The Chronicle’s Mark Bellune traveled to Cebu, Philippines, recently to see a friend from Lexington. He learned much of the history and culture of the nation of islands in the Pacific — living with locals for 2 weeks. This is a continuing series.

On Saturday one of my friends took me to the beach in Liloan where we met Thomas “T.A.” McNeese and his in-laws.

Thomas is a friend who lived in Lexington but has moved to Cebu, got married and is expecting a child with his wife Jeremae. To update since the start of this series, they are now the proud parents to a beautiful girl. It was Thomas’ birthday party and about two dozen family members had gathered to swim and grill fish, barbecue and other local delicacies. An older man came up to me and Thomas under the shade of the trees on the edge of the beach. It was still morning but he was drunk and we took pity on him and gave him some food to help him sober up. He wanted money for beer but we declined. It was far from happy hour for us and he had had enough. The children in our group giggled and laughed as they played in the water. Liloan is a town thirty minutes or so north of Cebu City, the capital of the Cebu island. Cebu City is the second largest city in the Philippines behind the nation’s capital, Manila.

The Godfather

The next morning, another of my friends, Liesyl, took me to church for service and to watch as two of her cousins, Cris and Nikki, were confirmed. San Fernando Parish Church is Catholic, the main religion of the Philippines. After 10 minutes sitting on the hard wooden pew waiting on the service, I told Liesyl I would have to go outside. The pew was too hard. During service I walked around the church and spotted a memorial to babies erected by the Knights of Columbus against abortion. Soon Liesyl came out and asked for a favor. Her cousin’s father was called into work and Cris needed a sponsor to walk him to be confirmed. It was the first time I have been officially named a Godfather in a church. After the ceremony their family thanked me and the cousins told me with a laugh they expected presents from me at Christmas.

2nd most popular sport

After church and a change of clothes back into shorts, my friends took me to the base of the mountain where Thomas’ in-laws live. There a couple of hundred, mostly males, screamed at the cock fighting. Each bird has a razor sharp spur wired to one claw. Before each fight, an announcer tooks bets on the fighters. The winner will get a chicken dinner and hopefully a live bird to fight another day. Basketball is the No. 1 sport in the Philippines. Cock fighting is a close 2nd. I saw a TV show about fighting and raising fighters – it is that popular. Fights last 5 to 20 minutes until a fighter is dead or both lie motionless. It is a bloody sport and I now understand why it is illegal here.

Next: Celebrations and a trip south.