San Francisco...

A little about my neighborhood:  I live in the barangay of San Francisco.  Rather upscale, I would think for Lagonoy standards.  It comprises an area of roughly four square blocks.  At the end of my street there is a sort of raised covered stage area where on most nights people gather to watch tv.  In San Francisco a lot of people have tvs and even booming stereos.  However, they still gather in the evenings to watch tv at the stage as a community.    If you look in the picture you will see a sort of cabinet in the wall on stage.  Thats where the tv is.  There are lots of kids running down the street playing games during all this.  dogs barking, roosters... you get the picture.   Assuming it isn't raining, the streets are FULL of people once the sun goes down for about 2 hours, give or take.

The little hut you see in the photo is a sort of community sitting area.  There are four of them in my barangay and every night they fill with (mostly) ladies who sit and chat about who knows what.  These huts are useful if you are going from here to there and suddenly the rain starts pouring down.  Or, if the sun is shining too hot, the huts can be a place to cool off.  A nice idea, I think.

I fell into one of these huts last week - close quarters - and found myself with a group of young ladies.  Lucky me!   We started talking (such that it was) and I soon began getting the vibe these women, probably about 6 of them Im guessing around 21 or so, were lesbians.  So, I asked.... and yes, in fact, I can now report that homosexuality is alive and well in Lagonoy, among both gender groups!  They were really quite nice and soon the rain stopped and I went on my way but not before I got the obligatory "which one of us do you think is the prettiest??"  Well, I haven't lived this long and not learned that the only proper answer to that question is, "well, I think you all are equally beautiful!"  And they were.

In other news, it seems that San Francisco is having another festival tonight.  A stage has been erected down the street and I can already here the booming dance music.  There will be dancing tonight I am sure!  The music at these events is always the same, some spanish 'cha-cha' mixed with lots of rave music and the occasional korean rap tune.  Every now and then, some americano pop, but not too much.

As best I can tell, Lagonoy has no real sit-down restaurants, as we know them.  Goa does, but Lagonoy hasn't gotten that far it seems.  Instead, women cook and bring little tables to the curb outside their house and they place the food in these pans with glass covered lids. If you want to eat, you point to the dish of your desire and pay and she will dish out the food onto a plastic plate. There will be a table close and some chairs too.  Yes silverware, napkins are very very rare.  The lady you see in the picture is there on that corner every night and she sells bbq pork.  Smells good, Ive never tried it.   Personally, I don't indulge in the roadside food much.  One, I typically don't care for the taste and two, Im wary of the food itself.  I mostly cook my own stuff instead.  A basic diet.  Tonight, I will be making vegetable curry w/ rice, for example.  Maybe a mango to finish it off.

As far as drinking, no real bars either.  There is one place down the way.. a little tiki joint... where sometimes the owner will have live music.  And when that happens, he will sell beer.  You can only buy the beer as a 6 pack though and he serves the six pack in a metal bucket filled with ice.  I had a bucket with Carlos last night.  While the women sit in their little community huts, the men tend to gather at some food stand and will sit in chairs and drink Gin.  A shot at a time.  Often, when I am walking on my nightly garbage run, I am asked to take a shot with the guys... and of course, I oblige. I mean, I want to be friendly right??