Manaoag

 Our entryway, complete with rosary . . . minus its cross.

Manaoag is the town we live in.  Actually, it's the name of the municipality we live in, which is something more like a county, with a town in the middle of it.  And we live in the middle of that town.  According to Wikipedia, Manaoag has a population of over 62,000.  The native language in this area is Ilokano, but everyone is taught Tagalog (Pilipino) and English in school, so we can communicate pretty well in English with most people here.  We're slowly trying to pick up a little more Tagalog as we go along, though.

Map:  https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Manaoag,+Region+I,+Philippines&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.396866,77.607422&oq=manaoag&t=h&hnear=Manaoag,+Pangasinan,+Ilocos+Region,+Philippines&z=13

Manaoag (pronounced mah-NAH-wog) is a busy little place, and I'll try to post some video footage of it.  There are countless tiny businesses lining the main streets, many of them open-front stores each with a roll-down door - - think of a row of storage units with garage doors on them.  There are so many multiples of similar businesses, I wonder how they can make a go of it.  Seems like everyone sells phone cards, photocopies, filtered water, snacks and pop.

We were here a couple weeks before we discovered the actual public market, which is tucked away between some side streets.  Once we went in there, we marvelled at how extensive it is!  How had this been hidden from us?!  So many people with their produce, chickens, fish, rice, and other commodities laid out for sale on tables or on the floor, fans swishing to keep the flies away.  Some vendors are cooking and you can buy your lunch there if you want.  Some parts of the market are under a roof, but some are actually out on a street, with tarp awnings trying to cover the gap.  On rainy days, you have to choose your path carefully, to avoid the edges of those tarps.  Once I walked through with an umbrella and inadvertantly doused a young guy walking past, when the water pouring off a tarp was deflected by my umbrella.  Oops!  He just laughed.  It's so warm here that no one really minds getting wet.

There is a grocery store here, called Magic Market.  It's pretty small and we just go in there once in awhile.  (We do most of our shopping in a neighboring town.)  It's sure interesting to see what products they have that are familiar and those that aren't.  There are also a few fast food spots in Manaoag -- chains called Chow King, Sa Inasal (wow, I wonder if I'm spelling that right!  Google translates that to 'the wrongful conduct!'), and others.  And there's a 7-11!  There are, of course, other businesses of every kind, and professional services. 

Manaoag's claim to fame is Our Lady of Manaoag Catholic Church, with its shrine and its beautiful parklike grounds behind the church.  Tradition holds that Mary appeared to a young man here, and the name "Manaoag" actually is derived from the words meaning "she who calls."  Weekends are very busy with traffic visiting the shrine - - people make pilgrimages here - - and attending Mass, and it's a big day for vendors all around the church, selling candles, statues, and things to eat.  This is just a couple blocks from us, and on special days, such as Mary's birthday last Sunday, there's so much traffic on our little street that we have trouble getting out of our driveway.  Here's more info about the shrine, if you're interested.  It does have a 17th-Century ivory statue of Mary, though the existing church building is much newer.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Manaoag is the wikipedia article.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dh3OkCnd8Y shows some video footage.

Anywhere we go, we've found that most people are very friendly toward us.  There are very few white people/Americans here, so we're a novelty, for sure.  When we go walking or Tony goes running in the mornings, he gets a lot of "Hi, Joe!" from guys passing by (dating back to WWII days of "GI Joe.")  Otherwise, it's "Yes, ma'am" or "Good morning, sir" or "Hello po," denoting respect.  But, besides treating us like royalty, they are a very warm and friendly people.

Well, I've shot lots and lots of video footage of Manaoag and can't get it to load, for some reason.   Am very disappointed about that, but don't want to wait any longer to post this.  Hopefully, there will be more pics and video upcoming!