This morning everyone woke up and took turns in the cold shower again. The whole house was in a flurry, because today was the day that we go to Bataan for the memorial services for Kuya Vic [aka Kuya Boy]. Basically every family member was going out there. This is also where Auntie Darlene is building her house, so we were all excited to be going. The van came to pick up the first batch of people, with Grace and Boober going to assist the elder family members going up the hill. We all left in the 2nd van, and Laurel and MaryAnn laughed and giggled the whole way up, pretending that they were on a rollercoaster as we went up the winding roads to Bataan. The van dropped us off at the bottom of the hill, and we all began the trek up. I later told Auntie Darlene, that this is how you know who your true friends are… if they’re willing to come back a second time! Let me just tell you, that is one rocky, steep and difficult hill to climb. Of course, we stopped several times so everyone could catch their breath… but we finally made it to the top.
Her house, when it’s finished, is going to be beautiful. With a nice sitting porch and an awesome breeze. She’s got room to expand if she ever wants to, and plenty of open land for her to garden in. The rest of the family started to arrive in waves. At one point, mom and dad and Laurel took a nap and all the kids were in the room watching them. I imagine if they had woken up to see all these little faces surrounding them, that they’d have felt much like Gulliver did when he woke up from his nap. It was cute. Milo [Michael Angelo] was making spiders fight on a stick, and had dad woken up and looked over, he’d have probably had heart failure.
The boys went out earlier and caught what they kept calling a Philippine crocodile… which turned out to be monitor lizards. They tied them up and killed them, skinned them and made a meal. At one point there was a little to-do about who was paying for them and kinda drug Boober into it, but mom stepped in and cleared everything up. I passed on the offer to eat what I kept calling the iguanas, and made sure Laurel didn’t eat any, simply for the potential salmonella factor. I met a lot of family members, many cousins! Kuya Vic’s son’s introduction was the best for me… “Hello! You look like you are my cousin!” His name was Marlo, and apparently he’s a PE teacher in Thailand, and his wife is a teacher also. He was very personable and funny and I wish I’d had the chance to talk with him more, but with the services and lunch and everyone there, it’s hard to sit and chat with anyone for long. Mom and dad found a quiet little place by a stream near Vic’s where they sat down and had lunch, and so we all kept crashing their party. We wandered around the property a bit more after dinner, and took some more pictures, then packed up and headed down the mountain to wait for the driver. I think we officially wore ourselves out, as we all managed to sleep through the night, pretty much uninterrupted, until about 6am.
