Day 24 Mantalongon, Philippines

I became a godfather today, or as they say here, a Ninong. My godchild's name is Raymond. Raymond's father, Migs, and I now call each other Pare as is the custom here.

My Godchild, Raymond.

My pare, Migs (in yellow), and I.

The ceremony was in Mantalongon. This is the part of Dalaguete known as the "Vegetable Basket" because it's high in the mountains and produces a large percentage of vegetables that make its way to Cebu City. The weather up there felt great and reminded me of Oregon!

Anyway, here's what it all looked like:

At the very end of the video they two men are loading and firing a home made cannon. The fire it during celebrations because it's cheaper than fireworks!

Day 16 Cebu City, Philippines

My Aunt and cousins took me to the bukid (the mountains) today. My aunt has an investment in pigs up in the mountains so she wanted to see how they were doing. Investing in pigs here is fairly common. It takes at least two people and works like this:

1. You front money for piglets or for breeding (in this case, my aunt invested in breeding since it's cheaper to breed piglets than it is to buy)
   
2. The pigs are now “yours” so you help pay for food and medicine.
   
3. The second person keeps the pig on their land and manages the upkeep.
   
4. Once the pigs reach a certain age, you can either slaughter the pig and sell the meat, or sell the full grown pig directly to another buyer.
   
5. The profit is split between you and the second person.

It's insane how the people that live up in the bukid get around. Motorcycles, motorcycles, and Caribou. The motorcycles they use definitely aren't built for off road traveling, but the people here modify stock parts in order to make it work. The motorcycles here built for two at most, but here in the bukid it's normal to see up to four people piled on one dinky little bike that's chugging along overtaking slower bikes and occasional work trucks. The most intense part was the ride back down. There were three of us, full grown men, riding on one motorcycle flying downhill. All I could think of was F = ma.

Anyway, getting to the bukid is an adrenaline rush. Some trucks might be able to make the climb, but the roads get alarmingly narrow the higher up you go and pavement begins to disappear completely. It'd be more fun just to show you (I was able to film on the way up, but on the way down I definitely needed both hands to hang on):

Mom and Dad: I'll definitely invest in a helmet soon.