WOW, a homestay experience is sweet, leverage your contribution!

I am Staying in Dahican area, near Mati, South mindanao of philippines....When I arrived in Mati two days ago i had no idea where i was going accept to be near waves and durian. I hired a motorbike taxi and he saw my surfboard and said, 'Dahican'?, so i said YES ( i figured he new where surfboards are best used).

After we found the local fruit market to stock up on Durian, marang, bananas, papaya, we headed 6km to Dahican beach. This area is very sparsely populated, white sandy beach, millions of coconut trees around here which is the main business for all the locals: they make coconut oils mainly.

We ended up at a local surfer guys house, 36year old 'junjun'. Junjun and his brother Allen and a few other boys share an ocean front dream location and manage the property....they all surf and have surfer friends ranging from 6yrs to 30yrs..about 10 surfers around here, no white people ever come here apparently, if so, very few in a year. They are awesome people and very hospitable, guiding me to all the waves, the best one is named "Bobone"...a right barreling reef break.

I am sleeping on their couch or in my hammock outside depending on the weather, for $2/night. i am sharing tons of fruit with them as they eat mainly coconut meat, green bananas cooked which taste like potatos, rice, and fish occasionally...They are loving my fruit diet and are fascinated by it and they all wish they could eat this way, but it is too expensive for them...their 1lb of rice per day is 30cents$ (they eat free coconuts and bananas)....my 8lbs of durian is $6/day...huge difference.

I am really experiencing the culture now...very little english, no foreigners, around all philippinos..seeing how they eat, cook, live, thrive and survive of of 50cents per day each!!!!! a simple life fully immeresed in this wonderful tropical nature of warmth..80degrees around the clock it seems...soooo easy to live light and cheap...if i needed too I could do it, but for now i am still a Spoiled brat American that needs my Durian....
if i did not eat durian and only other fruits, my fruit cost would be about $2 day, still very cheap on my standards, but far from their 50cents/day.....I could be on a delicious banana diet (the best I have tasted in the world so far...several varieties: surgar banana, morado, Tundan, lakatan, Seniorita,etc) here of 20cents/lb if I chose also.

Allen is one of the brothers....we went surfin together and stopped at a karokee machine (these are very easy to find, every other kilometer some family has one and they can be found singing and dancing at any hour of the day with friends, under an thatched roof type shelter area singin some Britany spears, Creed, mariah Carry, beetles, REM, U2, you name it!! What a great culture to be in for music lovers..my brother Justin would love this aspect (I plan to show you this sometime soon JUSTY!!)....I chose my two songs for 10cents us.....Beetles #1, "all you need is love", and sTing #2 'every breath you take', these were not songs to sing too, as i chose the more conservative option of viewing a live concert (great option if you dont want to sing or are feeling shy)......
about 20 philippinos were there staring at me as usual in amazement to see a foreigner there in the middle of knowhere (only a surfer knows the feeling of discovering these places while looking for the perfect dream wave and endless summer)....it was fun to hear some love from Beetles. When I played Sting, I felt a great connection to my sister SHONDA who used to love STING and I love hearing 'every breath you take' and thinking of growing up with my sis.....

The philippinos were asking about our diet and what we eat to be so lean and healthy, and Allen explaned my VEGANISM to all of them!!! I feel soooooo amazing to be able to share and address this to many non english speakers by having a translator with me....this is a huge Appifany for me....now i can LEVERAGE my contribution!!!
I used to be all about leveraging my money and time and capitalism..now I am more about leveraging my ability to help and reach more people!!
What a life!

Lets all remember to "Do unto others as we would want done to us"......others is including people, friends, animals, insects, fish, etc.......this is one of the golden rules most of our momies taught us but hadn't realized yet about the innocent sweet animals we were eating unneedingly.