Edmund Rice Philippine Mission Diary - 7
Hi all and welcome to hot and muggy Davao. I am told things will cool down a bit in the next few weeks though I guess this is only relatively speaking. It has been close to 35 degrees for the last few days though we have been getting monsoonal like rains on the occasional evening, which causes the nights to be far more benign, “Salamat Sa Diyos”. I am reliably informed that December and January are the cooler months. This simply means that the 
average temperature will dip below 30 degrees. Joy Joy! Despite the troubles in the South West region, I realised that Davao is supposed to be the most attractive city to live. It is certainly the most peaceful and liveable city in Mindanao. We have had one little earthquake here in Davao since I have been here, which I felt while shopping at Gaisano in the city several weeks ago.
Culture is a part of our learning experience so our trips out and about are very important. I like walking around the local area and seeing just how people live. I pass by many tethered 
animals. This may be explained by the fact that the animal owners don’t own the land where they live therefore they cannot let them roam free. From what I have gathered land ownership here is limited to a few people. Many people seem to rent the place where they lived. There is a little building near our school which is a rent collecting centre. The traffic gets heavy daily. There is a wide range in the standard of living. The large percentage of the population is poor, yet somehow people just get on with life and seem contented enough. English is the medium of instruction in schools. The school children 
I meet are very keen to practice their English and this makes it difficult for me to articulate the Cebuano language. Any Caucasian person that these children meet is tended to be seen as an American (being called “Joe”) and any black person African. Families are quite large, being a catholic country may explain this, and in fact majority of the population is below 18 years old. As Carl often noticed there are kids everywhere we go. Hospitality is a custom observe wherever we go. We have to be vigilant lest we over do the food offered to us. Carl has the right idea as he walks it off each day. Today, I bought some walking shoes so I will have to join him.
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The language studies continue to progress steadily and my latest story is really told against myself. Sometimes, as my friends back home could well imagine, I get things a little mixed 
up. Frank was trying to ask me questions in Cebuano about our local white horse (as shown in the picture). At one stage I answered him out of the question’s context, I thought it’s about the horse all dressed up in the finest clothes “isputing (a horse all dressed up)” instead of “puting kabayo (a white coloured horse)” A silly mistake to make I heard him say. Well I tell you there can be different meanings to the same word even, like for instance “Wala” (No and left) depending on where you put the emphasis. You might as well forgive me. The Cebuano Language is chock-full of these sorts of anomalies. Then of course 
there is the pitsy-pitsy; but lets not get into them as I don’t have the space or the time. Some mistakes can be very embarrassing if you make a wrong combination of words. We have a long way to go yet. Needless to say many of these hilarious moments occur in any one day which I guess lightens the task of learning just a little. I mentioned the world of affixes in my diary. These affixes attach themselves to verbs, nouns, pronouns and adjectives as well. There are 3000 of the beasts and to learn fifty of them is an achievement itself. The big move that has occurred in school is the preference by our tutor for us to speak in Cebuano. We are encouraged to speak the language as much as we can. At this stage we speak English with a spattering of Cebuano and they speak Cebuano with a spattering of English. This is a good motivation for us to communicate in Cebuano.
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The Filipino people have an affinity to bright colours as is seen in the way they dress and the way 
they adorn their transport. The motorbike is the favoured private transport though there are a surprising number of four wheel drives on the streets too. By far the bulk of the transport is taken up by motorized and non-motorized tricycles and jeepneys. There appears to be hundreds of them on the streets which cause traffic jams especially at peak-time. The tricycles in our area are nearly all named after a saint which is quaint.
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I went for a walk in my new walking shoes and came across the ice-cream man, lots of old and 
new houses and the occasional small shops. They made great photos. Unfortunately I got lost along the way but some nice people led me on the right track. The elections here are on for the barangays next week so there is much excitement in our little district. Carl was even given voting papers, which we don’t intend to use as we are not Filipino citizen. Our Australian elections are not far away either from what we have heard. I wonder whether it is producing the same sort of excitement. I doubt it.
We currently have with us Luke Quinn and Steve McLaughlin. They left Kabankalan bright and early but delays at both Bacolod and Manila caused a trip that should have taken a couple of 
hours. It turned to be a whole day affair. Welcome to the Philippines as this is not an uncommon experience. Patience is one of the many virtues we must learn from these beautiful people. After a very successful meeting we showed them some of the sights of Davao. Steve was impressed with the cleanliness and well ordered nature of the city. Thanks to Marie for being our driver for the day. We finished the day with a pleasant evening in one of the finest restaurants in Davao. They are both off to Maasin to spend a couple of days preparing the way for us when we move there in March. Bye till next time.
Yours in EdmundPeter Thrupp (cfc)
