Photo Credits:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericouano/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I had the pleasure of visiting someone special from my past last weekend. She is now 70 years old but still relatively strong for her age. She lives now with her nephew’s family and younger sister and helps run a small carinderia (diner) in front of her home. Who is she? She is actually my cousin of 3rd degree. Thanks to my paternal grandmother, we actually know even distant relatives. Why is she special? She took care of me and my sister when I was around 3 to 6 years old. She showed up for parent-teacher meetings. She was there for our school performances and pin medals when we were in the honor roll. Some of our classmates even thought she was our Mom. She said my sister just smiled and kept quiet whenever someone asked about it. It was kind of strange looking back at that time. At that time, my Mom and Dad were busy finishing both their master’s degree in Manila and they left us to the care of our grandparents in Nueva Ecija. My earliest childhood memories happened here and they were mostly happy and fun minus the times when I had to cry so much whenever my mom had to go back to the city. But first, I asked how she ended up living at my grandparents house. This is how it started: Read more…

In response to the last post of what I would miss in the Netherlands (and US for that matter), here is what I look forward to upon going back to the Philippines:

Netherlands: Colorful trees in Autumn and Blossoming in Spring

Philippines: Being able to grow plants and veggies all year round, Coconut trees, Tropical flowers and green trees all year round

Netherlands: Mashed potatoes with rookworst and andives/Rookworst  sausage from HEMA

Philippines: Purefoods hotdog, or langgonisa with tomatoes for breakfast, dried fish, tapsilog, barbecue, salted eggs, singangag (garlic fried rice)

Netherlands: WYSIWYG and brutally honest people

Philippines: Friendly, easy to get along with people with great sense of humor

Netherlands: delectable Indonesian takeout food

Philippines: you can find almost everything else there: Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, you name it, and all for less.

Netherlands: visiting exotic European cities and people watching, grandiose architecture and other man-made structures

Philippines: Boracay, Palawan Ilocos, rice terraces, Mayon volcano, Batanes and all the neighboring Asian cities for less than the price of a ticket to London

Netherlands: working with people from various cultural backgrounds

Philippines: getting into the exciting world of IT outsourcing and developing a new business venture

Netherlands: cool, but comfortable spring weather and fresh air

Philippines: ok, ok,  airconditioning never beats fresh air

Netherlands: late sunsets in the summer

Philippines: bustling night life, seeing a lot of people walking around even late at night, Christmas lights and lanterns  (parol) during the “Ber months”

Netherlands: good strong, coffee

Philippines: Starbucks?

I was 8 then and we just moved from the province and I just started studying in a school in Paranaque.  It was also where I first learned about using money and along with it, greed, and extortion in the form of bullying and asking for loans. It was also when I first learned how to “fend” for myself in times of personal crisis.

It was then that I first heard the word “pautang”  (loan me) asked directly from me.   When my Dad learned about this, he was furious and all I remember now is that he strongly admonished me to never ever loan to anyone or even ask for a loan myself.   He definitely knew what he was talking about, after all, he worked with loans on a daily basis at the Central Bank of the Philippines.   I got the message and that is why all these years I have been steering clear of big loans such as mortgages and personal loans.  I fully paid my car loan ahead of time and now I only use my credit card for convenience such as for occasional online purchases but never to buy something which I have no immediate cash to pay for.  That kid even threatened to get me in trouble with a teacher who was her aunt if I didn’t give her money.    I was 8 remember? –and a probinsyana, innocent and all.  I didn’t know then that it was indeed classic bullying and I was scared enough by it.  However, for some reason I was scared to tell my parents about it.   I totally forgot the whole details of that incident until recently my aunt told me that she knew about that story.   She told me that my Dad actually noticed that I had less money all the time and seemed to be in stress.  He knew that someone was extorting me or probably I had shown hints of it.

Another incident that happened when I was 8 which I will never forget is being left by the school bus and having no money.  At that time, it was the 80’s so we know that there were no mobile phones yet or sending load for that matter.  For some reason, I didn’t have the money to even take the jeepney or tricycle to get home.  I was scared!  I think it was even my first day in school.  I lived in BF Homes and the school was in Sucat.  You know what I did? I walked throughout Sucat and found myself along the road, maybe near Irineville where there is a tricycle terminal and took the tricicyle home — at least I could pay for it when I arrive at home!  I was 8 and walking alone in Sucat for goodness sake! But at least I arrived home safe.

I just received a letter recently from a Filipino-American reader who was asking about my opinion of Amsterdam, and maybe Netherlands in general. The letter came at a very nice time. I would like to share most of what I said in my e-mail. This is mostly straight from my heart. It may not sound fair or sensible at times and that because it is based on my emotions at this time.

I resigned from my job yesterday. My husband and I are leaving the Netherlands. I only moved here to end our long distance relationship that went on for some months and finally join my Dutchman. I quit my job in NJ and moved here not knowing what awaits me. I did not come here for economic reasons or for a job offer. I loved living in the US and have also felt that it offered me many opportunities to live the so called American dream except that I ended up finding my partner across the Atlantic. I still want to come back there someday.

Reading about your situation there, I strongly discourage you from living in Amsterdam if you like that kind of quiet and easy suburb picket fence lifestyle — you would live the big city life and that includes the harsh realities and rat race lifestyle that goes with it. Sorry to say but Amsterdam is not a family-friendly city. It is harsh and the people are also rough — comparable to what New York is like. You mentioned also the fact that your wife’s needs are of greatest importance as well. Having household help is such a luxury outside the Philippines! We currently pay a nice Moroccan lady 200 Euros a month: she comes here for 5 hours a week to do household cleanup and do laundry as needed. 10 euros per hour is on the lower end of the range. The classified ads at Expatica.com would give you an idea what nationalities are providing services as well as rates.

The biggest difficulty you and your wife would probably have is Read more…

I am the person you would least expect to talk about sports. I don’t follow any sport at all not even when I was in the U.S. In the US, they have the Superbowl every January but this is nothing compared to here where emotion run high because it is not just states competing here but countries so there is national pride mixed with testosterone which is a great recipe for madness. But then it’s not really just men who are in this, during lunch I ate alongside visiting lady German colleagues and they were saying that it was a pity that they were using the train going home so they would miss watching the football game that night. These ladies were working in the IT department.

So anyways, last time I even had the slightest interest of watching sports on TV was back in the Philippines watching Purefoods vs. San Miguel championships and that was about it. Both me and my husband are total geeks who are only into computers and we don’t have any ounce of sportiness in us. Just a second ago our topic of conversation runs like this:

“we should not use Team Foundation Server so that we don’t get locked in Microsoft” .. or… ” oh maybe we should get some training in SCRUM”

However, we realize our health deserves some attention too so we find ourselves talking about doing something physically active at least during the weekends. But this does not mean sports like tennis or cycling, so possibly we’ll just do some nature or city walks. Ok, I admit today is a Sunday and the sun seems to be up and we are both in front of the computers. No city or nature walks seem to be happening in the near horizon.

But anyways, a few years ago I was approached by my colleague at work and he talked about the “Poule” and that I should participate on it because it is “fun”. He tried to explain it briefly that it is something about football and such and you are predicting scores and winners and such but it was just too much for me to absorb so I just said sorry but I will pass because I have no idea. He said I can just join for fun and not put in any money bets. I still declined without batting an eyelash. Two years later, I was asked again by the same colleague. He made a small computer program where you can put in your guesses of who the top players are, the main winners and the scores of all the matches. Again, you don’t have to put in any money or place a bet. You could just play for fun but he warned that last time, the top winner was supposed to win but he did not place a bet — so too bad for him. So, ok, this year is for the Euro 2008.

I agreed to try it. I tried to research a bit and enter a few scores and uneducated guesses but that was it. I got busy with work and eventually wasn’t able to finish entering my bets. People at work talked about how much they are winning during lunch. You could see the ranks of “earnings” of all the people who participated in the Poule.

Meanwhile at home, it was the night where Netherlands played with Italy. My husband was working from home and I was watching GI Jane from the movie channel but it was easy for us to know who was winning judging from the loud noises and cheers from our downstairs neighbors. It was indeed impressive for the Dutch team since Italy was the former champion so to speak. Our team played excellently so far the next game which was with France, the runner up last time. My husband even told me that his friends were telling him that they were actually “nervous” about that game. I think the correct translation would have been “excited” rather than nervous but then maybe they were actually nervous. But hey, what is there to be nervous about a football game?! In the supermarkets they give away this little orange lion thingies called Welpies. Whoah! talk about football madness indeed. To be honest, to me they are an eyesore but maybe it will grow on me. That night I actually tried watching it. I saw their first score where one guy scored using his head (not figuratively but literally). I fell asleep a few minutes after. MrC told me that when Netherlands won our neighbors were banging all the walls and floors but luckily I was deep into sleep and it never woke me up. Anyways, it was a 4-1 win!

Everyone is jubilant these days and as expected I saw a lot of orange things while walking at the Centrum yesterday. The following photo was taken in Rembrandtplein yesterday.

I received the following e-mail while watching the video above and somehow this brought me to tears.. maybe I’m just too sentimental now ..

I also read about the story of Arnel Pineda’s incredible story.
Here’s another video that tells the story. It is indeed encouraging to hear and see another person’s wish came true inspite of the odds.

Believe it and you shall be blessed.

The problem with many of us is that we don’t believe
that God will open a window and pour out blessings
that we won’t have room to receive them. I dare anyone
to try God. He is true to His word. God cannot lie and
His promises are sure.

Three things will happen to you this coming week:

(1) You will find favour with someone you don’t
expect;

(2) You will be too relevant to be ignored;

(3) You will encounter God and you will never remain
the same again.

My prayer for you today:

The eyes beholding this message shall not behold evil,
the hands that will send this message to others shall
not labor in vain, the mouth saying Amen to this
prayer shall laugh forever. Remain in God’s love as
you send this prayer to everybody on your list. Have
a
lovely journey of life! Trust in the Lord with all
your heart and He will never fail you because He is
AWESOME!
If you truly need a blessing, continue reading this
email:

Heavenly Father, most Gracious and Loving God, I pray
to you that you abundantly bless my family and me. I
know that you recognize, that a family is more than
just a mother, father, sister, brother, husband and
wife, but all who believe and trust in you. Father, I
send up a prayer request for blessings for not only
the person who sent this to me, but for me and all
that I have forwarded this message on to. And that the
power of joined prayer by those who believe and trust
in you is more powerful than anything. I thank you in
advance for your blessings.

Father God, deliver the person reading this right now
from debt and debt’s burdens. Release your Godly
wisdom that I may be a good steward over all that You
have given me Father, for I
know how wonderful and
mighty you are and how if we just obey you and walk In
your word and have the faith of a mustard seed that
you will pour out blessings. I thank you now Lord for
the recent blessings I have received and for the
blessings yet to come because I know you are not done
with me yet.

In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen

TAKE 60 SECONDS and send this on quickly and within
hours, you will have caused a multitude of people to
pray to God for each other.

Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your
life for doing the thing that you know He loves.

Remain Blessed!!!

Don’t stop believing.

I think this blog should not only include just my wishes but I want to share others’ as well. Recently I received this e-mail from my aunt and here she described her own dreams as well. (The following e-mail has been edited to protect her privacy and the people she mentioned):

” I recently enrolled in a course Introduction to Viticulture. It is something interesting to me, having to do with grape growing and possibly in the future go to winemaking so I can use my food technology background.

I might even get a manual job picking grapes or looking after grape vines or seedlings in the future. Who knows? Life is full of surprises; It is an adventure, really!

I am happy for you that some of your ‘dreams’ come to reality too. I also notice the Filipino trait of helping others specially our family and relatives. I think that is not only Filipino but universal. But sadly in some affluent societies like Australia, the idea of helping family or relatives in terms of time and money is not as prevalent. I know of Filipino family members who are ‘heroes’ in their own right, like some of our countrymen working abroad just to have money for their family at home to make both ends meet, to send their children to school and be educated so that they can live a ‘better’ life for themselves and their children. It is very touching to see it myself ( as I have seen and met some of them in Belfast) and learn of those stories from elsewhere. My niece used to tell me what she saw in Dubai, the first time she was there, and she can not help but say that those Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis and other Asians working there, away from their families are sacrificing a lot to the point of being ‘heroes’ to their families.

I also experienced it with my parents, they literally ‘made night into day’ to have us educated and I think their dreams for their children have materialized in the sense that we, their children live in a ‘better’ circumstances, materially, than they. I can not speak for their social life as they also had a ‘life’ so to speak!

One of my dreams nowadays is to teach my grandchildren Tagalog so that they can pick up Filipinos talking our language wherever, and that they would feel joy in having a conscious identity of their Filipino heritage, a legacy I dream of leaving them. At present, I have told my son and daughter in law that when my granddaughter and I are on our own, I will only talk to her in Tagalog so that she can pick up some Pilipino words! What do you think of that dream?

I dream also of getting a paid job sometime in the future, after all these trips, and even at my age. One of these days, I dream of landing in a job that I will truly enjoy, probably only part-time, so it is not that stressful compared to other jobs I had. We can always dream, can’t we?

I read somewhere, that happiness can also be a decision; so we can decide to be happy whatever our material circumstances are, and count our blessings, without comparing ourselves with others. Life is also a personal philosophy and a choice and decision, ‘ika nga’. Whatever that means to other people, but its meaning is very clear to me, as I dream of ‘that’ choices and decisions all the time!”

I wish that my aunt’s dreams will come true as well.

Today is my sister’s 39th birthday. I wish her good health and may she find more free time to enjoy life and have the rest she deserves.
May her family be blessed with happiness in the years to come.