Home is where I hang my mosquito net.

It's been about nine months since I've had my own place, and now I'm finally in charge of cooking my own meals, cleaning up after myself, and walking around the house in my socks. Laundry however is a different story. I have hired a wonderful woman down the street that does my laundry for p500 ($10) a month. It's going to be hard to beat that when I come back home.

For food I've been eating a lot of eggs and oatmeal. Lunch time I eat a lot of peanut butter, mangoes and bananas. I try to make a little extra food at dinner time the night before too. Dinners have been pretty frugal for the most part, but from time to time I splurge. I made some squid adobo the other night. Which is squid in a soy/oyster sauce with onions, ginger and peppers (one of my favorite dishes). Last night I had "fresh fish" I use quotes because I was up all night with a rotten gut, and a skin rash that covered my entire body. It was the fish. The meat markets are all open air, no refrigeration, and lots of flies and other bugs. Sometimes those markets can have the most pungent and putrescent smell a person could imagine. I'm coming home with a callused gag reflex. So I guess it's a gamble sometimes with what you get. However, I have had for the most part the best tasting, freshest sea food come from the same market. Right now I can get mahi mahi for $1.50 a pound, tiger prawns are $3 a pound, crab, tuna, and other tiny fish that aren't worth the trouble are a dime a dozen.

Something that I have really grown to enjoy are the sari sari stores around the neighborhood. I can walk out my front door and across the street and buy eggs, tomatoes, detergent, vinegar, minutes for my phone, rice, and insect repellent. it's all so convenient. It's nice to develop relationships with the people close to home too. I feel safer leaving my house alone when the people around know who I am. If anything, I've got the kids on my side. To a degree that is a little invasive. Most of the time at home I hear "Kuya Kelly, Kuya Kelly"! Apparently it takes time for the novelty of a new person in town to wear off.

School is almost done for the year. I'm looking forward to closure with this year. It's been very difficult. I'm not going to lie. I've had a hard time connecting with the teachers and getting into any kind of routine. I'm struggling to keep my head above water. I don't want to get into it right now, but I really miss my job back home (not to mention, most of all my friends). I'm excited for Shannon to be here soon. At this point she will be here in 10 days. We are going to spend a week on an island called Bohol. There are some cool geographical ornaments, tarsiers (worlds smallest monkey), scuba diving/ snorkeling, white beaches and some nice hikes. I've only heard good things about this place. I'm looking forward to running water, toilets that flush, air conditioning and a hot shower (even though cold showers feel better at this point). And a hug!

Thanks again for checking in with my blog and keeping tabs on me. I hope I have an opportunity to write more soon.

ps - yes, that's a picture of Jesus in Levi's next to his Harley! What a stud!