A Taxi Driver’s Story!

October 17, 2013 by feyma

A Taxi Driver’s Story!

I was riding a taxi from Abreeza mall to our house. When the taxi cab driver saw one of my son with me he could tell that my son is a multi-race. So he asked me if my son is mixture of German & Pinoy? I answered him politely nope. He then asked again what country, I told him the USA. He said oh, the US. I have my son and ex-wife there. So I asked him did your wife marry a foreigner? He said yes. He said actually she really is not my wife. We didn’t get married, we were just together for a long time. So I kinda tease him maybe your partner got tired of waiting for you to asked her to marry her? He said maybe and just move on with out me. We kinda both laugh on that.

Anyway, he was really curious with the life in the USA. I told him that maybe his son could petition him later for him to go there. He said maybe. He said that his son did not expressed any interest of getting him. He told me that he still continue communicating with his son there. I could tell the taxi driver really is interested to go to the USA for he wants quote and quote to make his and his new wife and kids have a better life. I can’t blame him for wanting a better life. He really regretting not finishing school, its imminent when he’s talking.

Davao Taxi

I asked him how old is his son. He said he just turn 20. He said his son had been in the States for 5 or so years now. the son’s working at McDonald and studying college too. I could tell that he is really proud of his son. Which he should be. He said that his son told him that he cannot send money for his dad because he is paying his brand new car right now. He said his son bought an Audi car. I don’t know why he mentioned the brand of the car. I said really, that’s a very expensive car. He said his son said that he needed that car for his job. So I asked him then what’s the position of his son at McDonald? Is he an executive? He said his a server. I just said ah okay. I just said that he probably needs it then. Well, if the son thinks he needed that car, so it’s his choice. But the taxi driver really said his frustration that his son did not bother to send him money. I didn’t say anything because it’s not my place to tell him what to do.

For me in my opinion, it’s okay for that kid to not support his dad here since he is going to school. But I don’t think he really needed that expensive car for him to go to work. When we were there in the States before, kids of friends of mine who were going to college bought used cars for them to go to school and to go to work. It’s too early to show off a very expensive car. I asked the taxi driver maybe his ex-partner were the one paying the car, he said no, it’s just his son. I just didn’t know that the son can afford an expensive car payment, plus school, plus his personal things.

Because of the taxi driver’s dilemma I was thinking then for my son Aaron. Since AJ is getting serious of going to the States to visit GrandMa and maybe to study. I was thinking then what’s best for AJ to do when he will be in the States by himself without Mom and Dad. Just Grandma will be there with him. I would not want him to be burden with car payment. For me if he wants to study in America, he can ride the bus. So many buses route from my mother-in-laws house to the nearest college there. I would rather he uses the extra money for his personal things than the car payment. Hopefully Aaron will think it through on what to do than buying stuff that’s not so necessary for him. Anyway, that’s just my opinion.

Cheers!

October 10, 2013 by feyma

Racism comment: Give the Bambi moment!

You’ve probably read and heard of the Miss World pageant controversy. The pageant was held like 2 weeks or so ago. Miss Philippines (Megan Young) got the title. Megan was born in the USA, shes a Fil-Am. She came to the Philippines and become an actress. She’s also active in charitable work. Everyone here was celebrating and so happy including myself. It was the first time for the Philippines to get the title ever since the pageant started in 1951. While the Philippines was in the celebration mode, someone made a bad comment and not happy with the result.

Never know at first about the criticism until seeing it on FB. Just didn’t pay much attention with it until one of my kids asked me if I saw what somebody said about the the Miss Philippines winning the title. I told my kids that I saw something and didn’t pay much attention about it. So I went through my news feed on my FB wall. I just can’t believed what that woman (by the way her name is Devina Dediva) said.

Megan Young – Miss World 2013

I’m quoting what Dediva says:

“Miss Philippines is Miss World? What a joke! I didn’t know those maids have anything else in them. Ha Ha Ha”…

She did not stop there. Another quote from her. “they are poor, smelly from cleaning toilets and uneducated.”

Still another comment from her and I quote “they are less privileged everywhere! M surprised one can win. What a joke those people cleaning our toilets won miss world.”

After seeing what she said I was thinking how could she said that. When I look at her picture, I could see she had an Indian descent. True enough when I google her name this is what I saw:

“Devina DeDiva is a Singaporean national of Indian origin”

I’m surprised she said what she said because I know that many people from India also seek job and work as an OFW in the countries were Filipinos seeks works too. Like a cousin of mine worked in Egypt for 8 years and now in Kuwait and most of her co-workers were from India. My cousin never said bad stuff with those co-workers of hers. When I was working in the States before for 2 months I had lots of Indian co-workers too. I never think low of them and them to me. To be totally honest most of us Filipinos that works there were almost all college graduates. Those Indian workers some of them were not even a high school graduate. But you know what both Filipinos and Indians never ever bash each cultures and descent and no calling names.

I don’t want to demean people, when she said Filipinos smells bad because they cleaned toilets. Well, I want to know then if she will be put inside one room with Pinoys after cleaning the toilets and the other room with her fellow Indian after cleaning toilets. Then I want her to judge who smells bad. She should not say the bad smelling because it will bounce back to her what she comment. I will say though that we also had people here that smells bad but who had the most smelly people. Just asking here.

You know I tried my very best not to judge people because I don’t want to be judge also. If a person from the Philippines say something like that to other person (contestant) from other country too after winning I would not like it too. The reason the pageant has judges, they are the one that has the right to judge who the winner is. We are not there for the pre-pageant.

Bambi

I just want to advise Devina Dediva to watch the Bambi movie. I know it’s a kids movie, but its a good movie. Theirs a good moral lesson there that she needs to know and maybe put in her mind all the time:

Thumper says “If you can’t say something nice… don’t say nothing at all”

Keep your big mouth to yourself from now on. I’m pretty sure you want to continue living the good life. I heard you are out from your job now. Not fun anymore for you. Theirs time for fun and theirs time for sacrifices. I’m sure if you say sorry sincerely people are very forgiving. Try to be humble. God bless you.

Mabuhay Philippines!

October 3, 2013 by feyma

Curiosity about my ethnicity!

You probably wonder why I am writing about this subject. Some of you readers here are friends of mine on Facebook. Maybe some of you hardly open your Facebook too. Well if you are a frequent FB user, you’ve probably noticed my recent profile photo.

I changed my picture, to one with me wearing a hijab. It was really my first time to wear it. A hijab is a cloth that covers your head (entire hair) and just your face suppose to be seen. That photo, that was taken a few years ago when we visited Tugaya, near Marawi City, in Lanao del Sur Province, which is probably at least 80% Muslim.

Posing with kids in Tugaya

For a Muslim woman it’s a natural thing to wear one. So being I had one on in that picture I was asked by someone on Facebook if I am a Muslim. I was shocked by the inquiry but I answered her back nicely. I told her that I am not a Muslim (nothing wrong if I were). For the record my dad is from Tagbilaran, Bohol, my mom was born from San Fernando,Cebu. But she was raise in Lala, Lanao. My parents met in Lala, Lanao. After few years of marriage, my parents moved to South Cotabato then, Sarangani Province. I was born in a small town in Malapatan, Sarangani Province. Grew up there until I went to high school (Notre Dame of Lagao For Girls then) in GenSan. Then college in Cebu City. Then 2 months shy of my college graduation I married Bob. Three months after graduation I went to the States and lived there for 10 years.

That photo was taken on one of my unforgettable visit to the places that many Filipinos dared not to go to. It was really an honor for me to be visiting there with the invitation of our special friends who live there. You can already tell that, that’s not the place for the tourist to go to. They fear of being kidnapped, in which case I can’t blame them of thinking that. Really the place was nice, but not also the place to visit if you don’t know anyone from there. We were just so lucky to have some friends that we knew that the family was from there. I am not going to mention who they are, but it was really a pleasure going there. Words can’t even explain how I felt on that day when we were there.

But to be totally honest I had mixed feelings after going there. I was happy to be there visiting the place. The people were nice and accommodating to us. The purpose of going there too was to see the stuff that they make there. They make big native drums, gongs, kulintang, brass vase, nice furniture with mother of pearl in-lay, swords and others. They had all those stuff but not many people go there to see and purchase because of fear. They had dealers that go there but just buy few stuff. The big plus of going there was seeing the beautiful Mosque that was built by the father of a friend of ours. It was really awesome. Our friend’s dad, he was just a grade school graduate, but he designed and built the Mosque. The upstairs was not totally done yet though. I think he used part of his own money for that mosque. I’ve heard women were not allowed to go inside the mosque. I was allowed because our friend told the caretaker to let me inside. I was humbled and honored by that and I really treasured that memory. The view upstairs was stunning and overlooking at Lake Lanao.

I was also sad being there, just seeing the way below poverty line people who live there. Just looking at the houses and the lifestyle they have there, really makes my heart ache for the people there. That’s one of the places that I’ve been that I cried while passing by. It’s really hard to explain what I saw there. But people still had smile on their faces seeing us. For the first time I saw the disposable diaper being washed and hung dry to re-use over again. It was really an eye opener for me. And I told my kids we are so lucky to have the life that we have now. We don’t live in fear. Those kids there, they might be on alert most of the time in case there is a war going in the area. That part of Mindanao really is on the “Hot Zone” (war zone as the press say). But I saw big and fancy houses on top of the hill side. I didn’t really know that rich people live there on top of the hill side.

But in short… no, I am not Muslim.

Help us pray for peace in Mindanao!

September 12, 2013 by feyma

Flip flops: It’s more fun in the Philippines!

I think we really know what we have to be thankful in life until we see everyday the poverty that just shows on our very eyes. Really to be honest seeing lots of less fortunate people here really has changed the way I live daily. I know sometimes that we want more than what we have which is a normal thing. But most of the times living here again really opened up my eyes on what really I prioritize in life. Seeing the poor people here I know they prioritize “the need” over the want in their daily living. Of course the needs were pretty imminent to a lot of poor people here.

Flip Flops

I was browsing through my pictures that I had on my desktop, I came across the pictures that I save for awhile now. A picture of the foot of an old guy wearing a flip flop made of bottles and rope. It really shocked to know at first that some people wears those kind of stuff. My heart ache for the old man (seeing at the foot of the guy, I just think its an old man). Can you imagine wearing those over the hot sunny days. It would be so uncomfortable. It might feel your foot is on fire, because of the plastic. It really amazed me how the ingenuity of the people due to poverty. But I guess just to make out of it, they have to endure the uneasiness with it. I guess the empty bottle slipper might be a bit better than without something on their foot then.

Our helper made slippers out from the cardboard box. She put ribbons as the strap. It was meant to use for indoors. She was just showing our youngest (Nicole) here in the house that it’s easy to make something of what we have inside the house. It was a smart move for her to show Nicole the life she’s living in the province. I’m glad she did. It was kind of an eye opener for the little one.

I remember during my grade school days. I studied in public school. Some of my schoolmates were from the mountains. They’re the natives in our area. Sometimes some of them don’t have any flip flops at all. They go to school barefoot. Can you imagine walking on the mountain without anything on your foot? The roads might have small cut trees or maybe the small roots of the tree on the pathway. That could give slivers to their foot. But even without slippers they still went to school on time. With the determination in their minds few of them became teachers and were teaching on the school I graduated from. It really makes me happy that even with the hardship in life they became somebody later.

One of my nieces is a teacher in one of the remote areas in GenSan. Most of her students were the natives and had no slippers in going to school. She told me what the kids told her ” Ma’am would we really buy slippers first over the food? Of course our parents chose to buy the food ahead of the slippers.” My niece then continued on saying that most of her students don’t have nutritious food to eat during lunch time. All they have were rice and soy sauce. Sometimes my niece gave them some food. She said she can’t afford to be feeding those students all the time. She really is trying on helping those kids. Some kids can’t go to school everyday because of lucking of food. It sad but it’s the reality of some schools here, especially those in the remote areas of the country. Feeling sad and hurt for them. I’m hoping that the government will have more programs for those indigenous people in the province.

To all of you in the West: Enjoy the last days of summer in your part of the world. Get ready for the cold days again.

Mabuhay!

September 5, 2013 by feyma

Next project in mind here at our house!

Since building the house for our turtles, we cleared out the other part of the front yard. Before the clearing, I had lots of plants there in front, it is just across from our front porch. After building the turtleville and seeing the empty space next to the turtle kingdom, Bob and I decided we will be putting up a small nipa hut soon. We want that it will go together with our native products theme. So we decided that we will be going to put up nipa hut or nipa hut gazebo. I am a big fan of any nice gazebo looking structure. Ha ha ha… I want our gazebo to be easily taken out too whenever it is time for us to move.

Nipa Hut

You probably wonder why on earth we want a nipa hut near the turtle kingdom? Really we just like to see what the turtles are up to. Every morning Chris likes to hang out there at the turtleville with our dogs, while watching people passing by. It might be a fun project for Jhun Jhun to make. We will see if it would be cheaper for Jhun Jhun to build or just buy the already built one and just assemble it in our yard. Me and my niece Glenda went to see the price of the already made ones. I’m surprised, it’s not too bad. It’s around P14k for the 6 feet base structure. I told them if I need to change something would that make the price higher? They said no because the changes is just for the sitting part anyway. Also I want them to add a door that will open/close to the entry of the hut because I don’t want the dogs to stay there and maybe ruin the inside of the hut. They told me they will do it at the same price. So that makes me happy.

I think it will be a good project for us. It’s really a good place for us to lounge around during the day. When we told the kids of our plan, man they’re all excited over it. They’re even asking me when is that project going to happen? I have to think it over and talk with Jhun Jhun. My only thing if we have him over to build, Bob and I will might have so much changes that at the end it might cost more than buying the already built one. It’s already our track records when Jhun Jhun comes here we have so much project for him to do. So much too for us to consider. 🙂

I know for sure the kids will hang out there a lot. I’m also sure that my teenage kids will have their friends over and just lounge around there. Which is okay for us as long as they maintain the cleanliness. Aaron might have his band mates play their drums and other instrument in our yard. Hmmm, it will end up with a small party on our front when the teenagers come over. Will it’s okay, Bob and I like the friends of our kids that come here anyway. So that should not be a problem. We will see what happens. Will give you update later folks!

CHEERS!