Wednesday: Taxis, Street Vendors and Camille

Today we took a trip to Baclaran, where there is a huge church and tons of street vendors. Reg, Camille and I took a taxi there. Reg was warned by her local relative to make sure that we don't seem like tourists so we don't get ripped off. In other words, "Tell Mark to shut the (bleep) up, and you do all the talking." No problem.

We got in the cab and I thought I'd instantly given away our cover by instinctively trying to put on the never-ever-used seatbelt. Oh no! When I realized my mistake, I slowwwwly put the seatbelt away, hoping the taxi driver didn't notice. When the driver said he was going to take a shortcut to avoid traffic, we became immediately suspicious. But he must have thought we were locals because (1) the fare was half of what we were told to expect from the hotel staff; and (2) he dropped us off a block away from our destination, telling us to cut through a dirty, off-the-beaten-path road filled with heart-breakingly poor people and the run down, tiny shacks which they call home.
When we got to the church, we needed to track down Reg's mom who had spent the night in her hometown of Pajo. After an hour of playing a real life version of Where's Waldo (see other post), we finally found her. The weather was brutal. We've been eating like baboys (pigs) since we got here, but since we sweat so much, we haven't gain any weight (at least according to the scale we borrowed to measure the weight of our luggage).

Had it not been for the brutal weather and Camille's (understandable) crankiness, Reg would have spent a fortune from the rows upon rows of street vendors. She ended up buying some super cheap pajamas, tank tops and short for the kids. Her mom, on the other hand, acted like Julia Roberts from Pretty Woman, shopping and haggling to her heart's delight.

After shopping, we took another cab home. The ride was pretty brutal. The A/C wasn't working, and the traffic was, well, typical Manila traffic.

We got back to the hotel and immediately went to the rooftop pool. Within minutes, it started to drizzle and it was quite fun swimming in the rain. I'm not sure how many times Camille has swam before, but she was having the greatest time of her life. She'll fit right in back in the States because our other kids also love to swim.
Camille Update: Camille has become quite the mama's girl. She'll volunteer to be carried by me or by her grandma or by her aunts, but today she almost exclusively wanted to be carried by her mama. The only problem this presents is that it gets in the way of Regina's shopping. (Oh no!) Other than that, it's been a smoooooooth transititon. Thank you, God.