It is true, I, Jessica Fischbach, am a heartbreaker in the Philippines.
On Wednesday night, Team H.O.P.E. was invited to attend a wedding along with Pastor Al and his family. We jumped at the chance to interact with more people from the community. After raiding Jojo’s hut for cute dresses, I took my first shower in several days and borrowed a blue headband from Sara to add a touch of flare.
Before I can tell you how I became a heartbreaker, there are a few things you should know about a wedding in the Philippines:
1) The venue for the wedding is built like many of the houses, by piecing together various types of materials to form walls and a canopy. The dance floor may or may not be a small patch of grass with very large divots.
2) The guests eat in shifts, at long tables. When a group is finished eating, the table is cleared, the plates are washed, and the table gets reset for the next group.
3) When the bride and groom have their first dance, the guests run up to pin a chain of cash on them. I may have to adopt this tradition at my own wedding someday. 🙂
4) Throughout the night, men have to pay 100 pasos (around $2.50) every time they want to dance with a girl. And this is where the story gets fun.
11 dances and 9 men later it was finally time for me to head home. I am not sure if it was the blond hair or great dance moves (probably a combination of the two), but I alone brought in 1100 pasos for the newlyweds. Fortunately, only a few hearts were shattered in the process. The man who paid to dance with me three times was crushed when I told him missionaries can’t have boyfriends. He may have cried.
Another man asked me to meet him at White Beach for the night life, and two others asked for my number (I am not sure they believed me when I said I didn’t have a phone). And then there was the runner. He didn’t say a word the entire time we were dancing, mumbled something I couldn’t understand right at the end of the song, and then practically sprinted back to his friends. If you are still not sure about the heartbreaker part… I also made this little boy cry.
On a positive note, I did get invited to dance during the bride and groom’s friend dance. Imagine the shock on my face when a cute young Filipino guy grabbed my hand and pulled me into the middle of their dance circle. If I didn’t stand out enough before (sitting among my team), I certainly did when I was pushed into the middle of the circle. One blond haired white girl surrounded by ten people with tan skin, chocolate eyes, and black hair. I did the only thing I could think of…. the sprinkler.
Aside from breaking a few hearts, the wedding was beautiful. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
