Halfway!

July 24th, 2011

Wow, this week has gone by quickly. I think they get faster the longer I'm here... which is kinda depressing because I really love my mission and want it to last a little bit longer. I've suddenly come to realize just how little time I have left as I approach my "tunga day" (tunga= half/middle/amidst, it kinda means all three, either way, I'm referring to my half way point) this Wednesday- July 27th. In addition to this, my companion got her "trunky letter" -the letter informing her when she is going home and when to check in to the mission headquarters prior to that. They show up about 3 months before you leave and people call them trunky letters because they say you are allowed to be trunky (eager to go home) after you get it. I personally feel, and my companion agrees, that the letters should actually be "motivation letters" to get you working extra hard in those final three months. So, the combination of my "tunga" and her "trunky letter" has really gotten me thinking about how fast these few months have gone and how fast the next few will be as well. It's kinda depressing, but I just have to use what time I have left as effectively as possible.

This week has been so much fun though! It's rained nearly non-stop. A few weeks ago, my companion and I found a map of the Philippines which shows the different regions and gives some information about them. This map claims that Panay island has three distinct seasons, rainy from September to February, less-rainy from March to May, and rainy again from June to August. (You may have noticed, as I did, that this actually means it rains all year long and seasons don't really exist). July though does have a few distinctions from other months. July is part of Bagio season (bagio= storm/typhoon). Panay island is protected by the other islands from the majority of the storm, but we still get the rain. The weather this month is least predictable and varies the most. It's possible to fall asleep to a clear sky and gentle breeze and be woken up a few hours later by pounding rain and wind so hard it sounds like the roof will fly away. This happened twice this week. (another interesting note about weather that I forgot to mention in my last weeks email- though I suppose it's not really weather as geology- anyways, we had an earthquake! It also woke me up and I laid in bed watching the door sway back and forth and feeling a little nauseous. It was a very small earthquake. But an earthquake none-the-less)

Another fun thing this week has been language study. I think my companion and I subconsciously decided that we were going to find all the most entertaining words to learn. These types of words are the easiest to learn because they don't really take much memorizing to know, they are just difficult to spell. Here are a few-
oxsyon: auction (sy makes a sh sorta sound)
sibilisasyon: civilization (b and v are interchangeable sounds in Hiligaynon)
sinsero: sincere (like Spanish, add and o and your good!)
pranko: frank (f and p are like b and v)
harden: garden (I'm not totally sure why)
I love this language!

Palangga Ko Kamo!