So in preparation for our trip to the Philippines soon (22 days and counting), we're learning two songs in Tagalog (from the Oxford Dictionary: Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken in Luzon and neighboring islands and forming the basis of the standardized national language of the Philippines (Filipino). Its vocabulary has been much influenced by Spanish and English, and to some extent by Chinese, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Malay.) The songs are "Bahay Kubo" and "Hawak Kamay". The language has turned out to be fairly easy to pronounce, but one of the songs moves along quite quickly and I felt like the rehearsing of it was nothing short of a train wreck Thursday night, haha. I have no doubt we'll get there--and the songs do sound pretty cool--but it's definitely going to take some more work and concentration (and practice)!
As an aside, the first time I even heard the word "Tagalog" was when I was working at IBM as a software tester back when I was a college student. The development team was tasked with taking this book called "Talking Walls" and turning it into an interactive educational software experience. The book takes the reader to different parts of the world, exploring culture and language. And one of the "stops" in the book was the Philippines, where it mentioned the language Tagalog. Of course, being ignorant of the language at the time, I pronounced it (Tag-a-log). My smarter team members quickly corrected me and I have never pronounced it incorrectly since!
Good ol' IBM days in Provo, UT...
Anyway, the overall prep to go on this trip is certainly underway. The Choir leadership has been fairly silent up until now regarding measures they are taking to ensure we have safe food to eat (given what happened in Mexico last June). So I've been watching for something to come out that would help boost our confidence levels. And lo and behold, we got this statement included in our newsletter Friday: "In preparation for our travel to Manila, please spend time reading the foodborne/waterborne illnesses documents found in the Choir’s Travel App. It is the best resource for understanding food safety and health in the Philippines. Our top priority when we travel is your health and safety. The hotel management and culinary staff have provided impressive guidelines about their food standards. They have the highest food safety certification in the country (HACCP certified). They will meet our dietary needs, label food properly, and take the necessary food/beverage precautions to keep us happy and healthy during our stay."
After reading that, I was (at first) really happy that I wouldn't have to worry at all about eating/drinking at the hotel. But then I read this caveat from the official guidelines we got regarding food safety: "If the hotel mistakenly puts out foods not on the approved list (i.e. salad bar with fresh lettuce), it is a mistake. Do not eat it!"
Haha. Well, OK. I guess we don't get a free pass anywhere, including the hotel!
So it goes, I guess. All that said, I AM grateful for everyone working behind the scenes to make this tour as successful as possible. I'm entirely sure I have no idea how many hours and effort have been spent to that end, and it's truly commendable.
Other prep underway (aside from extra rehearsals to review the 23-song concert repertoire), includes choir members posting ideas of things to take on the trip, downloading songs and movies to our phones to fill our time during the long chartered plane flight, consciously thinking about jetlag strategies (one flight gets in late at night--which is perfect--while the other one arrives early in the morning), checking phone plans to see what's covered in the country, purchasing four Covid tests (that we have to submit results of on February 10, 15, 18, and 20), and coordinating with roommates on all things related to living with someone for ten days.
In texting with my soon-to-be-roommate Willy, he had this to say about our time together: "We're gonna play games and talk and commiserate and cry and strategize about politics and have a grand ol' time!"
Sounds good to me! (The "cry" part was included just for me as he knows I've been going through a rough time with some things)
That about does it for this post. But to leave on a funny/cool note, a choir member saw this at his local soda/cookie establishment:
Until next time, God be with you.
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