Umuulan!! (It's raining!)

The end of my street, turning into a lake.  Hunter's house is the second to last one on the right.

We have to walk through this to get to our LCF's house.  It's also the "basketball court".

It’s been raining constantly all week here!  On Monday, we were advised to pack a bag with our essentials in case we had to “consolidate” to get out of the flood.  School was canceled so we went to our Language Instructor’s house in the morning instead.  We were trying to study Tagalog but the possibility of us having to leave town for the night at any minute was very distracting.  Two of the staff here even went out to look for a suitable hotel for us in case we needed it.  We were all getting pretty antsy and excited to have an impromptu trip!  After lunch we ventured out to find an ATM (we tried about 6 different ones… all were offline or out of money).  Some of the main streets were completely flooded and up above our ankles.  While driving back, we could look down side streets to see a parallel street that had been transformed into a river.  We thought for sure we’d have to go.  At one point, they said if it rained any harder, we would definitely need to leave.  Unfortunately for our potential adventure, the rain softened enough so that some of the water went down and was no longer posing us any threat.   

It rained pretty heavily yesterday and all of last night and we the school floods easily so we thought school would be canceled today.  It wasn’t.  The courtyards were lakes again and some of the lower classrooms were flooded.  In some areas, the water was at least a foot deep.

(Looking out from my first classroom into the courtyard.  The red building is the main part of the school.)

I was supposed to teach 3^rd graders the difference between using ‘is’ and ‘was’ today but less than half the class actually showed up.  Ma’am Khey said I should just hold off and do my lesson tomorrow instead.  When I walked to my second class (2^nd grade) there was no one in the classroom and the water was about a half inch from coming in the door!  I found my co-teacher next door and she said that none of her students showed up today! 

My co-teacher has been buying me a meryenda every morning from the school's canteen!  This was a spaghetti dish, 'banana Q' (fried banana with brown sugar), and a Pepsi (half spilled by the kid who brought it to me!)

I’ve had a headache since yesterday afternoon so I was happy to go home early.  A couple of us are getting sick.  Someone thinks it’s because of this low-pressure front moving in… I think her name is Helen?  Either way, I have sinus pressure, runny nose, sneezing, a headache and an all-around crappy feeling.  I’m not the only one, though.  My host sister has basically the same symptoms and a couple of my fellow Trainees were out sick today.  Speaking of my host sister, she was so sweet today! She made me a ‘kalamansi juice’.  Not sure about the spelling but kalamansis are tiny little limes; she squeezed them into hot water and added some sugar.  It was soooo good!! 

Even though I haven’t been really sick yet, while I’m feeling like this I long for a nice comfy couch I could rest on while watching movies.  The little things are going to be amazing in 26 months!