Invitation to the "Provinces"

Today Jackie's uncle invited me to go to "the Provinces" with him early Saturday morning and come back on Sunday.  He is her paternal uncle.  He is retired Philippine military, and like everyone else in the Belza family, he is a very nice person.  When you have a Filipino friend, you become a friend to the entire family.  He has needed to borrow the motorcycle I bought for Jackie quite a bit recently, and apparently it has made life a lot easier for him to be able to use it.  He doesn't seem to have problems with it falling over like the girls do.  I was a little reluctant until he mentioned swimming in the ocean.  I'm guessing it will also be quieter..yea!

Jackie says there will be many transfers to make the trip, and that I will need to take food with me because the bus will only stop for very short bathroom breaks.  Boy am I glad I got my old man's bladder problems fixed when I had my cancer nuked.

Here, "the Provinces" refers to anyplace outside Metro Manila, but it usually implies the family home village or farm.  Jackie says her father came to Manila at age 16 to try to improve his quality of life, so I'm guessing we will be going to the family hometown.  I am pretty excited about this because it is the kind of experience you can't buy.  You can't see this aspect of a country sitting at the Hilton pool or in the tourist district, or even at the "cultural center" where everything is an authentically staged performance.  It gives me hope that I really am a good guy because the whole family seems to like me, and it doesn't feel like it is directly tied to the things I bought Jackie or the economic benefits my supporting her for a few months have given the family.

My lack of linguistic skill is driving me crazy.  I hate just being able to nod and smile.  On the other hand, I used to talk too much anyway.  I just wish I could understand what people are saying while I'm listening.

Friday 07/09 10AM
Well, it turns out the trip was not a definite thing, which is just as well, since my stomach is not behaving today.  I think I may not be drinking enough water.  It is so hot, it's easy to get dehydrated.

Automatic time stamps insist on US dates and times.  It is a lot of work to edit each one, so I'm going to start putting a local date/time at the start of an entry.  I am exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight time.
For example, 10AM on July 10th here is 10PM on July 9th in the US Eastern time zone.