last days in Mati

Sorry I haven't posted this week, y'all. My mom especially is probably going nuts waiting for photos from the party on Sunday. Welp, she'll just have to wait longer :) I'll post them when we get back to Nanjing...along with all the other photos from this vacation. I realized there aren't as many as last time, for obvious reasons because this was my second time in the Philippines, and the things I thought were cool to take photos of the first time...well, they're not so surprising :)

Sunday morning we went to Raul's mom's new church in another barangay. I was asked to sing at this one, too. The service was nice, and I really enjoyed the pastor and his message. After the service, we rested up and prepared for the later part of the afternoon. Raul's immediate and extended family hopped on a rented jeepney, lechon (roasted pig) in tow, and headed to a beach resort for our little wedding party get-together. We had a little message from the pastor, we showed our wedding dvd, kids (and some adults) swam in the scarily high waves of the Pacific Ocean (no, I didn't go), and we took some family photos. I finally got to meet Raul's lola (grandmother) who is the cutest little thing. She spoke some English to me, but mostly she kept pinching my arms and poking my back (maybe to feel my fat, maybe to massage me? not sure...but after awhile, it was cute :) ) and kept saying how white I was. The whole day was pretty special, even when all the adults had a pretty long laugh over the shape of rock that Raul's cousin, the barangay captain, had found (I won't tell you what it looked like, but it was pretty stinkin' funny...if you want to know, email me).

At the end of the evening, Raul and I were supposed to go to another beach resort to spend the night, but after getting back too late, we figured it would be a waste of our money. So on Monday, after more family photos with Raul's family and lola, we headed to Dupa Beach Resort just outside of town. We stayed in an air-con room right next to the water. Unfortunately, it's not a resort where you can really swim (after seeing the water, you don't want to), but there's a lot of fish and some crabs to look at around the property. So we took some photos and just enjoyed relaxing and celebrating 3 months together :)

We've been saying goodbye to Raul's relatives along the way, and tonight we'll head to a circus show at the Matiao Barangay hall, done by a troupe from Cebu. Good way to end our time in Mati. We'll leave for Davao tomorrow morning (pray for my carsickness along the way), spend a few days there, then fly to Manila on the 10th and back home to Nanjing on the 11th.

It's been a great vacation, and I'm sad to see it end.