After the Heavy Rains February 11, 2009

For the past weeks, the house has been under renovations. Since the day of the flash floods about a month ago, the entire family has been planning on renovating the property. We decided finally to repaint, re-tile, and redecorate the house. It was out of necessity yes, but somehow, we did not want anything to remind us of the horrible ordeal, which had us sleeping in a hotel the first night, as the beds and pillows were all soaked.

Hopefully, by the time the renovations are done, we’ll add a few decorative touches here and there, so nothing of the past nightmare will ever haunt us again. Well, I really hope so. Each time the rain persists for hours, I now find it hard to sleep, silently cursing the clogged drainage systems, deforestation and quarrying activities, and the oh-so-smug city officials who think placing Cagayan de Oro under a state of calamity is going to be enough. Um, excuse me, but there are grave issues here, and we can’t afford to have another deluge drown this city before you all start taking action. Thankfully for us, no major appliance or piece of furniture was damaged. My casualties included a few old handbags, some newly bought fashion magazines, DVD player, a love letter, USB, and other trinkets.

So. I think the repainting will begin this week, and I’m thinking of choosing a shade less predictable than white. Taupe, maybe? Or corn yellow, perhaps?

One thing is for certain, though, I want the house to look sunshiny and bright, happy and resilient- all the things that a home should be, even after the heavy rains.

Only in the Philippines November 25, 2008

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It is only in the Philippines that Christmas trees are put up as early as November, in anticipation of the holidays. After Halloween, we started shopping around for Christmas-y stuffs to fill the house with, and within two weeks, the ubiquitous pine tree was dressed up in flowers, silver orbs, and lights. With the Philippines being a tropical country, we can only do with plastic pine trees, though. Well, this one looks beautiful enough but I bet real pine trees smell better.

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Pork Nation December 12, 2007

If the carabao is the Filipinos’ national animal owing to its industrious demeanor, then the pig might as well be a very good alternative, as a means to feed our very industrious appetites. No Filipino occasion is ever complete without a crispy lechon (roasted pig) exhibited in the middle of a buffet table, and the entrails, chopped and sautéed in shallots, ginger, and chilies, can be cooked with the pig’s blood, and end up as a relatively interesting dish called dinuguan. Pork brains can be scrambled together with eggs, salt, pepper, and onions, and then fried in heated fat. The tongue can be boiled, then stewed in tomato sauce and pineapple juice, while the pig’s cheek fat can be made into a sizzling creation, chopped finely of course, and drizzled over with soy sauce and tangy kalamansi.

In the every day Filipino diet, there is sure to be pork adobo, the sinful humba, fried pork chops, pork with shrimp paste, pork soup with vegetables, pork barbeque, grilled pork chops, sautéed vegetables with pork bits, deep fried pork rinds or chicharon, pork meat balls, pork liempo, and even pork egg rolls. Of course, the ubiquity of pork and its processed derivatives in our markets accounts for this fixation, and the fact that red meat delays hunger pangs, always turns out as the unanimous choice for young children’s packed lunches, and incontestably tastes good.

In funny retrospect, there are so many pig-like attributes in our culture these days: we eat almost anything (blame it on poverty), can be profligate to excesses (don’t our minimum wage earners own fancy cell phones), sleep and snore all day (blame it on unemployment), wipe shit off each other’s asses (don’t we just adore those greedy politicians), and with a round belly and indifferent mien, always finishes last in the socio-economic race.

Hail to the glorious, ubiquitous pig. But it’s about time we picked ourselves up from the muck, and stopped our apathetic chewing for once.

Oddball December 12, 2007

The Filipinos are an eccentric lot. They eat almost every cooked part of an edible animal, worship show business stars like demigods, and believe that religiosity is a panacea for any glitches in their everyday lives, real or imagined. They are an emotional race, too, easily sniveling over a sappy telenovela, and laughing the hardest in times of poverty and adversity. There are so many oddities to be discovered and to be observed with this predominantly Catholic East Asian race, and with this I shall be adding a new category to this site: Pinoy Eccentricities.