I was taken out to dinner by two friends of the family and we went to an open-air seafood restaurant.  It was nice to see those two again - they work for a church out in the municipality where some of my family are based, and I'm going out to their church 'anniversary' this coming Sunday.

After only one day I'm also learning words thick and fast - lugar lang ('stop now'), asa dapit ('where is'), tag pila? (how much?).  I feel more in place than some, less in place than others.  There are two other volunteers here (one from France, one from Germany) and they're both particularly... Aryan.  We attended a birthday 'do for one of the people working at the research centre where I'm based and I noticed I laughed more easily than the two Europeans, was able to pick up fragments of the conversation and make people smile by dropping Cebuano words.  I don't speak the language, but I'm surprised by the amount of detritus has settled into my vocabulary by mere virtue of hearing it around me so often while growing up.  It's comforting, realising I've inherited more than I thought.