Spider Fights

Just when you think you've seen it all... After work on Monday, I met up with Francis and our brand new Communications Fellow from the States, Bethany, at Carbon market to do a little shopping for veggies. Side note: Carbon market is this huge outdoor street market full of fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, etc. Most of the street vendors set up shop around sunset, because the vendor price is less expensive after dark. Anyways, back to my story... We were walking along and I saw a bunch of guys crowded around someone holding what appeared to be several small plastic bags, inflated with air. Seeing our intrigued faces, Francis commented "Oh, those are just fighting spiders." What? Fighting Spiders??? Please explain... Apparently, there are spider fights that take place in the Philippines which are similar to cock fights in the sense that people bet and to spiders are matched up to fight, etc. Very interesting....

Fast forward to Thursday night. We were having a small family dinner at the house (Ali, Bethany, myself, Francis and Brian) when Ali declared she needed ice cream! So, all 5 of us piled into Francis' modified buggy and headed down to McDonalds for some ice cream. Then, Francis decided to treat us to late night stroll up the mountain and into the province. We were cruising along when we saw a bunch of guys crowded around something on the side of the road. Francis "Its a spider fight. Wanna stop?" OF COURSE! We pull of the road and head to watch our first spider fight. In case you were interested, the first step of a spider fight is for two spider owners to agree to a match between their spiders. Because no spider owner wants his spider to be at a disadvantage, there is careful deliberation before a fight even commences. There is even a tiny scale to weigh the spiders so that it's a "fair" fight. Once two spiders are agreed upon, the betting commences. Then the spider fight begins. Each owner handles his own spider on a stick, the two spiders are each placed on one end of a string that is strung through the air attached to a post on either side. The spiders then move towards each other and engage. The first spider to fall off the string loses that round. Or if the spider runs away from his opponent, it loses that round. The first spider to lose 3 rounds is the loser. Francis helped me bet a whopping 20 pesos on one of the spiders. But as soon as the fight began, I lost track of which spider was mine. I was told that my spider won round one, but sadly, lost the remaining rounds. Oh well, maybe I will have better luck at my next spider fight!

(They store the spiders in these little box-like homes - usually made out of matchboxes)