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  • Day 38

    Guimaras village day 1

    April 23, 2018 on the Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Up at 6am ready to leave at 7am after finishing packing my bags. Met our guide Sherilyn who took us in a taxi to the boat port in Iloilo city. We then got on a boat for about 15 mins to take us over to Guimaras island which is most famous for its mangoes (even supplies the queen apparently). We then took a jeepney followed by a trike to get to Kati kati village. The translation of this is apparently to go hunting for chickens! It’s a village with 101 families in it, where everyone knows everyone. We were introduced to our host family - Mama Lucy, Papa Doy, Sherilyn (our tour guide and Mama Lucy’s daughter) and Leslie their other daughter. They have 2 sons but they were around for us to meet them at this point. We were shown round the house which was basic but maybe not quite as much as I expected. Our room has 2 beds and luckily a fan, with lots of photos of the daughters and cute posters saying I love you Mama, happy Father’s Day etc. We were given a bread snack thing which had ube paste in it and was actually really nice.
    We then changed into scrubs and were taken by trike to the local provincial hospital by Papa Doy. Here we were introduced to one of the head doctors and asked which area we would like to work in. We decided that we would stick together and try out the emergency room. Got there and were taken on a tour of the hospital. Only got as far as the operating room before being asked if we wanted to observe some surgery. We decided to stay there and saw 2 circumcisions and a hernioplasty which was really interesting. Got picked up by Papa Doy at 12 and taken back to the house for lunch. Had a pretty similar meal to what we would have in the house to be honest, plenty of rice though, seemingly for every meal!
    After lunch we had some chill time so we both decided to have a nap as we were very tired. Slept for about 90 mins and then got up to go to our afternoon activities. We were taken to the “new village” which from what I gather is where they are doing lots of new building projects to expand their village. Our host family have a house there too so we get the impression that they are reasonably wealthy compared to most of the rest of the tribe. We sat and waited for while and eventually were introduced to Marilyn who taught us how to make anklets. I made one and she made one for me as a gift which was very pretty. We were then taught how to weave baskets. The material we were using is apparently related to coconut but it reminded me lots of rattan (Indonesia). It was actually much harder than they make it look but I got the hang of it eventually. We made some beautiful looking little purse type things which apparently we can finish later in the week.
    After this we were taken to the main plaza where it seems most of the village hang out in the evenings. The older boys were all playing basketball and most of then were actually very good! We were given a pork lumpia which is a spring roll that was being cooked in the plaza and was super tasty. We saw the sunset and just hung out and chilled for a while before heading back to the house by trike. Here we had yet more food! This time chicken adobo and baked aubergine with rice which was really nice. I have a feeling I won’t ever want to see rice again after this week though!
    After dinner we chatted with Sherilyn and showed her pictures of our cats as they have some pet cats here. They also have a really cute puppy called Sparkey. I then had a bucket shower and got ready for bed. Watched some episodes of top gear and then bedtime.
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