We were bombarded by loud music again this pass weekend again. Ernie Manges, a missionary friend who is staying with us for two months, said the music was rarely that loud when he was a resident in the mission home for some years.
We were told by Maris and other missionaries that some people would move speakers as big as refrigerators on a flat bed truck, set them up in an open field somewhere, crank up the volume and charge people who would come and party.
It was Friday night, the music started at around 6:30pm, it went on until past midnight, though none of us, except, was able to sleep, we still managed to fall asleep around 4:00am. Ernie stayed up until the day broke, he said the music was still going at that time. Saturday night, the music started around the same time at night, same as the night before, it went on way in the wee hours of the night. By 2:30am, Dan was too curious to stay in bed, he decided to investigate where exactly the music came from.
I was worried about him going by himself, I am worried that he would confront the people, if he did, I am worried for his safety. I got out of bed to go with him, just to make sure he would not get out of the car.
We drove down the dimly lit streets, only a few cars was running, strangely, there were groups of young people walking down the street, even more people hanging around in front of closed stores.
We drove down a street where we heard the music coming, not far down this side street, we saw a bright disco ball, loud rap and disco type music was booming, under the street light, we saw three pigs, seemed like they were just slaughtered, someone was putting some sort of sauce on one of them, another preparing a fire over a big heap of charcoal, obviously, they are going to do a "lechon baboy" (grilled whole pig).
About 20 people were present, either sitting or standing, they were relatively motionless. There was no one dancing, no one partying at all!
We were starting to draw attention, even though we never stopped the car, we were just driving a bit slower than normal. We started to feel quite uneasy, we were definitely watched. We slowly turned around and went home. The music went on all night, it faded the Sunday morning at around 6:30am.
We of course asked Maris when she came to work Monday morning. She was not surprised by the lack of dancing and the slaughtered pigs. She said probably someone is going to have a baptismal ceremony on Sunday, that's why they are preparing the food the night before. "This is part of the fiesta." Maris said calmly.
Very interesting experience. Ernie said for the years he has been in the Philippines, he has always heard loud music, but never went investigate. "You have seen what I have not."
