Daily Report: Jungle Wedding

Today, Epril's cousin Emilyn married her long-time boyfriend, Mike Bird from Alaska, out in Jasaan at the Basamanggas Resort. It was a nice, albeit brief, civil ceremony presided over by a judge.


Mike and Emilyn getting married.I had never seen a civil ceremony before, and thought that it would be the same "format" as a Christian wedding, with "Here Comes The Bride" and all that... just without the Bible, more or less. It wasn't. Instead, the bride and groom sat down at a table while the judge gave a speech. Then, Emilyn and Mike each gave vows (which was a supereragatory addition not required by law apparently) and then signed some papers. Then everybody bum-rushed the buffet table.


Epril holding a nuclear bomb...
A clutch of nightshade...
A sarin nosegay...
A club to bonk me on the head.There were the 3 or 4 traditional little wedding parlor games, including the tossing of the bouquet: Five or six single girls (including Epril) stood a few meters behind the bride waiting to catch the bouquet to see who would be the next girl betrothed. At the last second, Epril took three steps forward, Emelyn gently flipped the bouquet over her shoulder and it plopped right into Epril's hands after traveling a total aerial trajectory of about 2 feet. "It was rigged! It was fixed!" I shouted, as well-wishers clapped me on the shoulders.

Anyway, after the wedding was finished, it was back to Cagayan De Oro, and over to Ron's house for the evening, where a fellow from Oregon named Chris had brought a bunch of beautiful foodstuffs from America, including cheese mustard spread, pickles, salmon, and sausages... and also made a gorgeous rum punch with mango and pineapple juice. Ron has just about finished his nice cliff-side nipa hut behind his house looking out over the bay. A group of us sat out on the newly-laid floor and drank punch and watched the lights of the city below.