I promised to explain

A follow up to my "Mabuhay y'all!" post.

1. "My hair is too long for bucket showers" - The bucket shower, better known as "Tabu"(sounds like "tah'-boh'") is where you use a large bucket and a smaller bucket to bathe. What you do is put hot water in the bucket, add the cold water until the temperature is right for you, and use the smaller bucket to scoop out the water and dump it on you to wet yourself / rinse off soap / rinse out shampoo. In my experience, hot water is not usually available. You would think that the humidity and heat would make a cold bucket shower refreshing. Unfortunately, it's more shocking to the body than anything else. Check out this blog if you need "tabu"clarification. (No affiliation with the writer, just thought it was a good explanation.)

If you've seen my head of [huge] hair, you know that it will take buckets and buckets (and more buckets) to wash my hair. I must shampoo twice and then condition. Since tabu showers cause lots of splashing, which leads to small and big pools of still water, the 'skeeters are almost always near by just waiting to use my body as a buffet table.

Many if not most places in the Philippines have the typical American showers. But there are still a few places, even remote resorts, that haven't caught up to the craze called, "shower heads."

2. "I'm about 10-15 lbs too heavy for my relatives' comfort" - When I was 19 years old, I took a trip to the Philippines. I had a lot going on in my life at that time and wasn't dealing to well with it. I was about 12 lbs lighter and a size 2/3 from eating a lot less and taking up smoking. (Just so you get the picture, before I left for vacation, one of my college friends asked me if I was taking drugs because I had dropped so much weight.)

Upon my arrival, a relative said, "You look good! It's good to be curvy." An uncle told me later that my body was good for childbirthing and it's OK that I wasn't skinny.

Last time I went I was probably the size that I am now - 5/6. I was flat out called "fat." One of the more rude ones said, "You're so pretty but why are you so fat?" What am I supposed to say to that? I know, sounds terrible but my relatives* are so frank with each other that when I came back to the US, I was comfortable being "fat" and had made peace with it.


*Don't think that all my relatives are a$sholes. A few of them are too blunt but the rest of them are so sweet. They always ask when I'm going to visit and are super sweet to me when I finally get there. It's just two or three that need one of my Uggs up their a$s. The majority of my relatives are extremely hospitable and are very very loving. I can't wait to see them :)

I have to add that my parents and sister have never made me feel bad about my weight or even mention it in a negative way.