Typhoon & Gaol Gaol

We spent the entire day inside as three typhoons hit one after the other. This caused the streets and my Tio Steve’s house to flood. Even with all of this rain, people still went about their normal activities of washing clothes (and drying them outside their window)…to driving, walking, or riding a bike through the streets…and kids playing in the rain.

The morning after the funeral, the family engages in a whole body cleansing or gaol gaol. Once again, the old women bathe you in vinegar (they used vinegar this time). They wash your hair in vinegar…pour vinegar over your body…stretch your pants open so that they can pour vinegar down your ass crack. Thankfully, the typhoons were in full swing during this so after the vinegar bath, we just stood outside in the rain.

We were told that we at our next shower that we couldn’t use any soap…that we could only rinse ourselves off. Tia Rene pulled my sister and I aside and told us that at our next shower to rinse off…dry off…then immediately go back into the shower and use soap. I did do this…except for the entire day, you still smelled like vinegar.

That evening we were finally able to eat marungi…a leafy vegetable that they say you cannot eat before the funeral because taking the leaves off of the stem represents taking other people off the family tree and other people will die.

Because of the Typhoons, we lost power for most of the day and throughout the night. Candles became our best friends…and toilets were flushed with a bucket of water.

written by  James Coloma on July 17, 2009 from Ilocanos Norte, Philippines
from the travel blog: Grandmother's Funeral
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