it’s our second day here near los banos and we’re slowly easing to the rhythm of life here. i was shocked to have paid just about €0.50 –fifty cents!– for jan’s excellently done haircut, and about 10 euro for a dozen pairs of undershirts and matching pants (yep, he’s running around in his underwear, and he’s still sweating!). i couldn’t help being smug with the buying power of the currency i had tucked in my purse, but then we took jan for a jeepney ride, and holy cow, what was a five-peso-ride two years ago, was up by 80% to P9 now. i was also shocked to see that commodities such as diapers are even more expensive that in germany. which is a kind of a riddle: how do ordinary people like jan’s barber, sustain themselves, charging a measly amount for their services, but having to pay so much for basic needs such as transportation and food (ok, diapers may not be “basic need”, but detergents and groceries in general, are equally expesive, anyway)?

jan is enjoying well, being his babbling self even if nobody understands him. he refuses to speak english unless he’s desperate and stubbornly maintains that the other people should learn german instead. he got up eagerly this morning, curious and brimming of energy for what awaits for the day. a breakfast with ovaltine, a trip to the wet market, a spaghetti meal from jollibee, a snack of boiled bananas and primer lessons from tito nino at the tennis club. pity that nino, who started learning tennis three-and-a-half himself, isn’t on term break yet; he’d have turned jan into a tennis prodigy if he had the time.

all in all, it was a pleasant day, spent simply with being together, doing things together. which is what i came here for anyway.

i’ve still to figure out how to connect this laptop to the rest of the world, but until then, my cyber-presence will probably be very limited. and rightly so.

update: meanwhile the peso is strengthening, the exchange rate now pegged at just around P60 to a euro. i can’t make up my mind if i should be pleased or annoyed. haha! :)

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