 |
| families are meant to wait under these signs for pick up or meeting point upon arriving at the airport |
Gerald has one uncle that still lives in the PI and the rest are cousins and close family friends of his parents. I have never met Gerald's uncle so I was excited to finally meet him; he decided life in the PI was better for him than joining all his siblings in the States. Because he doesn't speak English, I didn't get to communicate with him much but he seemed super happy to have us around.
We spent an afternoon with him and the family checking out the province where Gerald's mom grew up. Our adventures included visiting the house that his mom lived in, the church they attended, her school, and the cemetery where his Lolo (grandpa) and Lola (grandma) are buried. We also got to experience riding in a jeepney and tricycle, which are the major form of transportation for people in the village. The jeepney was fun, even though I only rode it down one block, but they look neat cruising down the country roads. The tricycle on the other hand was no bueno, all we could smell was gas and because it was all enclosed, we could barely even see the surroundings as we were riding along. But hey, we did it for the experience.
We pretty much did the same thing in the town that Gerald's dad grew up. We started off with a visit to the house where his dad lived as a child and then headed down to the school that he graduated, and off to the cemetery to visit his Lolo. Gerald's dad is really involved in helping provide scholarships to kids that can't afford to go to De La Salle Highschool and University, so because of his involvement, we were able to take a tour of the school and meet some members of staff. It was interesting to see what the school system was like. Growing up in America, we would never think twice about not being able to get a K-12 education but here, you only get K-10 and then at 16, you're forced to go into the workforce early, or try to find a means of going to University. Two years makes a big difference I think. They are trying to adopt the US system into their schools so we'll see. In Cambodia, you only get free education from K-7, but that's if you're even lucky enough to get to a school or afford the uniform that is required of every child. It was nice to see how appreciative DLSL was of this scholarship program because as we all know education is the key to life!
Aside from visiting the family town, we spent a good amount of time in the shopping malls that Makati were lined with. Makati, which is a huge business hub outside of Manila, is where our hotel was so we had easy access. Although, with the crazy driving and road traffic, we never walked anywhere. We used a driver the entire trip. Our favorite shopping center was Greenhills, which is a huge Bazaar. You can find anything and everything here for as little or as much as you wish. Luckily we had one of Gerald's cousin, Patrick, with us to do the bargaining. Some of the other malls include Greenbelt and Glorieta; these malls were 10 times better than the ones in Houston. I was impressed. It just amazes me how one part of the country can have so little and the other part, way too much. But I guess that's what makes it a third world country.
We also visited Fort Bonifacio and Tagaytay area, pretty much just to eat.
Other things that stood out to me were the huge billboards everywhere. Despite the size, the billboards are still put up and taken down manually; very interesting to witness; safety is not a requirement here. Traffic is a nightmare during rush hour; I could never drive there. I wasn't overly impressed with Filipino food so there's not much to talk about there, except for the ensaymadas from Mary Grace.
Another plus was getting to hang out with Edward, Gerald's cousin from Houston, who is now an expat in the PI.
Other than that, it was pretty much just laughing and hanging out with the Pena's. I'm glad we got to experience both sides of what mainland Philippines had to offer, although I hear there's a whole other side as well. Yay for finally getting to visit the Filipino Motherland =)
