I awoke at 4am, but was still so tired. I heard the choirs singing from the church at about 4:30 so I got out of bed and headed over, but apparently I missed the kids that I saw practicing the previous night. Riemel saw me standing at the door and invited me over to sit next to him at his pew. The priest spoke mostly in Bisayan, with a little bit of English, but the songs were uplifting and the energy was very positive. After mass, soup was given out to everybody as the sun started to think about showing its face. I ate the soup and went back to sleep for a little bit until I heard Mark up and showering in the next room. Still in a bit of a daze I was informed food was prepared downstairs. At the table, I realized the man who was staying at Mary’s was the priest I saw that morning, Father Charlie. He held great, interesting conversation and asked us if we wanted to dive. It had been over 6 years since I dove and felt nervous, but they were willing to enter the water with a scuba pleb like myself. I took a crash course on how to breathe underwater and when not to use a thumbs up, and into the water we went. No boat was needed in Apo, everything is full of coral, fish, and sea turtles. Mark said he would bring his GoPro but alas, he did not, so there are no photos of under the water, but we saw some great stuff, the sea snake really stood out to me as the craziest thing I saw on our little dive. It was a short dive, and I was poorly weighted, but we had a blast, and it was time to go eat again over at Mary’s with Father Charlie afterwards. Riemel tracked me down and asked me if the person I asked him about was Teddy, a person who was supposed to show up the exact same day as Dieter, so I messaged Dieter and asked if he was known as “Teddy” on the island to which he replied a conformation, and I laughed and said we were indeed discussing the same person.
Mark and I walked over to check out the new basketball court they had installed, everyone had their fancy shoes on and was giving it their best as the fans sat and watched all along the sidelines. I shot some photos and Emedel called me over to introduce me to DeeDee / Teddy / Dieter, the one and only. We had talked before online after Jim passed, I got his contact information from my father’s phone, as I would individually reply to messages he received to let them know he was no longer with us. We shared some stories and memories, and told him we were staying at Mary’s as Nicknick was still not on the island. Emedel informed us that there would be some cock fighting happening the next day and invited us to come spectate. The basketball game concluded and Mark and I went to the far point of the island to see a little more, and catch the sunset. We fired up the flashlights and made our way back to Mary’s for, you guessed it, more food. I reconnected with Melot, the brother of Riemel, another one of Nicknick’s nephews. He, like everyone else on the island, seemed to remember me being far too intoxicated at the Fiesta last time I was on the island. Melot actually went to Dumaguete to pick up Dieter, and we learned that his oldest son was Dieter’s Godson. Carolers filled the streets at night, and the atmosphere was full of Christmas spirit, but then it was time for bed because everyone planned on being at the 4:30AM mass the next morning.
Continue to the next page for additional photos from the day