Yo-de-ley-e-ooooh Up the mountain we go!

We climbed the mountain yet again… trekking our way through the slick mud and rocks to Auntie Darlene’s house for the house blessing. Some of the same people we met the first time we went to Bataan, and a few more as well. We had a great time, as this was an occasion meant more for celebration. Dad and I went from person to person, family to family, taking pictures of everyone and their families so we could get a shot of everyone. The service for the blessing took longer than the service for the memorial of Uncle Vic, which I thought was funny. When the priest threw the coins up into the air, all the kids and adults alike were running like crazy to collect the coins. Apparently, mom had insulted the priest by questioning his credentials or something, I’m not too sure… but it was laughable, because it was a misunderstanding about a conversation between her and her uncle Dado. Boober got to ride a caribou this time around. We took lots of pictures, with the kids, the adults, the cows! We also took one really good group picture that I promised to enlarge and send a few copies of. The pig, which Boober and I named “Hamshank” tasted really good. He was too big to do an actual ‘lechon’ with, so we chopped it up and used it in various dishes… Adobo, menudo, pancit… the works. May and Jeannette made an awesome fruit salad. I thought it was delicious, but it was of course, way too sweet for dad, so we ate his! All in all, we had a great time, got some great pictures, and yet again, made our way down the mountain. We had stopped and bought some crabs at a side stand on the way to Bataan, so mom and I were looking forward to a yummy dinner of crabs!