Last Sunday, we went to Fang-orao. Fang-orao is a part of Malicong we girls hadn’t seen yet. We wanted to go earlier but they were having a t-er which is a Pied Piper of Hamelin sort of ritual. So we were very excited.
We started off by missing the jeepney. When the trike dropped us off, we at first thought we had directed him to the wrong place. We found out that the jeepney we had been hoping to catch at 8 had left at 7:30 and there was no other jeepney in the morning. Dad was upset because he hates being late and he was scheduled to preach. So, I sat and waited while he texted the pastor and Mom asked trike drivers how much it would cost to go to Malicong.
I thought a great many random things in that time. I watched a cute three-year-old girl playing with her grandmother and a pair of yellow sunglasses. Mom found out that both her parents are working abroad in the Middle East. We didn’t take pictures because we didn’t want to seem like tourists. Someone had died nearby because they had a tarp shade and chairs out and many people had gathered. They were singing a funeral hymn or chant. I wondered what the words meant, whether it had a Christian or pagan meaning. The music was beautiful, sad and peaceful. A troop of boy scouts jogged by us, wearing white shirts and green bandanas. I then admired some wooden houses across the street. It is so rare to see wood instead of concrete due to termites. I wonder when they were built. I would like to have wood in my house. When it is polished, it feels good on your feet and is never so cold as tile. It has such a warm, welcoming color. I looked up and thought about how very blue the sky was.
The pastor replied that he was on his way to pick us up. We rode in his comfortable car along a beautiful road. I think that the road is one of the most beautiful in Mountain Province. It is lined with trees and greenery which I love.
Because we were so late, the pastor asked whether we would be willing to take the narrow shortcut. It was about four-inches wide and ran through a peaceful and beautiful part of Malicong I hadn’t seen. I much prefer the balance-beam path compared to steep stairs. At the end of the path, it was covered with slippery orange clay. Then we used our hands and feet to climb up the stairs cut in the clay hillside.
We girls taught the kids and then went back to the church to listen to the rest of Dad’s Bible overview. At the end, an old woman named Rita asked Jesus to be her lord and was bold enough to come to the front of the church and say so with the help of a friend.
Who knows what will happen this Sunday?
Love,
Adriana
