Daily Report: Epril's Birthday And Lots Of Things

Today was Epril's birthday. She headed out to Jasaan in the late morning while I stayed at home and worked, joining her later in the afternoon.

Epril's first stop of the day was a visit to some relatives' house and a chapel out in the jungle. It looked like a very nice walk from the photos she took, and there were some pretty vistas... but hot and a bit of a climb. Maybe next time I'll go.




After that in the late afternoon and early evening (after I arrived) was a street dancing competition in Jasaan as part of the Katubigan Festival celebrations. The Katubigan Festival is a local fiesta celebrating water, and The Immaculate Conception. Filipino street dancing consists of large groups of dancers, known as "tribes" who put on brightly-colored costumes (some traditional, some more syncretic, and some just plain fanciful). Then, with drum and bugle accompaniment, a 10-minute choreographed dance/march/pageant is put on. These tribes come from around the region to compete, and apparently have different dances for different fiestas: Today's dances all had The Virgin Mary feature as a central subject. Unfortunately, the internet has no information available on the history of this part of Filipino culture.

(Epril and I snuck up to the Mayor's viewing platform where I filmed one of the tribes, and to say hi to Hizzoner. Unfortunately the giant field lights were directly across the field from the official rostrum, and glaring right in our eyes, and that washed out the video entirely, so the video below is a second video filmed from the sidelines. And, for the love of your ears, turn down your volume when you click on the video below. I called them bugles, but that is a very extreme euphemism for 20 the world's loudest bamboo goose calls blowing in unison.)


Epril can't have a birthday
without flowers. First words
out of her mouth this morning:
"Where's my flowers?"After the street dancing, it was back to the In-Laws for Epril's birthday dinner of pancit and chicken. Epril had purchased a "Red Ribbon" chocolate cake in Cagayan on her way out to Jasaan, and it was quite literally one of the best chocolate cakes I have had in years, layered with marscapone and a hint of cherry jelly.

Mike Bird has been working on his pizza recipe, so after dinner, it was over to his house to sample his latest attempt. Not too bad really. I might have to start making my own.


After that, Epril, kid sister Inday, older sister Susan, and myself went down to the basketball courts where there was a singing competition starting. We didn't stay around to listen. Instead, we went off to a local karaoke bar and had something to drink. There were two groups of guys there: There was a group of gay guys who sang great and were hysterically funny. Even not speaking Visayan, I still was laughing. Epril and her sisters had tears rolling from laughing so hard. The other group of guys were some straight guys who took turns singing with the gay guys, and they sang great too... and had some great music taste: Mostly old and uncommon Beatles songs and other hits from the 60s. Lots of fun.

From there, it was off to another beauty pageant. This was the same folks who invited me to judge in the last 2 pageants, but they didn't invite me this time. Apparently many of the same girls are in the pageants over and over again, and the show's director didn't think it would be sporting to have me judge the same girls over and over again. (This pageant had 10 girls, 3 of whom were in the competition from 2 weeks ago.)


Zax Restobar is a great place to go
out to in Cagayan De Oro on Saturday
nights. There is a good crowd of
expatriates hanging out, and there are
cheap drinks and good food, and of
course some spectatular music mostly
of from the 60s and 70s. Mambo and
Salsa also are popular, with several
dance enthusiasts taking to the floor
to show off their repertoire of moves.At about 10:00, Epril and I left Jasaan and went back to Cagayan De Oro, where we joined all of our friends at Zax for some live music and dancing. Bennie and Nelson were there, and we all had a good time. Elmer the Nance was up on stage entertaining the crowd as usual: He was telling some humorous story (not in English) about how he was sending mobile phone credit to his bandmate's boyfriend's phone in order to get his affection. (He's always chasing after the straight guys.) After that, of course, was some of the most fantastic live music Cagayan De Oro has to offer. It was the second time tonight we got comic relief and musical pleasure from Mindinao's gay community.

Epril and I were finally back home at 1:00 a.m. A very long day.

(Turn down the volume!)