Letter #15 (Nov 16th, 2011)

Hi all,
We are doing great here in Loon again this week!
bananas here are only like equivalent to $1:20 a kilo... if that... otherwise theyre free off the tree! :P
He wrote the other week that they had made Banana smoothies for about 5 days in a row!! I told him I was jealous because bananas here are still $5 - $6 a kilo, and I haven't bought them for ages!!
our apartment is really good compared to other elders. in Inabunga, thats the area of elder irvin, their house is an old funeral home were they would keep the dead bodies and dress them for the funerals. it is seriously creepy. we stayed there the other night cause we had csp (community service project) there the next day and it is real far from our area. Both me and elder Holley are sure the place is haunted... and you just feel 'something' we you walk in.... its weird.
Its hard to get balut here, and you can only get it a night in certain areas... so i have only eaten it once so far. but i always go and buy 'puto puto' now which is those little sweet rice cake things the philos always make for the parties. Lami siya!
At csp we killed a chicken as a zone... this will bring back memories for reg... and then cooked it with the help of a family and ate it. we also planted corn, chopped wood and harvested a bunch of papaya. it was good fun and the people were real nice as well... of course. they live on the side of this mountainous hill. to get down, you go snowboarding without the snow of the board, and with mud instead. to get back up you climb/crawl almost. it was really cool and i will send pictures next week for you all to see.
other cool things that happened this week... perhaps for the blog... we found a dog that had tangled it self i a hamock and couldnt get out... i bet dad will find that one funny... i got a picture of that too. also because its been raining, we have to tract in the mud... when we get home i have tan shoes and the bottom of my pants are caked in the stuff. Also we got to ride on the top of a trike thingo last pday... i have pictures... which was so awesome... we layed down on the top superman style. Dig our front neighbour has a dog that has gone insane and barks at 4 in the morning while trying to choke itself with its collar... sounds hilarious but is really annoying when you are trying to sleep. Oh and also, i have now eaten kinilaw two times... but i havent died so all is good... and it tastes pretty good when the philos make it right.
Something really funny, there was this truck that is used for loading dirt/ sand in the back it was passing our house in the morning while we were waiting for a bus. and there was this guy on the back with a shovel pretending to be rowing the truck with the shovel it was absolutely hilarious and we were laughing for a good 5 mins.
Thats about all this week, i need to send photos ane will do that next week (forgot my card reader, cause we are in tagbilaran, the big city of bohol which has the 'big mall'... about half the size of parra westfield.
Love you all muchly, miss you all (but not too much, cause its awesome here)
Naghigugma ko kaninyo!
Elder Taylor Addison Cox

P.S. word of the week...
"Alah" [ah-luh] - used with great emotional emphasis to signify surprise at a comment, action, or object (it sounds absolutely hilarious we done properly by a true philippino, perhaps you can ask Michael to show you :P)
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Terri here: kinilaw is made with raw fish (but a friend says it can also be raw beef) and apparently you have to be real careful when you eat it to be sure it's made properly so you don't get sick!! We were warned to tell him not to eat it, but he'll try anything, hence the "But I haven't died so all is good" line in his email. And "Reg" Is a nickname for Taylor's cousin who served in the Philippines in the Angeles area.