them around yourself to create a barrier between you and your opponent. Actually, now that I think about it I forgot to mention that they were for sale in the gift shop too. I nearly had a go but when one is surrounded by a thousand, very fragile looking and expensive souvenirs it is wise to exercise a little restraint.

Back at the dorm I got to know my fellow “brothers” I shared my life story, sadly it could be summed up in 1 minute 45 seconds. If I get reincarnated then hopefully I’ll do better next time. But the dorm guys are really nice, I stayed up to 11pm chatting with Kuya Jonathan and learning lots of Tagalog. It’s bed time now but I am ready to run tomorrow morning!