When we got to Dumaguete it was very hot even though it was February. We met Bebie and her family. My mom lived with her and her family when she was in the Peace Corps. That was a long time ago before I was alive. In one house lives Bebie, her husband Gogo, her mother, her sister, her 4 kids, and her sister’s 3 kids. They all live in a house smaller than our house, and we only have 4 people living in my house. Last year they only had a dirt floor in their house, but now it is cement.

The bathroom is very unusual. It has a little toilet with no seat and no flush. To flush it you have to pour water down it with a bucket so everything will go down with the pressure. To shower you had to use a bucket also. You dip the bucket into a big pail of water and pour it over your head. The water is cold.

I went to school with Bebie’s daughter, Mika. It was really different than my school. They had wooden desks and the kids cleaned the classroom floor with a coconut husk. All the kids are in charge of cleaning up the classroom before school each day.

We went to the UU church in Dumaguete and it was different than our church, too. There was no steeple or rugs. Instead of bulletin boards, they wrote stuff on chalkboards. Their chapel was small but you could open up the doors and it was just like being outside.