The Amazing Oton Race

The other day our teachers set up "The Amazing Oton Race" for us. We had to go all around our barangay, following clues (in Ilonggo) and solving puzzles. At first they made us be three-legged, and ross and I were tied together and losing miserably. Being an American, I quickly saw it was more efficient to not be tied together, and we all stopped being three legged, but we still had teams. We were neck and neck through the balut-eating session. [Balut is a local 'delicacy' where an egg is cooked after 12 days of incubation, so when you crack it open, you are eating a fetal chick, with feathers on and everything. Some of us have tried it, some haven't. I haven't.] At the balut-eating, I refused to eat it, and my team lost 100 points. But I didn't care, no one is going to make me eat balut, especially at 8:30 am when I've had no time to mentally prepare. I wasn't too worried, because we didn't seem to be earning or losing points for anything else, and I suspected the 100 point loss was more of a scare tactic. Turns out I was right. In the end, no penalty for not eating the balut except a loss of face. And I don't care about losing face, I'm not Filipino.

Anyway. We had to perform basic commands like sit, jump, sing, dance, etc. We had to collect fake money, count it, and tell the denominations in ilonggo. We had to try another food item, but this one was a sweet breakfasty food, so I stuffed my face. After that we had to complete a worksheet of ilonggo sentences. Here's a picture of Anna and Erin working on theirs.

Ross and I kicked everyone's butts at this point, because, you'll remember, I rock at Ilonggo. We pulled ahead, and had to go to the next house and list parts of the house and kitchen utensils. We weren't so hot on that one, but we fumbled our way through and were off. Our next stop was where we had to list 5 types of Filipino transportation. EASY. Eroplano, Jeep, Awto, Trike, Barco. We got 5 pesos and are next instructions. We went to the videoke and had to buy candy in Ilonggo. Beleive me, if there's one thing I learned quickly, it was how to buy junk food. After that, we had to put together the easiest puzzle in the world, and then Ross and I were the winners! Here's a pictures of Erin and Anna putting together their 4 piece puzzle while our teachers, Alvin and Anna, look on.

Ross and I won GIANT bowls of halo-halo. Here's a picture of Anna with our prizes. Halo-halo is a mix of shaved ice, jelly stuff, nuts, sugar, milk, and other random stuff. our Videoke makes the best halo-halo. Other places add stuff like cheese, beans, and wierd stuff like that. Ours is straight sugary goodness. It tastes wonderful on a hot day. Anyway, we won, and I couldn't finish even half of my Halo-Halo. Anna and Erin came in 2nd, and Tim and Allan finished last. We got medals and hung out for awhile, then had to go on with our real class. When I came home at lunch, my host kids had made a sign that said "CONGRATULATIONS MANANG LAURA! YOU DID IT! Sam, Bam and Pok." [Manang is like a respectful term for anyone, it's not very formal. They call me Manang Laura. So it was a fun race, and our teachers worked really hard on it.