Good afternoon and welcome back to VibePinas! We are officially back in the Ginatilan mountains after our trip to the city, and today has been a long, fascinating look at what life is like when a Philippine fiesta takes over a small town.
We started our Sunday morning relatively slowly. I’m still fighting off a bit of a bug, but I managed a shower and some oatmeal while watching a bit of Gold Rush on Discovery. Jessa and Liam were still sleeping like beauty queens, which gave me some time to go through the "electronics graveyard" we brought back from the mountain house. We’ve got about 200,000 pesos worth of semi-broken gear—laptops with busted fans, old cameras—and I’m trying to see what’s salvageable as backup equipment. I even managed to find a working cooling pad for my laptop, which means I can "overclock" it and get about 30% more speed for rendering videos and gaming. Small wins!
I also wanted to address some of the comments we’ve been getting about the house being "dirty." Look, we have eight people living in a 45-square-meter house. Half of them are coming in from muddy farms every day. We don't have tiles or carpets; it's just a base floor. Jessa cleans more than anyone I know—she’s up on the beams, on top of the doors—but in the mountains, dust is just a way of life. My challenge still stands: I want to hire one of our critics for a month. Let them try to keep this place "Norwegian clean" with eight people and a toddler, and we’ll see if they last two weeks!
The day took a sudden turn when we went to town. We were actually planning to head home, but we were "ambushed" by some family friends in a car. They basically dragged us into the fiesta celebrations in the lower barangay. We were completely underdressed—I was in my "home clothes" and slippers—but in the Philippines, you don't say no to a fiesta invitation.
It was pure chaos in the best way. We ended up at a neighbor’s house that was packed with about ten people, including the local midwife. The food was incredible—we had lechon and some of the best home-cooked local dishes I’ve had in a while. Since I was the designated driver, I stayed sober, which the family actually respected for once. Liam had the time of his life; it turns out he loves the music and even found a little girl to "dance" with.
After the house party, we walked through the main vendor street near the municipality hall. It was packed with people selling everything from toys to jewelry. It’s a religious celebration that happens at different times for every barangay, and we have two more coming up close to our house in the next few months. I’m looking forward to those because I’ll actually be able to have a beer since I can walk home!
On the way home, we stopped to buy some fresh fish. Jessa’s dad wanted a massive one, but Jessa—being the boss of the budget—steered us toward some smaller, tastier options and some dried fish for the week. I also managed to trade some "garbage" shopping for Jessa in exchange for my own dedicated frying pan. Now I can finally make my pancakes without them tasting like dried fish!
We’re back home now, unpacking and getting ready for the week.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one!
