Sinulog!

Sinulog is the name of the biggest festival in the Philippines which took place two weekends ago on the neighboring island of Cebu. Mackenzie and I thought it would be fun to see a Filipino festival, so we went with a group from Volunteer for the Visayans. Little did we know that this weekend would prove to be a trip of minor disasters.

When we were talking about planning this trip with Eugene and Niki (the director of the Sponsor a Child program) we thought that everything would be pretty easy because they were taking care of the arrangements for transportation and lodging. All we had to do was show up, pay them back for everything, and enjoy the festival. We soon learned that "taking care of the arrangements" meant that they would call some friends when we arrived and make things work. We left at about 9:00 on Friday morning, took a van to Ormoc (a city on the other side of Leyte, across from Cebu) and arrived just after lunch. Our van ride cost $2. Our plan was to take the overnight ferry to Cebu which would get us there about 6 the next morning. Sadly, however, that ferry was full so we got tickets leaving the next day at 1:30 pm.

We met up with some of Niki’s friends including 2 more Filipina girls, 2 German guys, and Ton-Ton (I don’t know how to spell that) one of the regular native volunteers at the center. We spent our afternoon exploring Ormoc, taking naps, watching Wall-E, and then going out after dinner. We had a fabulous time, as this totally diverse group wandering around a city none of us lived in acting like we were 16 and carefree again. The evening was quickly over and we went to bed.

The next morning we woke up in great anticipation of getting to the festival. Little did we know that the first real disaster was quickly approaching. As Mackenzie and I were getting ready we decided to try to mix our bug sprays. I had brought several cans of aerosol bug spray that refuse to work here, so I had one bottle of regular Off (7% deet) that we were going to mix with Mackenzie’s very small bottle of 100% deet to make a decent sized bottle of fairly strong bug spray. This seemed like a really great plan until we couldn’t get the cap off of Mackenzie’s bottle. We tried in vain for a while and finally gave up. Then, while Mackenzie was trying to put the spray nozzle back on her bug spray it accidentally sprayed . . . right into my eye. I don’t know if you have ever experienced 100% deet in your eyes, but it is not pleasant. It started burning immediately and I ran to the bathroom to start flushing it out. This was made more complicated by the fact that the local water has bacteria in it, so I could only flush my eye with bottled water. While I flushed it with my nalgene of water, Mackenzie ran to the front desk and bought several more bottles. For the next fifteen minutes we flushed my eye, with Mackenzie running back to the front desk every 5 minutes for more water because she kept buying only 3 bottles at a time. The front desk lady probably thought she was insane and really really thirsty. I called my dad, who called poison control, and found out that deet can blind you, so we flushed my eye again (and made one of the German guys go buy us more water this time), chilled it with a cold washcloth, and tried to decide if we should rush me to a hospital.

After much deliberation, we came to the conclusion that there were better hospitals in Cebu if my eye felt irritated again, so we would still take the ferry and try to enjoy the festival. The ferry only took 2 hours (and only cost $10) and looked exactly like an airplane on the inside except the chairs were more comfortable and the air conditioning was on so high that I had to wear a skirt around my shoulders to keep warm because I didn’t bring a jacket. (Only in the Philippines!) When we got to Cebu I decided I still wanted to go to the hospital to make sure that my eye was alright. Eugene decided to come with us and the rest of the group went to find our hotel (haha, we thought it would be a hotel).

At the hospital, the doctor flushed my eye again while it was clamped open (super creepy and uncomfortable) and it felt very relieved afterward, so I thought everything would get better from there. We left the hospital, treated ourselves to a very nice dinner at Pizza Hut after the stress of the day and went in search of the hotel and everyone else. We had to be lead to the “hotel” because we never would have been able to follow the directions to it, which would have read something like this:

Take a right, go past 4 dark buildings

Turn left, go through the very large dark alley with no lights

Turn right, walk a while and on your left go through a creaky door into a rather dilapidated building. Walk past the gate with the fighting dogs and the bathroom with the cockroach into your bedroom where there is a bunk-bed (with no sheets) and the smallest lock you have ever seen. (Literally the kind of lock you put on your luggage bag)

My jaw almost dropped but I was trying really hard to hold it together and figure out how we were going to get a real hotel room somewhere when every hotel in the city was booked solid for the festival. Most of the group decided to go join the massive party that was happening in town but Mackenzie and I decided to stay with Eugene (to try to find another place) and half an hour later Eugene got a-hold of a friend who had reserved two hotel rooms for him (sigh of relief). We got our things together and walked to our new hotel, which was small and smelled a little funny, but it was clean, had 3 locks on the door, and a security guard downstairs. I have never loved a hotel room as much as that tiny safe room. By then we were tired enough to go straight to bed, so we watched a little Filipino t.v. and fell asleep.

The next morning we got up pretty early and got ready for Mass. Sinulog is the festival in honor of Santo Nino and therefore, Mass is an extremely important part of the celebration. When we arrived at Mass there was standing room only and the alter was not even visible, so we watched what was happening on one of the several screens. At that time I couldn’t even begin to count the number of people there. Mass was held in an outdoor theater with stadium seating on two sides and a giant mob at the back (where we were) watching on the screens. After the homily, hundreds of members of the congregation released balloons with prayers tied to them, dotting the sky with vibrant reds and oranges. Then, during communion, there were so many people that no logical order could be established, so the priests walked through the crowd holding Jesus aloft and the people raised their hands if they still needed to receive communion. During this time I estimated that there were over 10,000 people at that Mass. It was just so incredible to be celebrating Mass with so many people who had made the journey to another island for a festival and Mass was one of the most important parts!

After Mass we went to the parade, which sadly did not start for several hours. Therefore, we waited with the seemingly millions of other people scrunched together close enough that you could feel the person next to you’s sweat. This was probably the hottest day I have experienced here in the Philippines and it just happened to be the one day I was trying to stand outside with the rest of the country beside me. However, the wait was worth it as the dancers in beautiful costumes began to go by. Mackenzie and I admired everything for about 2 hours until we had to leave because we needed to catch our ferry ride back to Leyte. We almost got lost, but eventually asked a very nice middle aged couple where to go and they smiled as they gave us directions. We successfully navigated ourselves back to our bags and onto the pier. After another 2 hours of freezing cold air conditioning which led directly to a bumpy 2 hour bus ride back to Tacloban (with no break for a bathroom stop!) we were home. I knew I loved our homestay before I left, but I had no idea how much I appreciated how well we are taken care of there or how perfect Tacloban is for us.

Cebu had been heartbreaking. During the biggest celebration of the year we saw countless children sleeping on the streets, most of who were trying to get money from anyone walking by and a fairly old man tried to steal the tissues out of my back pocket. This was the kind of poverty I had expected to see on this trip but I had been sheltered from it in the community and love of Tacloban. While the trip had turned out to be nothing like the exciting weekend I had hoped for, it gave me something far more precious than a few pictures. It made me realize, once again, how perfectly God picked my placement for me. That same poverty is in Tacloban but there are organizations to help and people are willing to try. I am in a place where there is so much love, so much caring, and so much work that people still want to do. I feel so blessed to be exactly where I am.