Interesting Tidbits from Today

Today I ate lunch with some of the volunteers from the Wednesday night ministry. We ate at a Filipino restaurant named Penong's. You can get unlimited rice with many meal options. Today we had barbecue chicken with rice and some kind of soup. You can get a similar meal at several other local restaurants.

The guys took a jeepney to get there while the girls all rode in a car and had arrived first. A few minutes after the guys arrived, four girls got up together and left the table. I thought, "Wow. I guess it's not just American women who go to the bathroom in groups." Now in all fairness, they may have just gone to wash their hands, which is common as many Filipinos are accustomed to eating with their hands. But still, they went in a group. And I'm not saying anything is wrong. I simply noticed that a common practice in the US also occurred here in Davao. What I do not know is if it is common here too, or if today was just a kind of coincidence.

Then while eating, I noticed what looked to be a wedding reception in a corner of Penong's. I saw someone taking pictures of a couple who were standing at a table and cutting a cake. Then they fed each other a piece of cake. So I came to the conclusion that this must be a wedding celebration. But since I know next to nothing about weddings in the Philippines, I asked the guy next to me if he thought it was a wedding celebration. He said he thought so too. I said I had been unsure as it was a Thursday, and most weddings in America are on the weekends (I guess mostly Saturday). We then discussed some typical American traditions in weddings.

I have known for some time now that Filipinos eat lots of rice. But today I saw the guy next to me eat 5 servings of rice, about 1 cup each. Now THAT is a lot of rice! He did tell me that he had not eaten breakfast, so he was hungry and would eat a lot of rice. But that's still a lot of rice! I had two servings, and I probably could have easily eaten another one, but I try to be cautious with the quantity of food that I eat here. I really don't like an upset stomach, especially here. But this just gave me a whole new perspective on how much rice a Filipino can eat.

And lastly, after going to the market for a few things, I got a ride in a pedicab (a bicycle with sidecar). I talked to the guy a little bit (some in English, but mostly in Cebuano) and found out that he has two children who were born at Mercy in 1999 and 1994. He then said something about how it is so cheap there and how he did not have to pay very much. And he had a very big smile as he said it. It was really neat for me to see someone who was blessed by the same work that Christina is able to do now. And to see how grateful he still is 10-15 years later. It was a very encouraging moment for me.