As every one of you knows that we’ve been having a Christmas drive every year here for 11 years now. About 2 years ago we also sponsored 4 kids for their food for lunch everyday until that school year end. During that summer we also gave those 4 kids part time jobs here at the house for them to earned some money for their school needs for the next school opening that year. It was really a great feeling giving something for those kids and seeing them appreciate what we did for them. Those kids were not related to me in anyway, they were just recommended by Bob’s Bisaya teacher, Bebe.

What we did for those kids caught the eye of Bob’s friend. His name is Brian. He lives in New Zealand. A few months ago he contacted Bob and told him that he would really like to sponsor kids here in the Philippines from a less fortunate family. So after hearing what Brian wanted, we then set a meeting with friends that we knew that had contacts with kids. First we contacted Bebe since she’s a teacher and knows some kids that needed some financial help. She told us that she would help us out on that. She also suggested to contact the wife of a friend (common friend actually) his name is Randy. He got married to a Filipina from here in Davao just recently, her name is Amelyn. Amelyn is a grade school principal here in a public school. So definitely she knows some kids that struggle financially. So after a few emails and texting between Bob and Randy,  Amelyn gave Randy a name for us to contact. The girl that she recommended just graduated from the school where Amelyn is the principal. She gave us the cell phone number of the parents of the kid. I immediately got a hold of the parents through texting. Within like an hour the mom of the kid text me back. She apologized to not texting me right away because she had to go to the nearest store that sells load in there area. I was already thinking the same of what she told me anyway. I totally understand that. Not easy for them to get the load too.

Bob with Junalyn and her family

So after exchanging several texts, we decided to meet up at their place in a couple of days. Reason for that her husband and the her daughter that will be sponsored will be off on that day that we agreed to meet. Bob and I  wanted to meet both parents and the kid so that we would know who they are and so that we could decide if they really are the people that will be good to sponsor to. So on the day of the meeting, Bob and I went to their house. It was a little further from the city. We rode the jeepney from the street near our house. When we got to their house, we immediately saw the flower garden of the mother of the kid. That’s her business selling flower seedling. The dad was already waiting for us outside. We exchange greetings and then they ushered us to come in at their house. They had a one level house. They lived in a compound, with 3 other families in a separate houses. They really are so hospitable and very nice to us.

Bob with Junalyn

When inside we talked and told them what Brian wants to do. We kinda interview all of them about their lives and about the interest of the kid. Just by talking to the kid, she’s really smart and a little shy too. We found out that she’s an honor student. She’s been in the first section all her school life. See here in the Philippines they have now special sections for the smart kid. That kid belongs there. We saw her grades and it’s all 95 average or over. Really impressive. Just by looking and listening to her she really is interested to study all the way. I’m just hoping really that she will be in the circle of good friends (we call barkada’s here). Hopefully she will not waste her effort, her parents, mine, Bob and of course Brian. It will really shock me if she falls for the wrong crowd.

She is schedule now to come to our house once a week to get her allowance and to bond with us. She kind of likes it too that we are inviting her to use our computer if she had some research to do on the net. She can surf at our PC in the house for free. The parents were ecstatic.

She just came here yesterday to get her allowance. We spent time talking to her and her mom. They were excited for me to go back to their house because the mom promised me a bunch of flowers when I go there again. I told them that I am just waiting for my sister to come for a visit here in Davao from Gensan, since my sis knows more about flowers.

Anyway, another family that we made friends with this holiday season. A BIG THANK YOU to Brian to make it possible for this kid to have a better future. For Bebe for recommending Amelyn to us.

Looking forward for the LIP DRIVE now!!!

Cheers!

It’s just the beginning of November but it’s already decorated Christmas here in our house. Before I mostly decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. I know most people here in the Philippines decorate their houses during the beginning of September or late August. I guess I just went with the flow with the style here in the RP. I am decorating the house early now. I decided to decorate the house early November. I want to decorate at this early because during this time the kids had semestral break for a few days. In honor of All Souls and All Saints Day. See our kids here especially college students have sem-break during end of October until mid of November for college. Some high schools and grade schools, they maybe have like a week off. But Ateneo grade school and high school just a few days off though, just the 2 days off not including the weekend.

So while my niece who is in college is on the sem-break I have to get the opportunity to let her helped me decorate the house. She already knew from years of living with us on how I like to decorate the house. While in the middle of decorating and all of a sudden I had to go somewhere to meet up somebody or had some activity to attend to at the kids school, at least she already had an idea how and where to put the decor into. When I come home from somewhere I just had to make a small adjustments of the arrangement or something. She’s been a big help to me together with our helpers.

The Christmas Village

We decided to lower the amount of Christmas lights that we put in our tree now. We did put like 5000 pieces in our tree before. But the lights went off because of our good and friendly cats. They like to play under the Christmas tree and climb on the branches. Of course some of the bulbs of the lights fell off. One Christmas all our lights just went off, to find out our kitties were pulling the wires of our Christmas lights and the Christmas tree garland. Gosh, I could have strangled them. Ha ha ha.. But I love those cats that we have. So now I got lessons from the past. Better not put that much decor at the lower part of the Christmas tree. For the past few years I had just been decorating our Christmas tree only. But the kids wanted me to decorate the whole house now. I did and they liked it a lot.

This is the first time that my helpers saw the Dickens Village decors. They really are in awe of all the decors I had in the house. It’s new to them to have so many Christmas decors. It fascinates them that I also had trees and snow with it. That’s also something that made me decorate more with my kids love the spirit of Christmas when the house were filled with decors and also seeing the eyes of my helpers sparkle looking at the new stuff they are seeing at our house. Plus its really nice watching in the evening the decor that we had put in the house. It’s all worth the while.We also decorated with Christmas lights outside in our pine tree that I had planted 12 years ago in the big pot. It looks like a big Christmas tree outside. Pretty cool.

So are you itching to decorate ladies? lol… Nah… It’s not the typical style there in the West. For you Filipina’s that lives abroad just enjoy and watch the shows on the Filipino Channel there. Artists here already singing Christmas songs. You will also see the studios or places they featured already had lots of Christmas decors.

Have fun decorating you guys!!!

***On the other note: We had other excitement this year for Christmas too. I will tell you more about it next week!***

I had an email from somebody and wanting some advice. I will not reveal who the person is. I know they read this site and get lots of info here.

Here’s the email:

“My son married a young lady from your country just two weeks after her arrival. I realize she hasn’t been in the States very long, but I’m wondering how long should it take for her to be happy here. She cries a lot and doesn’t seem very glad to be with my son. They are living with my ex-husband and he told me she Sleeps in a different bedroom. That is strange to me. She seems emotionless in all things except grieving over her family back home. Her mother has refused to talk to her which I’m sure has increased her guilt. My daughter in law talks to her sister and brother often but her mom will not. Maybe we should not have done this but we sent money to them in February to start a store in their home. As long as my daughter-in-law was there the store was doing great. Now 4 months after she came to the US the store isn’t doing well and they are pushing for money. $2300 was sent and my daughter-in-law sent me pictures of the renovation and products bought. She did an excellent job getting them started to be self sufficient. Anyway I’m not sure if my daughter-in-law’s guilt is hindering her relationship with my son or if she even likes him at all (from my observation). My daughter-in-law and I talked via email for a year before she came. My son had asked me to travel with him to meet her and her family. And I did. They were very gracious to us. Her mom was wanting my son to move there to the Philippines but his job is here in the US. My son and my daughter-in-law started going to a Phil-Am church in the area where my son lives. On Friday nights they have bible study but my son doesn’t go with her (which I feel he should go to support her) Do you think her family is trying to manipulate her for her to come back. They do tell her to come back all the time. Her mother tried to talk her out of coming over to the US this past year but she was determined to come only to be crying all the time.”

Homesick Filipina

Firstly I do understand what homesickness felt like. I’ve been there and done that. I lived in the States for 10 long years and away with my family here in the Philippines. But I made a commitment goes with the sacrifices to be with my husband. Really when my homesickness strikes before, even late at night Bob and his parents helped me out in dealing with it. I was so happy, humbled and privileged by the commitment they showed me. Bob’s parents, they really open their house late at night for me to go there and just pour my heart out crying to them. They really listened and understood my feelings. They were there for me all the way. It was really difficult at first, but later on I tried to find ways to conquer my homesickness. I tried hanging out with new friends that had been in the States for a long time. Just at their houses for a few hours, just talking and cooking the food that we missed from here in the Philippines. It really helped out a lot. Don’t just sit at home and feeling sorry for yourself. As much as you can, try to learn how to drive immediately after arriving at the places of your husband.

Honestly reading and understanding the email, there is more to it than what the daughter-in-law was telling to the mother-in-law about. I’m pretty sure before she went to the States, her and her husband talked about her living in the States with him. I’m sure the husband told her that they had to live in the States since his job was there. How are they going to survived with their daily needs if none of them will work. It baffles me that the husband and wife are not staying in the room. Too many “why” in our minds right now.

That’s the reason why I wrote this article for you guys to help the lady out with the dilemma she had concerning her daughter-in-law. You guys are good in giving advice here. So here again another family problem that needs to have some solutions before they divorce or hurting each other physically and emotionally.

As always guys, thank you again for your advice and nice comment here.

Cheers!

A week or so ago I read something on the news on Sunstar Cebu. That a daughter killed her dad, she saw that her dad was physically abusing her mom. I guess it’s been going on for quite some time already, before when the dad abused the mom all the kids will just hide somewhere. But that night when the dad came home drunk and physically abusing his wife and he was trying to cut her leg with a saw. I think when the kid saw what the dad was about to do to her mom, it was to much for her. She really acted quickly to save her mom. I can’t blame her. Can you imagine seeing your loved being hurt by your other loved one?  That must be so traumatic for this kid.

I read it in SunStar Cebu

It really reminds me of a family member of mine. It’s hard to see and hear what happened. Problem is nothing we can do about it if the people that’s involved would not and never want to press charges against the person. All of us would want to do something but the involved people were just turning their backs on the problems. It’s really a heart breaking to all of us that wanted to do something. I’ve seen those kids in my family circle that they were already in chaos. Some of them we sent for counselling and rehabilitation. Some of them don’t want to be on counselling, they think they are a shrink to be there. We even told them that it’s not like that at all. We even said that Bob and I went to counselling in the States trying to help Chris on his disability. But for no avail they ‘re not listening. Enough of helping out.

Squatter Kids in the Philippines

The reason I wrote this post was because my niece had a project report in school. They had to go to the poor or the squatters area and ask what’s the life now being a single parent, marriage at a young age and having kids. Anyway, one of the people that we knew that fits the description that my niece was wanting to interview was our laundry lady before. She had a live-in guy the father of her kids. Which he is not really helping out a lot in raising these kids. So a few days ago my niece went there to interview our laundry lady. When she got there to their house our laundry lady, she’s not home, only her 2 young kids were home ages 10 and 7. Those kids already knew my niece, they come to our house sometimes to play with Nicole. So they were very comfortable welcoming my niece inside the house and they were chatting with her while waiting for their mom to come home.

The older kid out of those 2 opened up to my nice that she almost killed her dad just recently. So my niece really got interested with what the kid was talking about. Really we cared for those kids too. So the kid continued on saying that her dad came home one night and drunk and just starting a fight with their mom. At first they just didn’t bother to see what was going on because they thought it was just a typical fight every time he’s drunk. But I guess the daughter saw that the dad was kicking the mom. So the kid told my niece that her dad did not stop right away, then she said that if her dad did not stop kicking her mom she’s not hesitant to stab her own dad. Can you imagine if the dad did not stop kicking the mom? Something bad could end up with them that night. My niece told me that the way the kid was talking about the kid is not scared to stab the dad. It would be a sad situation for the mom to be in. She’s a nice lady and if she will not do something about it she will be sorry later.

When the mom came here to our house to do some ironing for us, I told her that she has to do something with her husband. I told her that being a parent our responsibility should be to protect our kids. Not to put them in danger. I’m really hoping for the best for the family member that I have and my laundry lady. I hope they will not go through what the kid in Cebu went through.

Today while sitting in our bedroom watching TV and contemplating on what to eat for our lunch. My maids were already asking me if  they could just get roasted chicken (letson manok)  for the kids. We usually eat meat with veggies for lunch. But today my helpers were cleaning the kitchen and its already late for them to cook lunch. So they suggested letson manok. I told them okay, letson manok it is OK for lunch.

Bob on the other hand had something in mind for lunch. He was asking me if ever he wants something for lunch would I get it for him and he said he is really going to share it with me. Hmm, it sounded strange to me because it was the first time he sounded the way he did. Plus I don’t have to ask him what I would want to eat, I can eat what I want here and so does he. I know why it sounded strange to me. You know what he wants to eat for lunch? It’s the fried day old chicks on a skewer. Yikes!

Chick on a skewer

Geez, it made my stomach turn upside down. I’m pretty sure that food is popular in some areas here in the Philippines. They will not sell if it’s not, I guess. They were selling that food in one of the malls here in Davao City, not far from our house. When I first saw it I had to blink twice to really make sure if I saw it right and kinda said out loud to my niece “a fried chicks in a skewer?”  Both of us were totally in shock. I didn’t bother to ask because I just don’t want to look at the chicks in a skewer. I might puke in front there.  I could never imagin myself eating that thing.

Check out these fried chicks in the video below:

Anyway, Bob was teasing me that he wanted that food for lunch and he’s happy to share it with me. I told him thank you very much and I will pass for today. I told him he should ask the kids to get it for him and see their reaction. So first he asked Aaron and Jared. Bob didn’t tell them yet what he wanted for them to get for him, he just told them that he wanted some lunch and he will share it with them and he wants that the two (Aaron & Jared) of them to the mall and get it for him. They said in unison “Oh sure we will get it for you”. So when Bob told them what he wanted (The fried chicks in a skewer) to eat and they can also have some too. Man oh man, the 2 boys immediately said “NO” we will never get that and never eat that too. Reason for the 2 boys not to eat the chicks, they said they’re feeling sorry for the chicks. They told me how could anyone eat those chicks. Bob asked the rest of the kids (Jean, Nicole and Chris) they refused too. Ha ha ha same reasoning as Aaron and Jared.

When talking to the kids I remember then when a friend brought a lechon biik (roasted piglet) in our house a few years ago. The kids were younger then. Aaron was about 7 or 8 years old at that time.  When he and the siblings saw the roasted pig on top of the table with an apple on the mouth, they did not eat the meat that night. They just settled for something else. We asked them why they don’t want to eat the meat? Same answers now and then, ”feeling sorry” for the pig. But they are okay with chicken and turkey. They told us a lot of times that only chicken and turkey for eating, the rest are pets. Maybe I was thinking while in the States the kids never saw a whole pig in our table in a lot of the occasions that we celebrated there, only chicken and turkey.

Aaron until now doesn’t want to eat in front of the fish with the eyes open. Whenever we will have whole grilled fish here in the house with the eyes still in it, he doesn’t want to be in the kitchen. He will eat his lunch or dinner somewhere far from us. But the other kids were okay now with the fish. But still not totally okay with the letson baboy in front of them.

Anyway, if you already try eating the fried chicks, hope you had fun eating it. I think that and the balut I will have to pass it for now or forever.

Have fun tasting on some weird food here in the Philippines!