Instead of Hills and Rivers

Instead of taking pictures of hardly-changing hills and rivers of the old homeland as part of a nostalgic trip as suggested by one equally forlorn friend, I opt instead to write about things that have changed since we left in what seems as a generation ago.

During our days we never imagined that having or getting dogs would be initiated through a business, a thriving business at that. When we wanted dogs we simply waited for friends' or relatives' dogs to have litters, then we asked for one or two. And our concept of having dogs as pets then was generally as watchdogs, or as "askals" letting them loose in the neighborhood. Watchdogs forever alert but really ignored to the side, or as “askals” go, like an orphaned kid who may come home for need of scraps or whatever.

Now pet shops are clearly visible around here, in the malls and elsewhere. Where birds, cats, dogs, fish, or whatever live animal will catch the onlookers’ fancies. And trailing them are the accoutrements necessary for their care and maintenance – cages, carriers, feeds, vitamins, glass tanks, etc.

Since I wanted a dog in the house, simply as one barking dog who will alert the occupants of any intruder or what, I looked for one and found this.

Reasons for choice? One of course was the looks. This is a mix, or a mongrel, of a Shih-Tzu and Terrier. Simply Terrier I was told. The better reason? It was cheap at 4,000 pesos, especially compared to a pure breed pup that was selling at 22,000 pesos. On earlier searching expeditions, I found out that these dogs do not sell cheaper than 6-7 thousand pesos locally. Thus, 4K was a good bargain.

Thus she will now be called Princess, in response to my daughter who has a Maltese named Prince.

And The Lights All Went Out . . .

At exactly 6 AM Sunday, the world stopped for our part of the city, with no electric power for the next 12 hours. This fortuitous event coming without benefit of any prior notice or warning. As is typical I am told, it just happens.

While 6AM may not be the time to start worrying about heat, nevertheless Mr. Sol wasted no time and began exerting its excruciating dominance by the time 8AM rolled in. No problem because I did not have to stay long inside a powerless house. I was set to accompany a couple of young electricians who might be commissioned to finalize the electrical connections to a couple of storeys of a building.

But getting back to the house after that abbreviated chore, it was not long when I started to dribble off sweat from my head, face, and body, even while sitting outdoors to try to cool off. No respite from the quickly sweltering heat. So decided to head on to the mall with a most convenient pretext. I needed new batteries for my camera. The cool ambiance of the mall was such a welcomed delight. Bought the batteries and a few other grocery items all designed to blunt the effects of the heat, like soda, all 3 big plastic bottles of them.

But there are only so much of the mall environs that I can tolerably sustain. Big crowds of total strangers, high-decibel noise, and overall dizziness in the atmosphere tend to bring on ennui for me very quickly. So before long I was out of there, heading where else but home. Had to deposit the groceries.

Again, a few minutes inside the “toaster oven” and heat-precipitated wanderlust had set in. So off I went, getting some immediate relief in the truck’s cooling system.

Bought some clay planters and had them loaded on the truck bed, then I was chugging away toward the city’s main market, Cogon Market, housed in a relatively new building. So crawled to an almost stop around its perimeter and took some quick shots while driving. That’s one of the “beauties” of driving around here – you can go as slow as you want, straddle between lanes, and literally stop in the middle of the road for some errands, like taking pictures.

Having parked in a safe place with my trusty camera case slung tight around my shoulder and positioned for a quick draw, this soldier was ready to walk for some breezy place, to the city’s main cathedral which sits imposingly from a distance on a hilly bend of the river, elevated from the river by at least 10 meters. But what confronted me was not what I had expected – not throngs and throngs of people spilling out into the huge park outside the church, clusters of them milling around the tennis courts situated on the street leading straight to the entrance of the cathedral. And still a lot more gathered around all sides of the church, though many in a festive or a day in the park kind of mood most of these people were actually attending the Mass services in progress inside. But by looking at the pictures one would not get the holy impression that the people were here to attend Sunday church services. So are Filipinos by nature religiously inclined? Looking and judging by the crowds one would think so.

Big crowds of strangers, disturbing high-decibel noise, and overall dizziness in the atmosphere, all but prodded me again to move on after taking the shots. And after all the 12 hours of power disruption was almost done. I should be getting home for some air-conditioned rest and comfort. And indeed this entry is written with no more traces of the aggravation this day heaped upon me.

The Almighty sure works wonders, reminding one of the wisdom of “this too will pass”.

Still More Quick Takes On This Slow Journey

A People Pure or Compromised?

More random musings from an ex-pat long gone from the old hometown, and earnestly trying to rediscover it but necessarily using a different analytical prism, and with changed attitudes and perceptions acquired form living too long in a first-world country.

But this early on I admit that had I been earnest enough I should have been forewarned and alerted. Forewarned and alerted by the different ways that home-grown compatriots reveal themselves in the ways they write, expressed their attitudes and values, as revealed for the world in the Internet through blogs and etc.

No sooner after deplaning does one get assaulted with the unique ways things are done in the old homeland. Low-level bureaucrats of either the airline or airport expect extra compensation for simply doing what is listed in their already short list of duties, at most times with hand and palm up ready to be greased. What for? – so your transfer luggage which is anyway tagged to your final destination can be cleared for loading to a domestic connecting flight. And while being manually frisked as a security measure upon entering the domestic airport, your searcher cannot help throw around blatant suggestions for some pasalubong, or snack money, or something because he welcomes you back. And do the restroom watchers/cleaners qualify as low-level bureaucrats? One asks because they appear to also be riding the gravy train, asking something in return for handing over to you a few pieces of toilet paper for your after use.


But once in the provinces, things change dramatically. Services are rendered without any perceptible traces of a string attached. Everybody addresses you with a disarming smile and a Sir or a Ma’am, and the addresser may be a professional, a professor, or your ubiquitous domestic helper, or your low-level bureaucrats in city or provincial governments. Decent tipping or gratuity in most eating places is almost a non-practice, regardless of the services rendered. Surprisingly, the waiters expect no more or less.

And yet in most instances, poverty stares at you uglier than you can find within a certain radius of the nice places in Makati and other upscale areas. Beggars and mendicants of all sorts abound in the provinces – in public places, along heavily-trafficked main streets, near stores, even in your own residences when itinerant ones travel their routes. Traffic stops are littered with them, some without limbs crawling about risking life and limb (oops, sorry) daily for a few tingling pesos, and oh I refuse to forget, under the blistering sun made worse with the hot emanations coming from concrete roads. Idle kids will pool around you, looking for something to do for you in exchange for a few coins. Anything at all. Dispose of your garbage, push your car, clean your car, your shoes, etc.

But amidst all these, many still cling to their innate dignity and earned self-esteem, and thus, will no doubt resort to instead begging you to give him or her work to earn their keep. And they do very good work, maybe not even compensated properly, fairly, or justly. Just as along as there is gainful work to be done, regardless of how thankless, hazardous, or risky. Or how unjust the work environment may be. Whether they are carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians, and many of them anyway, have all of these skills rolled into one person.

Extreme penury also does some strange things to people. Some would gladly go through your dirtiest garbage to scrounge or fish for whatever value can be mined from it – any steel material, copper, any recyclable, magazines, anything at all, including but not limited to rotted wood or lumber, or any used household item.

But the resultant dark and rarely-discussed underbellies of such a deprived society show themselves in more subtle though visually arresting manners – like most houses are built like fortresses or prisons to preclude unwanted intrusions. All because petty thievery and/or porch climbing is as common as people taking a breezy stroll along quiet neighborhoods scouring around precisely with such a nefarious design in mind. Outside electric and water meters are not only bolted down but caged in iron bars. It is not enough to have high concrete fences topped with iron grilles and embedded broken glass, barbed wire has to be added on top of all these. I often wonder what the population of dogs is in the old hometown, and I do mean watchdogs, and not lapdogs or pet dogs. Dogs to bark and hopefully bite when intruders come and the owners are asleep or away.

And of course, corruption in government is so endemic and known it is taken for granted, so SOP that it is actually called SOP. Thus, you pay SOP to get normal business done, or to get scores settled or clandestinely ignored.

I once dropped a cheap plastic pedometer clipped to my shorts when I was jogging with scores of other, both young and senior, physical exercise enthusiasts. Jogging breathlessly around the dusty public oval I noticed the loss almost immediately upon checking my progress, so continued around the oval hoping to spot the contraption where it fell. It was completely gone from sight within a minute. Waited and looked still more, no results, no signs of it, completely vanished. A very common expected occurrence. Finders keepers practiced to the utmost degree. So I mischievously smirked and went my way. Another time, I had somebody removed a rusted angular-steel frame that once held a business signage of an old tenant in the building we owned. Laid it at the back of the pick-up truck and drove home. The truck was parked outside the fence while I went inside for lunch. Going back to the truck after lunch, the frame was gone, the perpetrator leaving little scratches on the truck bed as telltale signs of the deed. Another common expected occurrence. Another previous time, the items purloined were flattened cartons tied together and some old newspapers. Even the tin cans temporarily used as planters among hedges were gone, the soil with the tender plants emptied to the ground. All in a day’s work and experience.

Are these agonized perception of twisted aberrations or simply stark
versions of reality brought upon by harsh conditions?

Come to think about it, the poor cannot really be faulted or condemned for corruption, because after all they wield no power, whether real or imagined. It has to be those who wield some power, however, minute who will milk that power to derive the most good for themselves. Quite a simple equation really. Using greed, subterfuge, and whatever else necessary to survive and decently prosper in an environment where only the moneyed and rich appear to progress and thrive.

Nothing more than just an honest rendition of some laudable or ugly segments of everyday reality in Philippine society. Maybe the same is true in any comparable society.

More Quick Takes From This Slow Long Journey: A Potpourri

More rummaging through old stuff left behind brought on another discovery, tucked among old medical films was this sketch done by yours truly prior to marriage with the subject.








Now compare with this one done for my late mother by a more professional artist.

A world of difference making me grudgingly more humbled, but, you got it right, I still prefer the first one because it came from my own inexperienced hands.

Walked to a location in town to purchase some paint materials and had to walk through the premier park of the city, segmented and girded like city blocks into several sections. Took these pictures on the easternmost section of Divisoria Park, called Magsaysay Park, primarily because the huge, imposing, and bronzed statue of the late president stands elevated a few meters for all to see and crane their necks.

At mid-eight o’clock in the morning, it was quite revealing to witness that the nocturnal residents of the plaza have not really been done with their night’s rest, many still stretched out in and close to the statue, oblivious or literally dead to the scurry of activities of people waiting for their rides or other friends, of noisy public vehicles with diesel engines screeching and clunking while negotiating the labyrinthine perimeter of the entire plaza impatiently honking and weaving as they mindlessly head toward their separate destinations with their human cargoes. Of course, those denizens were even dead to the ubiquitous white-heat sunlight that was beginning to heat up and induce sweat in the many passersby, and with a stern warning not to be disregarded or taken for granted.

Though as shown in one picture, a close cluster of them had already done with night sleep and were now bantering around, thinking most probably about things they intend to do today, whatever it is they do on a daily basis.

Since I could not very well take their pictures at close range, I had to move away and shoot from a distance unobtrusively and unnoticed.

Recipes From Bicol – Region V

This completes the round-up of food recipes from the original 12 regions of the country (Officially, there are now 17 regions since some were broken up into smaller regions). Started in 2005, we commenced with Northern Mindanao and moved up north. Here is the complete round-up of the original 12 regions in the order of publication:

Western Mindanao – Region IX

Northern Mindanao – Region X

Southern Mindanao – Region XI

Central Mindanao – Region XII

Western Visayas – Region VI

Central Visayas – Region VII

Eastern Visayas – Region VIII

Ilocos – Region I

Cagayan – Region II

Central Luzon – Region III

Southern Tagalog – Region IV

Bicol – Region V

So now for the finale we come to the balmy but at times wind-tossed region of Bicol or Bicolandia, which includes an island province clearly belonging to the Visayas.

It occupies the Bicol Peninsula at the southeastern end of Luzon island and some other islands.It now consists of six provinces, namely, Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate, and Sorsogon. It has one independent component city, Naga City, and six component cities, Iriga, Legazpi, Ligao, Masbate, Sorsogon, and Tabaco.


DILIS SINUWAAN

12 gabi leaves
3/10 kilo fresh dilis
6 pieces green pepper, cut into strips
2/3 cup pure coconut milk diluted with 1-2/3 cups water
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 small piece crushed ginger

Wrap 2 tablespoons dilis in gabi leaves. Follow the same procedure with the rest of the dilis. Tie the remaining leaves in knots and line them in the bottom of a cooking pan. Add pepper, coconut milk, vinegar, salt and ginger. Place the wrapped dilis on top and let boil for 45 minutes. Six servings.


PINANGAT NA GABI

24 gabi leaves and stems
¼ kilo cooked pork cut into small cubes
½ cub boiled and flaked dried fish
½ cup bagoong alamang
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger
2 pieces siling labuyo, crushed
2/3 cup finely cut green onion
1-1/2 cups pure coconut milk
1-1/2 cups coconut milk (2nd extraction)

Pile four leaves together and put 3 tablespoons of the mixture in center. Wrap and tie with string or strips of banana leaf. Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the ingredients. Arrange in a kettle together with the stems and pour the second extraction of coconut milk. Season with the remaining bagoong. Add 1 teaspoon ginger. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 hours. Six servings.


KALINGKING

7/10 kilo yellow kamote, peeled
½ cup brown sugar
3 cups rice flour
1 cup water
1-1/2 cups coconut oil for deep frying

Cut the kamote into strips. Add the sugar and flour to the water and stir until well blended. Combine kamote strips with the flour mixture and mix well with a spoon until well coated. Heat coconut oil in a frying pan. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of kamote and flour mixture into a saucer. Pat to flatten, then from saucer slip into hot cooking oil. Fry until golden brown. Six servings.


IRAID

1-1/2 cups grated kamoteng-kahoy
1-1/2 cups grated yellow kamote
1-4 cup coconut milk, 1st extraction
7 tablespoons brown sugar
Banana leaves for wrapping

Squeeze the grated kamoteng-kahoy and yellow kamote to extract some of the juice. Add the extract to the coconut milk, then the brown sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves. Mix the kamoteng-kahoy and yellow kamote very well and combine with the coconut mixture. Wrap 3 tablespoons of this mixture in a piece of banana leaf (8” x 5”) which has been wilted over an open flame. Tie in pairs and steam for 30 minutes. Allow to cool and serve.


SINANGLAY

3 medium tomatoes, sliced
6 segments garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
1 small piece singer, crushed
2 cups coconut milk
2 teaspoons salt
3 medium tilapia or martiniko, cleaned and cut through the back
6 petsay leaves, big

Mix tomatoes, garlic, onion and ginger with coconut milk. Season with salt. Lay tilapia on top of 2 petsay leaves. Season with 2 tablespoons of coco-milk mixture and fold over. Arrange by layers on a sauce-pan. Cover with the remaining coconut milk mixture. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Six servings.


KANDINGA

½ cup sliced lungs
½ cup sliced liver
½ cup sliced heart
½ cup water
2 tablespoons lard
6 segments garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon toyo
I teaspoon “paminton”
¼ cup green pepper strips
¼ cup red pepper strips

Boil the first 3 ingredients in water for 5 minutes. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool and chop fine. Sauté garlic and onion. Cook 2 minutes and mix lungs, liver and heart. Add salt, vinegar, toyo, “paminton”, red and green peppers. Cove and cook for 5 minutes. Six servings.


BAGISARA

2 tablespoons lard
4 segments garlic, minced
1medium onion, sliced
1 small piece ginger, crushed
2 cups rice washing
1 cup cubed kalabasa
2 cups shelled tulya
1 cup cut kangkong
2 teaspoons salt
6 pieces kalamansi
Patis

Sauté garlic, onion, and ginger. Add rice washing. Cover and let boil. Add kalabasa and cook for 5 minutes. Add tulya and kangkong and cook 5 minutes longer. Season with salt. Serve with patis and kalamansi. Six servings.


GULAY NA MALUNGGAY

½ cup pure coconut milk, diluted with ½ cup water
1 cup flaked tulingan, tinapa
1 segment garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced
1/8 cup bagoong alamang
2 cups malunggay leaves
3 long green peppers cuts in strips

Boil coconut milk, flaked tinapa, garlic and onion for 10 minutes. Season with bagoong and continue stirring. Add malunggay leaves and strips of green pepper. Cook 5 minutes longer. Serve hot. Six servings.



Final Note:
The partaking of food offers its own pleasures, that makes all the efforts involved in its preparation well worthwhile and worth repeating. Enjoy!