Day 32

Silliman University was a short walk from the pier. Tanya, our niece who is graduating on Sunday, was in the back area of the campus and spotted us right away. She took us to the dorm where we are staying now with her family. To my horror someone was just finishing waxing the floor in our room with a noxious, strong smelling solvent!!!! We asked the guy to open all the windows and the door to let the air conditioned room air out. We left our bags and took off in search for lunch and to spend the whole afternoon out hoping that would give the odor from the wax would go away. We came back 5 hours later, it was still smelly. Miraculously, my asthma did not flare up, but I woke up around 4:30 in the morning and my nose was really stuffy and felt swollen inside. So I got up, went to the bathroom to have a nose bath and took the laptop downstairs in the lobby and here I am writing this entry. I don’t know what to do tonight. There might be another empty dorm as some students are leaving today, it seems.

Using floor wax for maintenance and mainly to make the floor look “nice” is a very old practice. But it’s the most toxic thing. I thought this is not done anymore, but apparently Filipinos have not learned their lesson yet.

Today is Tanya’s graduation. The ceremony will be at 3:30 pm. We’re going to have a celebratory lunch at the Persian Palate Restaurant. We looked at their menu yesterday and they have several vegetarian dishes.

Wifi connection is not a problem here at the campus.