nanay and tatay

I have been living with my host family for3 days now, they are so nice. I have my own room, pink decorated in hello kitty, and an electric fan, which they are very proud of. My nanay (mother) and tatay (father) are both retired, so they are at home alot, and they are always trying to teach me things . . . but most of the time i have no clue what they are talking about, so i find myself nodding and saying "sige" (OK) alot. I am on my 2nd day of Ilonggo class; it is nothing like spanish - i'm so screwed. I have learned my greetings, and how to say i don't understand -- "hindi ako ka intyende", I have been using that alot. Philippino's don't eat vegetables, so going into my host family as a vegitarian was hard, but they are trying. They keep saying vegetables need meat to be palliateable. So I was teaching my nanay to cook only vegitables, but she kept adding more butter everytime I turned around, saying this will make it palliateable. My tatay would not try the vegetables - he said they were not food. I find most Filipino's spend their day either eating or thinking about what they are going to eat, or telling you about a dish they are going to make you. They have told everyone about the meatless veggies, and everyone laughs so hard and points at me. We got to meet the mayor of our town today, his office has AC, so that was a nice treat. AC here is different, it is only wall units. Only the rich have them, but even they can not afford to run them. Every day we have a "brown out" -- the electricity goes out for an hour or so, and we sweat with out the electric fan. I went to catholic mass with my nanay on Sunday. The church is open, so there were dogs and birds running about all through church, no one seemed to notice or even care. A couple of dogs came in and peed on the pulpit, and no one seemed to notice -- so life here definately has a different set of rules or at least standards. My house has one CR Comfort room, the toilet and shower are connected. I fill a bucket with water and pour it over myself with a smaller bucket. It's really not that bad. There is no hot water, but in this heat who could really take a hot shower?!!! I should have brought more books, I have alot of down time with nothing to do, but sit in front of my electric fan -- so that I don't die. If you all think that Florida is hot and muggy, man, this is a whole new level of hot and muggy -- i would give anything for that right now. i love the phone calls and emails, so keep them coming . . . love you all, Lindsey