It was raining quite hard so I was staying in my room and reading about Mindanao, which is the big island at the south of the Philippines. The guide book said that it gets less rain then the rest of the country and that they never get typhoons there. I didn’t realize that at that very moment that is what was happening in Mindanao. The region that is not use to tropical storms, was having a typhoon and received more than the usual amount of rain for the whole month of December, in just 12 hours; causing the rivers to surge down the mountains at night, catching people while they slept. Sadly, mud slides and the raging river took many lives, the death toll was very high. Even when I became aware of how bad the storm had been, I didn’t realize that this news had gone around the world, so I didn’t post a story right away. Friends and family were getting worried and asking on Face Book if anyone knew if I was okay and where I was. Fortunately I had just spoken to my sister a day or two before, so the word got around that I wasn’t in Mindanao. Still everyone was relieved when they heard from me. The other islands in the region including the one I was on, had received a lot of rain and the coastal areas had had some problems. If the storm had come just a few days later, I might have been there, ironically having gone there to escape the rain.
On the lighter side. I went to a festival where children of all different ages were doing a dance performance. Some of them were really good. I also went to a Taoist Temple, where four girls in their early teens approached me. At first they were asking me questions and clearly trying to practice their English. After a while they wanted to show me their school so I went with them. They lived at a Baptist boarding school. They introduced me to their head minister (?), he was a very nice guy who had actually lived in New Mexico (where I live) for a couple years. After talking with him for a while the girls gave me a tour of the place. Then they introduced me to a woman who worked there, and she tried to convert me. No it didn’t work, after a few minutes of that I said goodbye to the girls and left.
The Philippino’s are similar to Americans in that the malls were jam packed with people Christmas shopping.
