A Blessing on Your House...

One of the rituals of Filipino life – that I didn’t expect to experience, because I am not in homestay, and because I am in the city – is the blessing of a house. It is not proper to live in a house that has not been blessed. Prayers are said, and a priest comes and sprinkles holy water in every corner of the house. Important guests hold candles, one throws coins for the others to catch, and after the blessing there is a feast. The building where I live was blessed this morning (now I have even more reason not to want to move to the place where they were originally going to put me – first, this is more accessible. Second, I have settled in. Third, now it is blessed!). The address is 88 and today is 8/8, so even though they have owned the building for a while, it was a good time for a blessing. It certainly worked out for me – I had the priest sprinkle some holy water in my room. Can’t hurt, right?

Then I went out on my own for the first time (by the way, there is a name in Tagalog for that constant companion that Hanna was and maybe still is to me – kasama. They really can’t understand that sometimes Americans want to be alone!). To the Mall of Asia, which someone said might be the biggest mall in all of Asia. Now that I have been to the hypermarket, where I wanted to go in the first place to get my settling-in things, I have decided to embrace the malls (I now have to work on embracing the lunch options at the office building where I work – the best I could do yesterday was a tuna sandwich – a minute amount of tuna on soft white bread). Met up with my warden, who lives in a province nearby – but it might be easier for her to get to downtown Manila than for me; it certainly is easier for her than for the PCRV men, but they came too, as did Beryl, a new PCRV who was still waiting for her visa so she arrived a week after the six of us. She volunteered in Moldova and has done extensive disaster preparedness work; she’ll be with Save the Children, but not in Metro Manila. All of us had lunch, and then “the boys” and I had ice cream, and then Charlie, Jonathan and I took a walk by Manila Bay. The water is gray and dirty, but it was still nice to be by the water. Manila Bay! The battle for Manila Bay was fought in 1898; it included Dewey’s famous line, “you may fire when ready, Gridley.”

While working on my movie I looked at the current Peace Corps Response openings. I saw one opening for a marketing person – marketing a tourist resort in Jamaica. Gee, I’d consider something like that! It will be filled before I leave here, but I wonder what openings there will be in six months? Of course, I will also be looking for real jobs….

An unfortunate consequence of Cory Aquino’s death is the oft-played (and therefore stuck-in-the-mind), “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree.” I heard it in the MegaMall the other day (see, embracing the malls). Oh, the MegaMall also has a store with Filipino artisan items, so now I have an idea of what’s available. I am sure I will want some Filipino touches in the imaginary apartment (Moroccan rugs and pottery, Thai and Lao table runners, and Filipino home décor?) Of course, I’d rather buy from artisans directly, but I don’t know if I will meet any. Were there any orange and black traditional clothes? You may have to wait until next June to find out! I am told that one can get great deals on pearls here – place your orders now!