A Trip Report -part 2

After saying goodbye to penpal #1 I decided to contact another Bohol penpal before I left for Cebu. A meeting was planned for Jollibees, and she would be bringing her sister and best friend. The 3 girls show up on time, and as we are ordering I realize that the sister of #2 is also a penpal of mine! So, here I am meeting penpals #2 and #3 at the same time. Talk about efficiency!
The two sisters tell me that it is okay that I have been writing to both of them, and that I should learn more about them, and choose which one I like, and by the way, the best friend is interested in me also. Oh my! This is going to be a fun night!
I ask the girls if there is someplace quiet we can go to talk, and they take me to the perfect place. We go to a restaurant on the beach that has a great live band, and we sit and talk for hours.
Penpal #2 is super sweet, everywhere we go she gently takes my hand and guides me. She is obviously the shy one, but I like how she takes care of me. Penpal #3 and the friend are definitely much more talkative, and that is the problem, they never, ever stop talking.
I decide to ask penpal #2 to spend more time with me, but then the awful truth comes out. She lied in her ad, and she is only 18!
Uh oh, I just can't justify spending time with an 18 year old, no matter how cute and sweet she is.
Well, we say goodnight, and I return to Cebu. The first thing I do in Cebu is look for a cell phone to buy. Texting is much cheaper than calling, and the money saved will pay for the phone.
I meet up with a friend of mine from Chicago named Dean, and we decide to be each others chaparone :0) That way he can meet the chaparones of my penpals, and I can meet the chaparones of his.
What a great master plan! Using the newly acquired cell phone we set up 5 meetings for that day, a total of 10 girls to meet. We have set most of the meetings at Ayala Mall, and have spaced them 2 hours apart.
Of course, this is the Philippines, and nothing goes as planned.
Girls are showing up either 2 hours late, or two hours early.
We are going crazy trying to juggle as these women. And, of course, the last meeting brings a surprise. We arrive at KFC to meet my penpal #4, and guess who her chaparone is? Of course, her chaparone is my penpal #5!
This meeting proves to be very interesting. #5 is telling us how she is 27 years old, and MUST be married by the time she is 28. But, she has her back-up plan, she is engaged to a guy in Texas that she has never met. I try to explain to her that in America being engaged is a very serious thing, and that people typically meet first, and also that engaged people do not go around meeting others. Her only response is that she is getting older, and must be married by the time she is 28. Penpal #4, turns out to be a real sweetie. She is very educated, very bright, and reads many of the same books that I do. I am very impressed, and I tell her that I would like to spend more time getting to know her better. Still too early for me, but I sure do enjoy an intelligient conversation....