Earliest start yet at 3.30am for my first Salubong (the encounter).
Yesterday Virgin Mary was taken from the shrine next to the lounge at home and loaded onto a cart to be lit and beautifully decorated with fresh flowers before being safely stored away for her trip the next day. So after dinner and karaoke it was an ‘early’ night ready for the 3.30am start.
Which turned out to be more like a 3.50am start with just enough time to make myself look decent before meeting my host Jean and her daughters in the street to watch as the statue was slowly pushed up the street by the helpers as a few neighbours followed. My third cockroach passed in front of me but steeled by the previous day I stepped over and avoided a commotion.
The meeting place to ‘get behind’ Mary was the local Petron station where a larger crowd had gathered. Even at this ungodly hour (!) the butchers and veg stall was doing a roaring trade and trikes and vans were forced to manoeuvre their way around the cart. After my initial self-consciousness at being the token tourist I managed to get some bleary pictures (reflecting how I was feeling) and noted the irony as a member of the church carefully avoided stepping on a couple of homeless people sleeping on the street as he took pictures of the lavish float on his iPad.
At some unknown signal the cart was pushed off to meet the Jesus statue for the re-enactment of the resurrection. All I can say is that the service was in Tagalog, it was standing room only and it was 28 degrees at 5am.
On the way back there was some discussion around getting a trike for the 500m back to the house but after some jokes about Filipinos and walking we made the long walk home in time for breakfast of coloured rice cake and rice porridge in the street before home for a nap.
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