Well, I didn’t know that our laundry lady was being terminated. I’ve been waiting for her to comeback. My niece didn’t tell me anything that she’s firing somebody without my approval. My niece told me a different story that our laundry lady quit working here because she’s tired and she wanted to stay and live for good in Zamboanga. I believed my niece’s story at that time. All along when Inday was gone she’s thinking that I was the one who wanted her terminated. Since then we didn’t see her, but Chris our oldest saw the husband of Inday like last year. They just said hi to each other.

A few days ago one of my nieces saw Inday’s sister at the public market here. My niece (different niece) asked her where’s Inday? The sister told my niece that Inday is in her house , that it was her day off that day. The next day I was so shocked that Inday showed up at our house and came to visit. It was really nice seeing her. The kids were really asking her if she could come back and do laundry here for us again. She told me that really she likes working here because she felt that she was treated really good and the kids are really nice to her. So I told her that if she is available and can do laundry for us that I would be interested for her to work for us again. She told me that “Yes Ate Feyma” I would like to work here again.

So Inday has been here now for almost a week. A few days ago we were just talking about the past and she was asking about some of our employees who were close to her, what are they doing now? She then asked me where’s my niece the one that terminated her 2 years ago. I told her what happened to her. She then said that I am not shocked that she had baby now because she’s been causing lots of trouble with you guys before I left. Inday then told me that there were instances before that my niece would even tell her that she’s (laundry lady) stupid because Inday didn’t prepare her uniform. My niece has lots of bad days before because she’s always called up to see us a lot in our room. We would talk to her for a long time. After talking to us my niece then has a bad attitude and she will take it out on our people. I know she treated our helpers like that before, she’s calling them bad names. It’s so embarrassing because all of them would say we are nice but the niece had bad attitudes. Honestly, even now she had baby she didn’t change. She even called Bob bad names too. Come to think of it Bob was the person supporting her even before she started grade school. Bob was even trying to help her after she had the baby. But she’s lazy and just wants hand outs. Bob and I NEVER RECEIVED ANY THANK YOU from her. None what so ever. But we received bad mouthing from her.

Anyway, I’m glad that Inday believed me when I told her that I didn’t know about her termination until later. And some of my nieces and my workers told her too that I didn’t have any idea of what my niece did to her. I told her from now on to tell me if my nieces or nephews would say something bad to her. She must have like us because she would not come back here to work if she didn’t.

Mabuhay!

My past time used to be crafting or painting birdhouses. Here I can’t find anything like that in a store. I saw some ceramics store here in Davao, where you can buy an unfinished one and do it yourself kind of thing. Or they can even give you lesson on how to do it. Its kind of cool too.

Really when it comes to adjusting the lifestyle here I think me and my family are already used to it here. We liked it here a lot now. Our kids like their school a lot now too. Really the turning point for me to stay here was seeing our oldest son Chris (If you guys can recall on our early post here about our son Chris, he has special needs) got adjusted here so quickly. He loves it here. He likes to go to my mom and my sister’s house to hang out and play with his cousin. He learned to speak in Bisaya fluently in just 6 months. It’s really amazing for him to learn that quickly. We really are proud of him for that.

I think all of us, me and Bob and kids will stay here for the rest of our lives. This is our home now. We asked the kids sometimes if they would want to go back to the States to live? Their answers would be “NO”. They  will say that, maybe just visit Granny when time that she can’t travel anymore. Hopefully it would still a long time from now.

Hey, there is still some stuff here that we are still adjusting, but its not that bad though. I think people that live here ahead of us can tell you that too. It’s really nice to live here, its just that you really have to have a lot of patience, trust with your partner and open mind to survived at first. It’s a tough and hard work for all of us to go through this far. Honestly its not easy especially for the first year or so. If you don’t trust your partner, your marriage will be done in just a few months. I am not scaring anybody I am just saying what we went through so that some of you would be aware already. That its just normal to go through all that stuff though. Maybe some of you had an easy adjustment living here. You can share with the group. I know some friends that are scared to move back here because of fear of a lifestyle adjustments here. I understand that too, we’ve been there.

Mabuhay!

When Bob went to see my family’s house in Cebu a lot of my family and neighbors were shocked. Not that many of them knew that I had been corresponding with somebody from abroad. Its just not worth talking to my family that didn’t know me that well. Only my close relatives knew about Bob.

When Bob and I decided to fly to GenSan to see my parents my aunt and uncle in Cebu went with us. It was the first time for them to be on an airplane. It was really amazing and nice seeing them go somewhere with our help. Honestly that was the first and last ride of my uncle. He died over 4 years ago. Anyway, my family from Cebu had a good time in GenSan at that time.

My parents and my siblings, they knew that I was corresponding with Bob. I told them when I came home to GenSan during my semester break. My parents were okay with it. When we got to GenSan, Bob asked my dad’s approval for us to be married? My dad said “NO”. His reasons was he is very ill and old. HE told Bob, “I really like you. It’s just that America is too far and its hard for me.” Wow, that was hard for Bob to handle what he just heard. He was so worried then. The next day my aunt and my sisters talked to my dad and told him that if Bob and I would be married and I will be in the States that we will come here to take vacation to visit him anyway. So then my dad talked to Bob again and asked him if we could visit here quite often since he is sickly. Bob said yes. We got married after 10 days. After 5 months off I went to the States and we came back here for a visit after just less than 2 years. My dad was so happy seeing us. We had our first child then. After visiting him here my dad passed away 5 months later. It was really hard. I love him so much.

Before Bob and I went to GenSan I had to get 3 weeks off from my school. I am lucky that my teachers allowed me to be absent that long. They gave me lots of my lessons to be studied and projects to do. I was like 2 months shy of our graduation. I got a little bit of a special treatment because I was the only girl of my course and they know that I can catch up with my classmates.

Wow thats already over 18 years ago now. I can’t believe time flies by so quickly. It was really a good 18 years for us.

Ever since I can remember my parents had this kariton (cart pulled by the carabao). It really is used a lot on our land, especially during harvest time. We put a lot of coconuts in it that just were being harvested from the tree and be brought to our Tapahan (a place to process the coconut to dry). That’s the place that Bob has a video when he was working in our farm a few months back. Nowadays a lot of the kariton, they use a truck tire instead of a spoked wooden wheel. It is easier I think for the carabao to handle when its dry season. During rainy days this tire in the picture is much more helpful. It won’t get stuck easily in the mud. That’s how I remember my dad said. It is also good when passing through a river.

During the mid 90’s our Barangay Captain was lucky enough to get the budget for a nice bridge. They built it. It was really nice. I saw it when I took a day to visit at our farm. I was impressed and some jeepney that are en route to other municipalities would even swing by at our barangay to get some passengers. It was really nice then because the people can transport their product easily to the city. Somehow the bridge just lasted for a few years. The budget was really for a good bridge and I think a lot of the money it went to the pocket of somebody. Sad to say some part of the bridge was wash out by the flood. The farmers now really had a hard time bringing their products to the city. Not much vehicle would go there because the road that’s not passing through the river is bad too. I wish and pray that the Barangay Captain now will do something to rebuild the bridge. It is really important to all the people there to have that bridge done again. I think that hill behind us on the photo was now washed away slowly by the flood too. My family are trying to talk to the Barangay Captain to really asked the Mayor or the Governor of the Sarangani Province for another budget and have the bridge fixed properly and let the money go to the proper use instead of someone’s pocket.

When I was growing up one of our neighbor had a buying and selling business, they buy corn, copra and other products. They also had a mini super market and convenience store. At least with them the people in the farm will sell products to them and they are the one that will transport the product to GenSan or somewhere else. It was good to the people at our farm.

In the early 80’s their was rumor that NPA is around the area. And it happened that the wife of our neighbor that had money was kidnapped. She was held for a few weeks. After her releas the family decided that they will move out in the farm and they lived in the next barrio that they felt they are safer. Our farm was like a ghost for a few years. Even my parents moved to GenSan until my dad died. I know that it was dangerous to live in the farm, my dad know a lot of the local people and even the muslims. Even them they told my dad to get out of there and stay somewhere that’s safe. Thank God that after a few years of being hostile now our place my beloved farmland is safe again. I hope it stays like that for our lifetime.

It really is good to see my old photo again and think back of my childhood. It brought back a lot of joy and some sad memories.

Mabuhay!

So when she got the name already borrowed from the owner she will then have the birth certificate. Nowadays to have a birth certificate and can be use you have to go to the NSO (National Statistics Office) office to have it authenticated so that it can be accepted. Also you can get more copies of your birth certificate there and it’s already authenticated too. You just show the original one and you can request some more copies then. Anyway, I guess the friend had all that and started her paperwork to work abroad. I had a feeling while listening to them that the friend must have promised a lot of cash for her to agree to it. The lady finally got a visa to work abroad. She had a contract to work there (I didn’t hear what country she went to) for 2 years. That was the contract she agreed upon with her employer. After 2 years of working abroad the lady went home to the Philippines. While the lady was in the Philippines, the owner of the name told her that she doesn’t want her name to be used anymore and she wants for her to return all the papers and stuff. The lady that is using the identity just didn’t mind the owner. Two months after her vacation the lady that used the identity went abroad again without the knowledge of the owner’s name. She was mad then. She wants the lady now to be deported. So with the owner of the name’s reaction I doubt if the lady gave her money for using her name because why she wants her name back? I was gonna join with their conversation,  but I refrain myself I don’t want them to misinterpret what I say to them.

So that got me thinking it must be a lot of case here in the Philippines for that. Now how would a person get back her own identity? Gosh, why on earth would somebody loan their identity to someone else? Is it desperation to get some money for their name? Lots of thought played my head after I heard this. To be honest I don’t think the owner can really get it. Unless maybe she will go to the police and report it. Or maybe she can report to the employment office.

What do you think guys? Do you know of somebody too that happen like this?

My brother used to go to Zamboanga to buy fabric because the fabric there usually came from Thailand or from some other Asian countries. A lot of our customers from Northern Luzon liked the fabric from there. Sometimes he would go to Hong Kong for our upper class clientele. At least there he can really choose what design would be on the fabric. Somehow they like the fabric from there. I remember when my brother and his wife would be back from the trip, as if we would not sleep for almost 24 hours. We have to sort the fabric and measure it for it to be ready to be shipped for our customers. A lot of times when my brother bought the fabric from Zamboanga or abroad more than half of it is sold already. Some of the fabric my brother already had orders for already made clothing. Most of those went to the Visayas and Mindanao.

Some of the fabric that we still had left in stocks remained on the shelf for awhile. What I do I will have our seamstress make one for me and I would be wearing it in my store. A lot of the customers would notice the fabric then and they would want to buy it. I guess they can’t really see the nice fabric in the shelf, but I guess seeing the fabric that its made then they can see the whole picture then. Thinking about it now, I wonder what would my customers reaction if I was not so conservative back then? Wow, I think my fabric would be sold before the days end. My dad and mom might just want me to stay at our house instead.

I was talking to my niece, shes working in my brother’s business. She told me that some stores of my brother and a lot of my brother’s friends are closing. She told me that the business is really slow right now. I know because of the economy. I feel bad for them though because that’s how they keep their income to survive. Now a lot of the clothing that are being sold here in the Philippines are really cheap. It is more costly if you have to buy the fabric and have somebody make it for you. I’ve seen here in the kiosk in Davao the price for a nice blouse its just Php99. Some are even cheaper. With that price you have to be size 0 to at most a size 8. If you are more than that size it is harder to find clothes in the kiosk even in the mall. I guess just have to buy the fabric and have it made it then.

Have fun shopping and try to bargain too!

Banana Cookies by Feyma

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar and 2 tbsp of sugar- optional, just add this 2 tbsp of sugar if the banana is not ripe enough.
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup of mashed banana (really ripe one is the good one)
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp. of baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg or mace
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 cup of pecans or walnuts or raisins or chocolate chips. (My favorite to mix is the raisins).

Procedures:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream the butter and the sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until mixture is light and fluffy.
2. Mix the mashed bananas and the baking soda in a bowl and let it set for about 2 minutes.
3. Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt and spices into the butter and banana mixture and mix just until combined.
4. Put the chocolate chips or the raisins into the combined banana mixture. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet or onto a spray cookie sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. You can also put the banana mixture onto the sprayed muffin pan. Bake it until golden brown maybe like 20 minutes.

Hope you guys like it. Here in the Philippines I tried to used the Lakatan, Murado and Saba kind of banana. I think our favorite is the Lakatan. Have fun cooking!

I guess they tried to drop all of her subjects, but now, the school told her that they will not give any refund to the money that they paid the school. She was studying in a nice university, so the tuition is not cheap. The guy, he is also a student, a classmate of hers. The family doesn’t want that they will get married because as if both are not ready. As far as I know only the mom wanted them to get married. I guess the boyfriend said to the family that he is not yet ready to get married at this time. He wants to graduate first and find a job. For a lot of the sibling and the Dad they don’t want to force the guy into marriage, they want that after the baby’s born, let the girl go back to college and see if she still wants to marry the guy. They are both young and jobless to begin with.

I am really shocked with the generation now. A lot of the students now get pregnant, it seems. Just like our niece. We sent her to the best school here in Davao. Two years later in college she decided to move out to have a lot of freedom. We talked her into not moving out just finish school and she can move out after. At the end she decided to move out and a year later she had baby. I found out now that all of them in her circle of friends got pregnant out of wedlock. It is sad but I think they think its the trend nowadays, to have baby. They think it’s fun. I can see now that my niece was just played upon by that guy. He doesn’t really want to marry her, but she believes in what he said. We know its a bunch of lies. We just don’t want to get involved in it anymore, its her life. The same thing with the member of the family now. We don’t get involved, just that feeling sorry for the parents who work hard for their kids to finish up school and end up not finishing up.

Lucky for this girl that got pregnant now, most of her siblings finished up college and have job. The thing is, are they willing enough to sacrifice later for her to go back to school? They might already be getting married and have family of their own. Then she will end up not a graduate of college, and get a low paying job. As you know here it is hard to get a job if you are not a college graduate. Gosh, it’s a dilemma here continuously. Really I hope that the youngsters nowadays will get lesson that to have a baby is very expensive.

Of course on this kind of contest you have to ask for money from the family and friends and some people that I don’t know. It’s embarrassing. I have to do it though. One time my dad told me that when ever the fish that was caught by our boat the money from that he will give it to me. A lot of my family were trying to raise money. It’s also become political, my schoolmate who was also part of the contest, her dad was getting kind of nasty about it. Later it was really them against us. Most of the people in our town supported me, even the mayor of the municipality and the next town from us. Even the richest guy in our place ask my dad if my dad wants to put a lot of money and he will give some share to the school. My dad told him that we will give what was given by the people and family and friends. He doesn’t want to really end up in debt just over this stuff. My dad said its nice to help but not to the extent that we will owe people some money. With that contest the school gets the half of the money that we put in. So my dad just wants to put the money from the people that help and from his pocket. I’m really glad that my dad didn’t go out and owe money because at the end we won anyway and no debt. Unlike our opponent they didn’t win, but they owe some money too.

Really the contest didn’t end there. The opponent wanted to have contest with another family member of mine and theirs. It’s getting personal I think if I remember. At the end my cousin won. It’s getting bad to the point that they are trying to cause a problem during coronation night. They are throwing rocks at the events. After that my family decided not to join anymore. It’s not worth it. Wow, thats almost 30 years ago. My partner on this contest, he’s a relative. Now, he is dead already. Hmm, most of you are calculating now how old I am? Well, I am 39 years old.

When I visited my place a few weeks ago. Me and my family are talking about it. Now we kind of laugh about it, and think how crazy the contest was before. Really our family is not involved in it anymore. Nowadays when they want to raise money they will just have like a disco party. The youngsters enjoy that better anyway.

And, this is how I became the 1980 “Mutya ng mga Iskaut” (Queen of the Scouts).

Any of you can share your childhood memories here?

Cheers!

We rode the bus from Davao to GenSan. It’s a 4 hour ride. When we got to GenSan my 2 sisters met us at the mall there. We got some stuff that we need in the farm. We also bought some stuff to bring Chris and my mom. Before we left GenSan for the farm I called up my nephew to pick us up at the jeepney stop so that he can get all our luggage. To make it fun I told him to bring the Kariton (carriage pulled by a Carabao). When the boys saw the Kariton they really were amazed by it. They wanted to ride right away, but I told them just later since our luggage was inside the Kariton anyway. On the way to the farm instead of walking we rode a tricycle so that it would be faster and its getting hot too, its a little bit past in the middle of the day already by the time we get to the farm. I think in just like 2 minutes of riding the tricycle we passed by the side of the river, not too big of a river. The kids already wanted to dip in the water. I can already see some twinkle in their eyes. When we got to my sister’s house, about 10 minutes of sitting at the terrace the Kariton arrived with our stuff. Man, the kids were just so happy seeing our stuff taken out of the Kartion.

They want to go somewhere and ride right away. My nephew just told them that he has to bring the Carabao to take a bath in the water with mud to cool off. So they waited for a few minutes and off they went and ride the Kariton. They also went to a small river thats not that far away from my sister’s house. They really swam there and stayed for a long time.

While they were out, I saw my brother-in-law working in the copra. I went there to help a little bit. Gosh, I remember when I was a kid, me and my sister would arrange the copra inside a drying place. First, you arrange it nicely, then down at the bottom you light a fire slowly to dry the copra so that it would be easily taken out from the shell. With my dad before we have to arrange the copra thoroughly, nowadays they will just throw all the copra with shell inside and its not really dried properly. I guess my dad just wants it nicely done. It’s really something seeing some old neighbors working with the copra. Thats how they put food on the table by just working like getting the copra out from the shell and they get paid by the piece. It’s like 100 pesos to 1000 pieces.

I visited our old house. Its not that far from my sister’s house. I had lots of memories in that place while growing up. During the time when my dad was the Barangay Captain, just next to our house was a big place for a basketball court. That court will also turn sometimes into a volleyball court or disco area. Most of you know that in every fiesta the cockfighting is present. My dad, he is not a gambler but lots of the people in the Barangay would really want to have that. They even get the permit for it. During fiesta time I can really remember that my parents would butcher like 4 pigs. Most of the people from the further town of Patag some that lives there are the natives, the B’laan (tribal people) they will come to eat. Of course they are invited by my parents. Most of our tenants they will come to help prepare the food. At that time the fiesta will last like 3 days. So much activity for everyone. Hmmm, that made me think. Maybe on the next fiesta I will bring the kids there to see what fiesta really is. They’ve never been to one yet. At least some of my siblings still carry the tradition that my parents started, feeding lots of people. I’m sure the kids will have a blast. I know I will.

When time for us to head home I asked the kids if they would want to come back again? They all said yes and they told me that next time they want that they would stay for a few weeks and wanted to help working in the copra and the corn. I told them that next time too they will help take care of the pigs and goats. They are now counting the days for the next day that they are off from school. I enjoyed seeing them get excited just over simple things there in the farm.

I went also to my school during grade school. Its not as good as it used to be. Hopefully the government and the principal and the people in Patag will work together to make that school better.

Well, I hope you guys now have an idea of what place I grew up in.

Nothing fancy, it’s just simple life!