Dalaguete

The visit to Dalaguete was really fun. I will be spending three days in Bohol while Danny and Ester go for a short trip to Manila then I will come back to teach one day at Dalaguete National High School. Dalaguete is a music town, and on the day that I got there I heard the children's choir perform. They sound truly professional!

Ester's husband Arpong was busy on a project to build a children's playground. This land will eventually be the site of a musical auditorium, and the enthusiasm here is really impressive. The swings were being built when I arrived, and Arpong encouraged me to bring my tennis balls to juggle. The crowd that gathered was very enthusiastic, and I think they were impressed to see me juggle five balls and work on six.

Being in the Ester's home is a musican's paradise. Hearing Danny and Ester practice and then joining them in playing songs together is really fun. The Dalaguete Music Foundation includes a band, a rondalla group (made of stringed instruments), and a choir, and shortly before we came one of the directors of the choir died So yesterday the students practiced and sang at the wake for the director. Danny and I also played one of the eight songs that we hope to record. It is called Ayam's Call, and it is named after the director whose name was Maya. (Maya spelled backwards is Ayam).

It is really interesting to see the sense of order in Filipino schools. Frequently students chant phrases together, and a common sign that I see is Observe Silence. Classes are often forty plus students in the provinces, and in the cities they may be sixty or more. Teachers will complain about some students being "hard-headed", but the sense of a very strict order is a great contrast to the relatively great freedom that I see among really young kids.

Dalaguete is on the sea shore, but it seems quite a bit different from Bontoc. The homes are bigger, and there seems to be much more farming of crops like corn and vegetables and less reliance on fishing. I went on a long run-hike with Danny up to the side of the mountain, and we saw many goats and, of course, hundreds of chickens and roosters. Some of these are for cock-fighting. We also saw a mine where dolomite is taken with strip mining by a Japanese company. Although we can see lots of banana and coconut trees near Dalaguete, it does look like a lot of the native forest is gone. But Dalaguete is a pretty town. I especially like the many pedicabs. Ha ha. If Jamie ever gets a chance to read this, I suggest that he and I get jobs driving two of these and see who can get the most customers in one day.