Rainy Day

This is probably the most uncomfortable day I've  had since I've been here in the Philippines. The humidity has been oppressive all day. It's really not been that hot, the temperature peaked in the low 80's, which is mild for here. But, all day the humidity has hovered around 100% and everything feels damp. The floors feel damp, especially the wood. The fabric on the chairs feels damp and the bedding feels damp. Everything is clean and fresh, but it still feels so damp. I took a shower and felt good for a few minutes but then my clothes started to feel damp again. The weather is supposed to be this way for the next few days, and the weather radar shows a large storm system. Thunderstorms are predicted--they're really fun to watch from the 46th floor here.

It rained very hard this morning and many of the streets in the Manila area flooded. The video is from the street in front of our apartment during the storm. Nevertheless, my mother-in-law came by with two of Mexica's little sisters (Russia and Jasmine), and Canada was here already, so there's a house full of beautiful women. Mama Nena made a great dinner and now we're watching (ok, well, they're watching) Filipino TV. They're all giggling and laughing and enjoying the show. It's some kind of talent show, Talentadong Pinoy ("Pinoy are Talented"--if you don't know, Pinoy and Pinay are Tagalog for natives of the Philippines). They have a lot of talent shows and a lot of quiz shows on TV here, and most are pretty funny (even I get some of the humor), but they're really just prolonged advertisements.

It took the family about 2 hours to get here today, much longer than the usual trip of a half hour, because they had to change from cab to tricycle and back again several times--4 or 5 separate vehicles--and it cost 500 pesos, which is more than twice as much as usual, all due to the flooding. The streets were clear by this afternoon, but it's raining again, so the streets are flooding again, so they're all spending the night. It's a little crowded by my standards but not too bad and they're all having fun and mainly, an attempt at a trip home for them would be really dicey.