Marissa and I went to the hospital last week for what is called a 4-D sonogram. The 4th dimension is represented by time, of course. It’s a video.
The photos are all outtakes from video, are all included in the video
On December 1, 2007 we celebrated the 1st birthday of Alessandra Abarquez Valles, my niece by Ryan (Marissa’s brother) and Charis his lovely wife. The same party was largely a wedding reception for Marissa’s youngest brother, Mario “Jojo”, Jr., and his lovely bride Jenny Alingig, who is now also a Valles.
We had a blast with two lechon baboys and a professional musician to keep us rocking. I met a lot of new family from Jenny’s family.
The Wedding Reception and Birthday Party Photo Album speaks for itself.
This Wedding Reception and Birthday Party Video is 20 MB and 18 minutes long.
This Wedding Reception and Birthday Party Video is only 7 MB and 18 minutes long. It’s a lower resolution but looks almost as good.
Debutante Charmaine (”Cheny” or “Maine”) Pallugna, the niece of my attorney and friend, Joe Pallugna, had her coming-of-age party this past Sunday and I and my wife were invited.
I have been to six or seven weddings in The Philippines now, and to a three funerals, but this was only the 2nd Debut party I have been to and the previous one was just the week before this one.
While 18th birthday “debut” (pronounced in in France and America as “day-bue” is pronounced here as “dee-boo”) parties are not very common in America, except upon the social elite and the wannabes, I suppose they are not so common here either among the vast poor population, but I suppose I do not tend to hang out with the vast poor and thus am exposed to more of these than I would be in America.
I do not know that I can adequately describe what happens, but the first part of the ceremony was religious, almost like being in church. We prayed, sang hymns, listed to a sermon, sand some more hymns, prayed some more, and then a little more just to make sure. The Pallugna’s are protestant, belonging The Church of God, which is really not too common in The Philippines where 85% to 90% of the population is Catholic. I have not been to a Catholic celebrated debut and do not even know if they have them.
The debut party was held at a place called “The Party Venue”, quite adequately named.. Basically, this is a place created for events just as this. After the religious part of the ceremony, we feasted on lechon (whole roasted pig), spaghetti, fried chicken, and some other favorites before getting down to the actual debut part of the program.
Friends of Cheny got up and gave “testimonials” about her. Most of this was in Visayan and I’m still pretty weak in picking up much of that, but as Marissa explained it to me, Cheny’s friends we telling us all that Cheny was the first to say, “hey, let’s cut class”, or “hey, let’s go party”. I’m not saying she cuts a lot of classes, but I was under the impression a lot of people thought she was fun to be around.
Perhaps because of the religious nature of the event, there was no alcohol served. I need to thank Don Livingston for remedying that situation. He had two cases of San Miquel Pilsen left over from birthday party the week before, and brought one case of cold ones. I was lucky enough to get three of them.
After Cheny gets roasted by her friends, then there is the “18 Roses” ceremony, where she dances with 17 young men, potential suitors, then finally with her father. If the father had not been, then an uncle or older brother would have sufficed. The 17th young man would have been her boyfriend, if she had one. However, this hot little Filipina princess is not taken and is now of the age of consent, and no boyfriend danced with her before her father, from what I understood.
Next comes the 18 candles ceremony which is the lighting of 18 candles by females in attendance, each of which makes a wish for the debutante’s future. They wished for things such as a nice love life, no hurt feelings in the future relationships, for wisdom to deal with future problems, good health forever, for good and obedient children, and all the other unobtainables.
We then fade to the opening of gifts and after that the closing of the ceremony. I took photos the pretty much the whole time, seeing that this was my first time at something like this, and being a friend of the Pallugna’s and not seeing a lot of other cameras flashing, I thought it my due to do my best to record the event.
I hope Cheny will approve of what I wrote about her as I eat at her father’s restaurant almost every day, and she often serves me BBQ pork sticks and San Mig Light, and I hope she will not begin to spit on my food, so I will give her the chance to edit this post, and make sure she approves of it.
Mostly I took still shots because the lighting was not really good, and that’s why the photos did not all come out well focused and color balanced. These shots were taken on a now ancient Sony DSC-F717. The videos also.
Filipina Debut Video 155kpbs, 3.67 MB, 3:18 minutes, 320×240
Filipina Debut Video 58kpbs, 1.23 MB, 3:18 minutes, 160×120
Filipina Princess Debutante Party Video Photo Gallery.
Wak waks are the equivalent of the American Bogyman, a legendary ghostlike monster that haunts the dreams and feeds the fears of children.
Since Wak waks can sense a pregnant woman and will come and steal the live fetus, Marissa has put bullets in the windows of our house to ward them off. I can attest to the fact that it works, too. Not a single Wak wak has tried to get into our house and steal our baby.
It makes me wonder what was used to ward off Wak waks before bullets came into existence. Did Filipinas put a knife or an arrow in the window?
The morning of Wednesday, September 26, 2007, Teresa found out that the horse fighting in Conception would not happen until Thursday, and since I was determined to only go to the village of Conception one time, we decided to wait until Thursday for the trip up the mountain.
So instead we toured the mini-zoo at MOAP, and then changed hotels, going to Rhovics, in Oroquieta, because they have a nice swimming pool and restaurant, and most importantly, they have free WiFi, so that I could get some work done. The Deluxe rooms were P1000 a night (about $22).
160 x 120 55kbps Rhovics Video 13.7 MB, 40 minutes
320 x 240 158kbps Rhovics Video 40.1 MB, 40 minutes
On our way to the remote tribal village of Conception, in the province of Misamis Occidental, and inside the Mount Malindang National Park, we stopped at MOAP (Misamis Occidental Aquamarine Park) to spend the night and take our dinner, which is in the municipality of Sinacaban.
This park is in an estuary area, full of mangrove brackish swamp, and it’s fish production is supplemented by an active fish breeding program. The MOAP hatchery breeds lobster, fresh water prawns, tilapia, hito, crabs, abalones and kapinan.
They also have some captive sea turtles and porpoises at a not too distant island, but we had Conception on our minds and did not have time to go to Dolphin Island and swim with the porpoises. They also have a mini-zoo, and a small ostrich farm.
Misamis Occidental Aquamarine Park Photo Gallery.
Jil Wrinkle is one of my blog readers, which he found by searching on some as yet undisclosed keyterms (I should ask him what search term he used to find my blog, but I don’t blog for keyterms, but since I do SEO, it would be interesting to know what he searched for to find my blog). He came to Cagayan de Oro City to meet his online girlfriend. Jil is no novice to Asia. He has lived in Pattaya, Thailand for many more years than I have lived in The Philippines.
This is a photo of Jil and Epril in front of the Flower Market, which is is front of the Cagayan de Oro Cathedral.
Pattaya, Thailand, is a lot like Angeles City on Luzon, about an hour’s drive North from the outskirts of Metro-Manila, that is, there are lots of girlie clubs and the city had over 800,000 foreigners visitors there last year, and it is mainly a sex haven type of city. There are lots of sexy Thai chicks there that can be had for the the night or the hour, for very low rates, compared to American and European, as well as Japanese and Korean rates. While prostitution is illegal in Pattaya, it is largely tolerated; that is, paid for cheap sex with hot chicks is the main reason the city is so popular. Stopping it would bring an end to in one of the most prosperous city business models in Thailand. Please note that Pattaya also has the largest gay population in all of Thailand. So, this is not just a detestation spot for hetro-men.
Jil has had relationsips with multiple Thai chicks and he talks about it on his blog, that he and a lot of other foreigners “farang” from Pattaya, Thailand, were opting to bring Filipinas back to Thailand with them as their companions because Thai chicks just do not care for them. They will ride the meal ticket for as long as they can, but that’s all they are in it for. The Westerner will always be “farang”, not of the real people.
Filipinas are different. My hair gets brushed in the morning while I check my email. Coffee appears on my desk as if by magic. Sometimes I even get woken up, when I have an appointment, in the most pleasing of ways. (Jil likes to wake up with a foot massage). I think I’ll have Marissa’s younger brothter, Jojo (or Mario, Jr.)
teach her foot massage. He’s an accomplished masseuse, and putting in for his international mariner’s license, having spent the last year putting in his apprenticeship aboard Filipino passenger ships. My car gets washed every morning before I get up, and the garage gates are opened for me when leaving and arriving at my house. I don’t have to ask for it, it is just done. My dozen pair of shoes are always clean and ready to wear. In the morning a fresh pair of underwear is set out beside my razor.
I was supposed to meet Jil at Pryce Plaza at 2 PM, but when I arrived (on World Standard Time), he had not yet checked in, so I left a business card with my Filipino cell phone number, and before I could get across the Carmen Bridge, I got a call from Jil from the main desk at Pryce Plaza, and Jil tells me that he was glad I had photos of my Isuzu Vehicross on my blog because he saw me leaving as he was arriving.
I turned around almost as fast as I did for my attorney, Joe Pallugna, and headed back to Pryce Plaza, where Jil was still checking in to a very nice room with separate sleeping and living quarters, and had a Pyrceless view of Cagayan de Oro City. Epril had a chaperon of two other very pretty girls who were her relatives. I had offered to take Jil for a quick tour of the city, and we quickly headed out for a trip to the cathedral where I stopped so that Jil could buy some roses for Epril.
Jil’s itinerary for the trip included visiting the parents of Epril in Jasaan, about 30 km from Cagayan de Oro City, nearly an hour’s drive. Jil was doing the pamanhikan thing and I advised him to bring a lechon baboy (roasted whole pig) with him.
The reason he came to The Philippines to find a girl he writes about on Jil Wrinkle’s Blog.
Al-Jedidiah Aquino married his long time girlfriend, Ann, this past September 9, 2007, and I was proud to attend. The wedding was in Davao it it was the first time I ever when there, so the trip itself was a lot of interest. I wrote about the drive to Davao in a Kia Picanto on my other blog.
I posted a photo gallery of Ann and Jeedo’s wedding and put up all the photos I had, even some not-so-good ones.
I’ve uploaded a 25 MB Video of Ann and Jeedo’s wedding. This is 160 x 120, and is about 68 minutes long, 55 kbps.
For those with fat connections, here’s a 75 MB Video of Ann and Jeedo’s wedding, it is 320 x 240 and is also 68 minutes long, 158 kbps.
I did not get a chance to see much of Davao, which was the only shortcoming of the trip. It was just Marissa, Gen Saar, and I on the trip down, but Gus decided to ride back with us and it was a good chance to spend some time with him. We made the trip to Davao, non-stop, in 4 hours and 20 minutes, from my house to the hotel. 302.5 km I think, some of it over torturous roads, most of it mountains and curves. The trip home was at a more leisurely pace, at 6 hours and 55 minutes of driving time, from hotel to the house.
Tom is, like, well, my best friend in The Philippines. Tom is from St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and he came to The Philippines to find his asawa (wife). Tom was previously married in American for 23 faithful years, but when his kids had grown up and left the house, and it was just he and his wife left in the house, and they worked different shifts, like ships passing in the night, it seems they no longer had common goals (the kids) and they divorced.
Tom is one sweet guy. I like going to the KTV Bars (strip clubs), and Tom does not like them. Tom met two Filipinos over the Internet before coming to The Philippines, but they didn’t work out. Tom stayed with one in Iligan for about 4 or 5 months, but he told me this girls father would go through all his stuff right in front of him, going through his closet and stuff. Pretty weird. It didn’t work out with her and he ended up getting death threats from her brothers and other relatives.
Tom escaped that to end up with the 2nd girl he’d met online, only to find out she was bi-polar, and while he spent almost all his time with her, if he just went to the store or something she would start texting him that he was out looking for other girls, and Tom’s just not like that. Her jealousy finally drove him away from her. Plus she liked to break things, like slamming cell phones into the concrete floor.
Since then, Tom has been looking and fearing he would have to leave The Philippines, but just recently the immigration law for foreigners was changed so that they can renew their visas for 16 months instead of just 12 months, which means Tom can stay here until January instead of having to leave this month of September.
Tom worked as a security guard at the Missouri State Mental Hospital for 20 some years, where they keep forensic patients (crazy people that kill other people). Tom is retired from that position and has both a State and Federal medical dispensation based on the fact that he has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. This is a rare disease to start with, but Tom apparently has a very slow form of it. Most people diagnosed with it die within a couple of years. Tom shows some nerve degradation, but it is much slower than most people with ALS. There is little research being done on ALS because it effects so few people. Researchers would rather work on cancer cures because it will save so many more lives. There is no treatment or cure for ALS and it is terminal. There is no escape, not even on the horizon.
Because I am so fond of Tom, I thought I should try to find him a Filipina, a Filipina Princess, much like my own wife. My wife is dedicated to me and it shows. Tom needs someone like that. So, I asked Marissa, my wonderful wife, to think about the people she knew and see if she could find some Filipina that would be suitable for Tom. A couple of months passed and Tom is being stalked by these predator Filipinas that just will not give up, sending loving text messages sometimes, followed by threatening text messages later.
Eventually, Marissa was able to get in touch with her best friend from college, her classmate who also holds a degree in social work. Marissa never took the board exam in order to be able to work as a social worker, but her friend did. Her name is Teresa, and she is a social worker in the tribal village of Conception, in the Province of Misamis Occidental. Last weekend Teresa was able to return to Cagayan de Oro. She came here to meet Tom. When I texted Tom that there was a girl here that had traveled many hours just to come here and meet him, I got a response that said “Sorry Michael, I’ve already met a special lady and I am not interested in meeting anyone new”. It turns out that text message was not from Tom but from one of the predators, a girl he had only known for three days who had gotten hold of his cell phone.
Of course, I replied, “what the hell are you talking about, I saw you just 24 hours ago and you were still looking, what could have changed so dramatically in the past 24 hours?” Tom never received that message, because the predator received it and deleted it.
Eventually, I was able to get through to Tom and make the actual introduction to Teresa. She, like my wife, is 24 years old. Unlike my wife though, Teresa has never been kissed before, she has never had a boyfriend. No man has ever touched her breasts or grabbed her ass. She is pure, and comes from a conservative Filipino family.
In fact, the night I introduced Tom to her, we did not bring her home until about 11 PM and when we got to her brother’s house, a PNP officer, he had gone into town to retrieve her. We waited his return and while he did not know any of the lower ranking PNP that I knew, he did know who Colonel Trampe and Colonel Montalba were, and he settled down quickly when he saw my very pregnant wife, and realized that she was a classmate of Teresa’s from college. I should take this guy shooting with me. I am going to Iligan this Sunday for Level 1 ISPA shoot-fest, maybe I can get him to go with me and I will sponsor him, and introduce him to my cousin, gow Ansell Ladra, the local competitive pistol shooting champion.
Next week I am planning to take Tom, Marissa, and either Marissa’s mother or father to the village of Conception, which is inside the Mount Malindang National Park, and about six hours drive fromo here. This used to be NPA territory, but Colonel Jet Villacorte, the PNP Provencial Director for the province of Misamis Occidental tells me that there is little NPA activity in that area now and that I probably do not need an armed escort to visit that village. Alternatively, I know some military people in the area that can provide an escort. Generally, in The Philippines, the military guys look down on the PNP, because the PNP are mainly assigned to municipalities and have cushy jobs, while the military is out in the bush in engaged in deadly armed conflict.
I would much prefer to go without an escort, but being unfamiliar with the area I am dependent upon the opinions of others as to whether I should have an armed escort or not. The problem with having a sanctioned escort is that they are unlikely to hold-off an armed NPA patrol, and that the situation will likely escalate to deadly force and we’ll end up being the victims of it. But for bandits and robbers the escort would do the trick. That is, I’d likely be better off by myself if we encounter NPA, but in a bad fix if we encountered plain old bandits, as I’m limited to the one licensed handgun of Marissa. If we encounter an NPA patrol it would be overwhelming force and we would just give up, and probably survive a kidnapping, but if I have a PNP or military escort they would likely engage and we’ll all be killed. Whereas if we are approached by simple bandits, the PNP or Military escort would also likely engage and we would survive. While I am a champion with the pistol, I would prefer to survive and not engage with either.
I sent a text message to Colonel Jet Villacorte, who is the Provencial Director of the PNP for Misamis Occidental, and he said he could provide me an escort, but not next week as they have an inspection from HQ and he cannot spare the men then. I know another guy from the military who could also provide me an escort, but there’s a problem with having an armed escort and that is that if there is trouble it is pretty much guaranteed that there will be a firefight, a shoot out.
Also, the problem is not really NPA, but bandits. I am told that likely I could go to this village once, if no one there knew I was coming, and maybe I could go a second time, but the third or fourth time I would be set up and kidnapped for ransom. My attorney, Joe Pallugna, told me not to go, but I argued with him that I could get an escort and be safe. He told “go ahead and go, but do not be upset with me when I make money from negotiating your release from the kidnappers and become famous for obtaining the release of the foreigner, and my name is on the TV and in the newspapers along with you. Please make sure to leave me your account numbers before you go, and I will get you released. Go!”
Teresa is a pure girl. She’s never had a boy friend and she has never been kissed before. Her boobs and butt never molested. In fact, the photos you see in this photo gallery are the photos of the first time she ever held hands with a man.
Tom tried to kiss her in this video, but I later told Tom that before he kisses her he must ask permission, and if permission is granted he must take a moment and look around and make sure he remembers everything around him; what she is wearing , what he is wearing, the place that they are at, because one day she will ask him if he remembers their first kiss, and by God, he had better remember all the details or she will not talk to him for a week.
Photogallery of Tom and Teresa’s first date.
Short video of Tom and Teresa’s first date.
Tom has probably not kissed a lot of girls. Having been married, faithfully, to his first wife for 23 years, but still, to kiss a new girl, to him, is not a big thing, but for Teresa, the first time she kisses Tom, it will be her first kiss ever. I hope they both remember, forever. I wish you both the best possible future.
On September 18, 2007, I accompanied Marissa to the OB-GYN and we had a 2nd ultrasound of the baby.
Note the erect penis of the 5 month gestational boy. They say he is at 23 weeks on the 40-week pregnancy calender, but that is calculated from the last menstruation, not from time of conception, so the baby is actually at about 21 weeks gestation.
This is a photo of his face. It is a bit hard to make out at first, but the bright white spot is on his forehead, and he has his right arm raised as if saluting. Perhaps he will be a soldier.
The heartbeat is at 167 beats per minute. Normal, the doctor says. Seems a bit fast for me.
Again, note the erect penis. The doctor said this is perfectly normal. I would say, “like father, like son”. We can’t tell at this point is he’s going to have an Irish sized wanger like me or a Filipino sized wanger yet, but I’m hoping he will be able to knock some guts loose by the time he’s in his late teens, just like his papa.
The boy’s weight was calculated at 3 ounces above average, and the standard deviation is 11 ounces, so he is about 0.27 standard deviations above average weight, which is perfectly fine by me.
I’m thinking about naming the boy “Horace O’Donal Turner, III”, after my father and my brother. My pop being Horace O’Donal Turner, Sr., and my brother being Horace O’Donald Turner, Jr. While “Horace” would be a weird name in America, it would be perfectly normal in The Philippines. Still, I think we would nickname him “Race”. Race Turner. His updated expected delivery date is January 6, 2008.
He had five fingers on each hand, and five toes on each foot, and I could not see any webbed toes (hoping for a champion swimmer), but I can accept a perfectly normal child.