Life is Full of Surprises

Yesterday was an amazingly busy day. Three, count them, three parties. The first party was for the Malasiquenean Organization of the SO's family. The party was in honor of the visiting mayor from Malasiqui, Pangasinan, Philippines. The mayor could not get his visa on time for the yearly Malasiqui party. Thus, he is visiting during the summer.

To reserve the spot, members of the organization was present at the picnic site at 6 o'clock in the morning of a Saturday. Yup, you can bet that he missed the Saturday morning cartoon shows. But, the FOOD!!!! The great characteristic of Pin@ys is that they know how to eat. Whether they bring catered food, or they make it themselves, or they make it on the spot, you can be rest assured that the food will be delicious.

I did not get to eat too much because I spoke with a cousin of the SO's who is getting married in a year. I had to give the college advice.

The next party, was a babyshower for one of the cousin-in-laws. The baby is due in one month. Mother and child are doing well. This will be the third child for the grandparents who also happen to be our ninong and ninang.

Now, for the great part…THE FOOD!!! Food like that is usually reserved for the binyag. But, we got lechon, kare-kare (made for me, I would like to think), spicy bagoong, sisig, and lumpiang shanghai. Wooohee!!!! For dessert, fruit salad, puto and buko salad. Can you feel your arteries hardening yet?

Now the last party was a birthday party for Tuhan. Tuhan is my money group teacher as well as the SO's martial arts master. Tuhan turned 50 this year and that is why there was a bash. Tuhan has created a community through his life. It's an amazing community filled with very interesting and very special people. In a lifetime, a person would be lucky to meet two or three of these people. Tuhan had close to fifty of them in his house.

Perhaps my favorite part of the ceremony was the promotion of Tuhan's students. The first hint was when the SO and others were asked to break boards and concrete blocks. Then as Tuhan prayed over the first set of students, I understood the transformations occurring.

The SO said that it was great that she had five years before becoming GURA in the Kamatuuran School of Kali. As a novice, there are no responsibilities, no care and no expectations. But as a GURA or GURO, the expectations and the responsibilities begin.

Woke up at 8AM. We slept at 3AM. Whew!!!