hope and despair

Helped Fr. Neil this morning with writing the history of the St. Raphael parish for its 50th anniversary this October. It sounds like it will be a huge deal, even featuring a beauty pagent for Ms. "Gay" Kawayan. Gays are very much accepted in every level society here. High school students, barangay captains, school teachers, priests, etc. And they're not afraid to strut their stuff. It's interesting. It fits with the general atmosphere of "whatever" which I'm learning to breathe in.

Later I went with Fr. Pejay to Bilwang and Bulalacao to celebrate mass in the elementary schools. There is mass in each school once a month. "This is the day the Lord has made," sang the children, beautiful and brown. They all seem to know I'm a foreigner, all sneaking glances and giggling. Cute as hell. After mass I watched them as they used small sticks to smack the dragonflies that filled the late afternoon air. Below the green school grounds full of flowers, the glistening sea. We sat in the shade with a few teachers drinking water straight from the coconuts that some of the boys fetched. This is the day the Lord has made.

I know many of the neighbors in town now. People are outside most of the time so it's easy to just walk around (suroy-suroy) and "call" on neigbors. Two little guys, JR and Dudong, across the the street have taken a liking to me and often times tag along when I go on constitutionals to the plaza or pier. It nice just sitting with them.

We held our first youth group meeting in Mapuyo on Sunday. There were about 30 high school kids mostly girls. It was intesely awkward for me at first but I just took a back seat and let them lead. They held and election and "elected" officers by calling out names and raising hands. In the end we had an entire board of officers including a "seargant at arms" and a "muse." Is that like a court jester? They each made a brief speech. Next week we'll start planning activities.


This week a group of us also went to this isolated village of 6 houses called Tinago (hidden). To get to Tinago we hiked for about an hour through dense tropical forest eating wild guava and getting bitten by mosquitos (me only). Someone there had badly injured his leg about a year ago with a bolo (machete), and it still hasn't healed. Fr. Pejay annointed this sick man with oil and prayed with him. He can't afford the medicince and now I think he's dying from the infection. Despite all the beauty I'm experiencing, the fact of the matter is that it is a hard life for most of the people here. Life for many is simply about survival, and sadly some just don't make it. I attended 2 funerals already, both deaths premature. It seems to be a common occurence and people just continue on with their lives. Sigh..