Pista sa Manurewa

It didn't exactly occurred to me that going to Marewa to hear mass was actually going to a fiesta. Ang daming Pinoy!

The feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz was celebrated at St. Anne's Church in Manurewa. The main celebrant was Bishop Patrick Dun, the Bishop of Auckland. He was joined with 7 other priests, mostly Pinoys. We didn't make it to the procession at 12:30pm since we arrived at past 1pm, when mass already started. Good thing we still found seats, near the front!

Hearing mass was like being at home, attending regular Sunday church in Manila. It's the first time that I've actually seen so many Pinoys, and a lot of them were wearing barong tagalog or a terno. They were really dressed up! I was too casual! I'm dressed like a student, wearing long-sleeved striped green shirt and a pair of rubber shoes. I was easily identifiable i think. Hehe! Actually, I didn't know what to expect.

I knew that it was going to be a long drive. My flatmates didn't mention anything about the feast. They just invited me since it was South-East. I've never been to that side of Auckland before, except the airport which is technically part of southern Auckland.

So I got my second blessing as new migrant this morning. Afterwards, everyone was invited to merienda cena at the parish hall. Some guy was distributing flyers for remittance and balikbayan box delivery service. Smart move!

We saw Fr. Carlo again which delighted my little companion. After saying hi to my recent acquaintances, and after getting the email address of a potential colleague, we headed off to Pakuranga to get some milk.

Pakuranga I think is part of Eastern Auckland. There were a lot of junk in front of the houses. I guess it's spring cleaning day. According to my flatmates, people just leave their stuff outside and anyone can just pick them up. What's left will be picked up by the garbage collector. We've actually seen 2 pick-ups loaded with "scrap". We saw a car with kids holding on to a foam mattress on their heads at the backseat. People are
quick in getting the good stuff.

We bought a box of apple pies and a bottle of soda at Countdown. We brought these to their friend who lived at Pakuranga. She works at Nutritia as QA so they get a big discount for the box of milk. I can't say much about the place but it was an interesting drive since I got to see Rainbow's End, have seen a Maori flag hoisted in one of the old homes, and have actually seen a rainbow while passing the motorway. This side of Auckland, isn't as nice as from our place in the west. At least that's my first impression.