10 – Jordi’s visit

The day that I had been counting down to for weeks finally arrived! It was fantastic, and also slightly surreal to be meeting my boyfriend at Bacolod Airport and introducing him to my new home town. It actually enabled me to view my surroundings afresh through tourists eyes and realise after only 2 months how many things I have already become accustomed to, such as the humidity, the crazy traffic, the population density and the stark contrast between the haves and the have nots. Jordi commented particularly on the glitzy modern malls abutting shanties constructed on sections of leftover pavement with whatever materials can be found.

I took him on a ‘day in the life of Jen’ (much like blog post 9!). At a café where I sometimes go to skype, one of the waitresses recognised him saying “you’re the one on the computer screen. You were eating ice-cream last time, I was the one waiving in the background!” True enough, he had been eating a bowl of ice-cream last time we skyped! How funny!

He met and had lunch with some of my work colleagues, which, like all the Philippinos he encountered, he found to be such friendly, smiling and welcoming people. He was roped into giving an on-the-spot appraisal, from his Water Engineering perspective, of a new ram pump system GK are contemplating trialing at one of the GK villages! Ironically, when we recently assessed GK’s priorities for future AYAD’s during the workshop in Manila, the No.1 priority is a Water Engineer! Perhaps we could have been posted to the same place after all. On the other hand, with me in the Philippines and Jordi soon to commence his assignment in Vietnam, it’s like getting “2 AYAD experiences for the price of 1” - with the opportunity to visit each others places and compare experiences.

Jordi’s 6 day visit also gave me a good excuse to be a tourist in my own province, and visit some of the local attractions I had not yet had the opportunity to see. At the Negros Museum we learned a bit more about the importance of sugar cane to the island. Then we had a night in the mountains and 2 nights on an island resort. As it is off-season at the moment, we had the places practically to ourselves. But, in both cases, it was the journeys, more so than the destination, that were the most memorable. We travelled everywhere by local transport allowing us to appreciate more intimately the impressive scenery - bamboo huts beside cane fields, rice terraces with a steep mountain backdrop, the odd caribow wallowing in a muddy creek beside the road, and palm fringed coastlines with more palm fringed islands on the horizon. It also allowed us to experience cultural quirks, such as the man who got on the jeepney, nonchalantly cradling a rooster under his arm, the rice out to dry on the roads creating an obstacle course for traffic, and the many cute school children calling out “Hey Joe” as we pass. (This is a throw back to the US Occupation and refers to GI Joe as it is assumed we are Americans). Initially this was slightly disconcerting for Jordi who sometimes gets called Jo by family and friends, and he was wondering how they all knew his name!

The main attraction at Mambukal Mountain Resort is the 7 falls walk. We hired a friendly guide to take us on the steep muddy climb. We were very impressed with his ability to nimbly scamper ahead in a pair of thongs, not drink any water and all the while weaving bracelets from rattan. He gave us one each when we reached the top. The falls were nice but the best part was coming back. Our guide said, “Well, we could back-track the way we came, or, I could take you across the river here, up this hill and onto a road that has a great view and, if we follow it, takes us through a village and back to the resort”. Great idea. And it just so happened to be school home time and all the children were highly amused by a pair of “Joes” walking through their village!

Costa Aguada Island Resort was not great for snorkelling and didn’t have much of a beach but it wasn’t really beach weather anyway. We got to experience a real tropical island storm! The curtains in our little bamboo cabin were being blown horizontal by the fierce wind. We were well looked after while we were there and the fresh fish was delicious. But most importantly we got to spend some quality time together after 2 months apart, with another 3 months of separation ahead before we see each other again at Christmas time.

Back in Bacolod, we rounded off Jordi’s visit with a Jazz concert at the Casino – again a first for me. Much to his disappointment, we didn’t fit in any Karaoke – next time for sure!