A tricycle to the jeepney terminal from the Holding Boys Center (HBC), a multi cab to Valencia, and a walk down the road about a mile and about an hour later you reach my new home. Somehow an hour commute becomes enjoyable, even with strangers on your lap and mini concussions from a lack of any shocks what-so-ever, when I get to see so much more and live away from all the chaos and noxious fumes in the city.
A typical multi cab ride
Agnes is my host and co-worker at the HBC and the house is from her mother’s side of the family and is the home of Agnes’ family as well as her mother’s sister’s family. It is customary for couples to stay with the wife’s side of the family until they can afford their own home, if ever at all. There are Agnes’ parents, Agnes and her husband, Melvin, their two children, Dominick (7) and Aloha (5), Agnes’ brother, aunt, cousin and cousin’s husband, their two children, another cousin, and two maids, Ruby being the one I know and who helps us. So with me I think there are 16, I think.
Strangely enough, even after being here over two weeks, I still don’t know everyone’s name. Partially because I have a bad memory when it comes to hearing names (especially that are unfamiliar to me), more so because I haven’t really been officially introduced to them. Everyone just smiles and nods so I just do the same.
Even stranger is the fact that we have a maid, but I am not complaining since she does my laundry and that I’ll be forever grateful for. I am not sure I could hand wash all the clothes I am going through with the heat.
Apparently there were two additional families living here at some point. I am glad that point is not now because I am still trying to figure out where everyone sleeps. The house is divided into a number of units or what we’d call a bedroom. I have only seen four, but think there must be more otherwise that means a few people are sleeping outside. I am just hoping my room isn’t normally someone else’s, but they would never tell me because they are too polite. Each family has their own unit and there are two main areas that are shared. Yep, so Agnes, Melvin, Dominick and Aloha all share one room. Agnes, Melvin, her parents, brother, children and me share one of the main areas, which includes a kitchen, dining area, family room, and comfort room (their name for a restroom in case you couldn’t figure it out ). Yep, one comfort room for eight of us to share.
Comfort may be the furthest thing from the truth as you saw in the picture for “The Art of Showering”. Actually, comfort is not a word I’d use for describing anything in Ormoc from the lack “air cons” that actually work while it is 90 plus degrees and no breeze, the overly crowded transportation and flat benches we sit on, the straight backed wood chairs at restaurants, or the wire framed chairs in the family room with expired cushions. I am guessing in addition to the shear cost of things, it is probably pretty hard to keep an air con working at full blast when it is as old as my grandparents or cushions decent with rainy season, the general humidity, and dirt. I still don’t have a guess on why pillows are so hard though. Maybe no geese?
The house is collection over time of appliances (and by appliances I mean a refrigerator and burners for the stove), furniture, and knick-knacks making it seem like the playhouse I had when I visited my grandparent’s farm. Since nothing is really stored in the refrigerator (leftovers are stored on the table under a mesh covering to keep the flies off of it) and we could grill our food (which would be preferred over all the grease) the most important pieces in the house in my opinion are the fans. Without them I’d be living in a sauna. I’d argue their most prized possession is the “to be fixed” karaoke machine, the national pastime of the Philippines in addition to cock fighting (which sadly I can’t get my video of the cock fight to load so that will have to wait for the US).
Here is the room I share with my roommates Lucky (the lizard), Frank (the rat), mosquitoes (too many to name), and armies of ants. There was a cockroach the first day, but I think I scared him off so I don’t really count him anymore. 
The house is far from fancy, but the creeks with every step, the holes filled with plastic bags, and the ability to hear the entire family anywhere they are makes it quite charming and my new home.
Our Kitchen
The Second Kitchen
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