Goodbye Traptows!

Goodbye Traptows! (4 of whom are crazy Canadians the rest of which are not so crazy Canadians)

We had spent a few days with our friends from Canada in Baguio. They gave all us girls umbrellas. We needed them because it rained every afternoon there. They share the house with some of our Filipino friends who own a sari-sari store which is like a small snack store. They also live by a pool with freezing cold water. (We swam in it anyway.) They also had HOT showers. (Thank you, thank you, and thank you!) The crazy Canadian part is that Jesse and Ben are also trying to make us wrestle them and we always win! And Xander and Josh have always been crazy! We’re just teasing them you know! They were excellent hosts! They took us swimming; they showed Mom and Dad the best places to shop and Mrs. Traptow gave us books! CLAP! CLAP! HOORAY!

Home, sweet, Bontoc
We are now home. The bakery underneath us only bakes cakes not bread and meals. Our house is wonderful. We have two bathrooms; EACH one has a western style toilet. I have my own room. It has yellow walls and a horse picture on the wall. Sounds like I got lucky! We have two geckos (always a necessity in my opinion). We have a living room, a kitchen and a laundry room.
Our landlady Ata Flor is very nice. Yesterday she invited us to lunch at her bakery. She has come every day to see if we need anything. She has chickens. There is a papaya tree in the courtyard. Papaya is a year- round and very delicious fruit. Her husband teaches algebra, calculus, physics and geometry. I have a scary feeling about how this might affect my math classes.

This little family went to market….
Yesterday I saw a monkey on the top of a jeepney. No, he was not in a cage.
We went to market to get food and pots. We had two Filipino guides. Everything is sold by the kilo here. Besides food, we bought 2 buckets, several pots, and two laundry baskets. You should have seen us coming home. Two Filipino strangers asked to help though.
The rice didn’t turn out so well. We’ll have to keep trying.

Fun Facts
Yesterday I tried some food cooked in pig’s blood. It was good.

There was a lady selling snails in the market.

Monkey is an insult here.