Good afternoon and welcome back to the channel! Today is a massive day for us—it’s finally time for the fiesta here in the Ginatilan mountains. If you’ve never experienced a Philippine mountain fiesta, buckle up, because it is pure, beautiful chaos.
We started the day coming back from town, and let me tell you, it is scorching today. Even with the windows down, the heat is intense. We had some extra space in the car, so we picked up Dayan and a few others. That’s just how it works here—it’s "Philippine style." You invite ten people, thirty show up, and you just make it work because everyone is family or a friend of a friend.
The main event, of course, is the food. We’ve been preparing for this for days. We actually ended up serving over 100 kilos of meat today! It sounds insane, but between the guests eating their fill and us sending everyone home with a bag of food for their families, it goes fast. We had lechon (of course), ribs, barbecue, and even "Soup Number Five"—if you don't know what that is, you might want to Google it before you take a spoonful!
There’s also a big reason for us to celebrate personally: Jessa has officially surpassed one million followers on TikTok and is closing in on 125,000 on YouTube. I’m sitting at 28,000 myself. I’m incredibly proud of what she’s achieved. I used her milestone as a "smooth" excuse to buy a few beers for myself, though Jessa wasn't fooled for a second.
The fiesta itself is a marathon, not a sprint. It starts early—around 7:00 or 8:00 a.m.—and goes until the wee hours of the morning. People come and go throughout the day; some show up early and leave by noon to tend to their farms and animals, while others work first and arrive late. It’s a constant rotation of eating, drinking, singing, and dancing.
Speaking of singing, the karaoke was in full swing, and we even had live music. Jessa’s godmother, who lives just behind us, has an incredible voice and kept the party going. As for me? I stayed far away from the microphone. My singing is more likely to scare people away than get them dancing! I mostly stuck to my small glass of tuba (coconut wine) and a couple of beers, trying to stay relatively sober since we’re the "chaperones" for the house while everyone else gets a bit tipsy.
One of the funniest moments was watching Jessa "practice" her driving in the middle of all the chaos. She’ll tell you she’s a natural, but between us, she’s one of the scariest drivers I’ve ever sat next to. I was shaking like a leaf the whole time, and it wasn't from a hangover!
By the time the sun went down and the crowds started to thin out, I was absolutely exhausted. Liam probably had the best time of all of us, running around with the other kids, though he’s still at that stage where he’d rather play with his own toys than share with a group of thirty other toddlers.
It’s been a huge success, and most importantly, it made the family happy. Tomorrow we’re heading to the beach for a more private celebration of Jessa’s one million followers. T
hanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one!
