happy easter

well, i survived easter in the philippines. it's definately nothing like the states, with girls in pretty new dresses, easter egg hunts, pink bunnies, and jelly beans. here we celebrate the entire week - "holy week", starting with holy thursday -- fasting all day, and then eating "the last supper at sundown", and there is no meat until easter. then on good friday, they do the pagtaltal, which is the reinactment of the passion. we sat through a 2 1/2 hour passion play, which was totally in ilonggo and tagalog, and couldn't understand a word of it. finally, at the ending jesus walked his cross outside and was nailed. this year it was fake nailing, they put the nails between his fingers, and just tied him up there. i'm still not sure if i was relieved or dissapointed that i sat through a 2 1/2 hour play expecting to see someone nailed, and they just faked it. they actually nailed 19 people in pampangas, manila. friday is supposed to be a day of fasting and mourning, and the priest officiating the pagtaltal told everyone to "abstain from eating" for the entire day. that was actually funny, because there were vendors selling snacks and mango shakes outside of the pagtaltal, and there was a canteen set up for lunch, so everyone was eating. then saturday, well, i'm not exactly sure what we were supposed to do on saturday, so we went to the beach. then on sunday, i just stayed home. outside my house, my neighbors were killing some goats to eat. it was horrible, i heard a loud, non-human scream and i ran to the window and there were goats strung up by their back legs hanging outside my house. the men were standing around laughing and watching the goats struggle. i asked why they were hanging the goats, they say if they hang them they work up adrenaline and it makes the meat taste sweeter, i started crying a little and had to go back inside. but a bamboo house with open windows does little to muffle the sounds. so i watched out of my window. after about 20 minutes they bled the goats and shaved of all of their fur with a big knife. little kids started to gather around and were jumping in excitement, and all i could think is that would have traumatized me when i was a kid. i remembered when i was little and there was a bird dying in our yard, my dad hit it on the head with a shovel and burried it, i went to my room and cried. but these kids were cheering and laughing at the dying goats. one kid threw rocks at them. life is definately different when you don't have frozen tyson boneless, skinless, precut chicken breasts in a bag for $7.99 from publix. so that was easter in the philippines. it was an experience, but i still prefer pretty bunnies and chocolate eggs to slaughtered goats and people nailed on the cross. so everyone eat a cadburry egg for me. yummy chocolate.