Today is Friday, December 26th, 2008 and it is now 6:24 PM here in the Philippines.
I meant to follow up immediately, on my last entry, but got sidetracked with all the guests and commotion.
I got into alot of music and a book yesterday so I will omit my music and book for this entry (sigh of relief heard from the readers).
The family is Catholic, but none even in the extended family are very religious at all. I do not know of one relative who goes to mass, ever. ALL the kids though, from the entire Beldad and Sigayle family (Beldad is the extended family, and Dad is a Sigayle) attend a school run by the Catholic Church , "Mt. Carmel College."
This is to be expected. Education is held in very high regard in this country, in almost all parts although sadly not for most Muslims. Interestingly, I have found this far and wide in the Muslim World. As long as a child is taught enough Qur'an they are considered "educated." In Israel we send our kids to school, 8 to 12 hours a day from age 3. Arabs though, especially Muslims, do not do so until state mandated (age 5 to 6 depending on the birthdate). The result is a gap in earning power which translates into a greater social divide and you can guess the rest.
It sounds terrible to say it but it is an actual fact.
Here, it also leads to a gap with Muslims and Lumad (Tribals on the low end of the totem pole) and Catholic and Christians on the high end. In addition, the Spanish naturally gravitated towards Catholics and Christians in administering the country and so on. The Yanks did the same and now today this is probably the greatest reason why there is so much sectarian strife here. We make Indonesia look like a liberal nation.
So, all the kids go to Mt. Carmel, as it would be a terrible thing "face" wise to go to the state schools - but we do not even have Christianity in our lives (Thank G-D) except at funerals, which I cannot attened (Jewish Law forbids me attended a service of another religion). How is X-mas celebrated then? After all, it is never lower than the low 70s Farenheit here.
Well, most villages have a square, etc. We have a circle, a traffic circle on National Hiway, where our road Mangga meets National Hiway ,actually, about 2 km west of us. It is called the "Rotunda," but is just a fenced grassy traffic circle with some tall trees standing in the middle.
This time of year the trees are strung with coloured lights just as one would see in the US, etc. At any time of the year the Rotunda is the focal point for the young people of the village. Dating is non-existent here. Cities I am sure are different, Manila, Cebu, but not here in the far Provinces.
Marriages have not been arranged for a couple of generations, in most cases, but casual dating is non-existent. This is why when young Filipinas go on line and meet guys they all of a sudden start talking marriage (as I have learned from the 2 expat sites I had been spending time at). All the whitemen say, "Get a girl from the Provinces," specifically because they are so very innocent.
No offence , but those men disgust me. They cannot get a girl in their own country because of caveman like mentalities so they travel 16,000 miles to meet one. I was reading them on those sites verbally denigrating Western women (hey, I happen to agree but not for the same reasons), because in their worldview women should only speak when spoken to, etc.
Filipinas, at least Province girls (i.e. "Countrygirls") are insulted, almost always, if you do not allow them to pamper you. The same is true of Jewish girls. Men and women have sharply defined roles. However, this generalisation does not always hold water. It is most often true, but not all the time and those in large cities probably are more liberal than those expats and Westerners like to imagine.
In any regard, you can see teens and young adults talking, very innocently in the Rotunda anytime of the day, as long as it the sun has not gone down. Most people out here sleep very early, by 9 it is rare except on festival nights, etc., to see anyone up and about. We all wake up before sunlight, and I love it, just like the army hahaha.
Anyway, X-mas Eve I was pulled in to to do the job noone wants to do, including our workers. I had to slaughter 6 of our hogs but because of the heightened security conditions we arranged to have them trucked from Propseridad village, where we have most of our livestock.
In our compound, where we live, we have a small flock of chickens for daily meat and/or eggs, a few goats for butchering, usually one hog for the youngest kids in each family to raise for money - to learn responsibility, and Dad's flock of turkeys which drive him crazy but give him something to do.
We also have ducks but we let them be , they live in the creek beside the compound, but we always have to be vigilant because our workers eat roadkill. What do you think they would do with those ducks? Sometimes we steal the ducks' eggs to make the Philippine delcacy, "Balut."
"Balut" are fertilised duck eggs, still in the embryonic stage. You can find them all over the country, sold as street snacks. They are extremely popular. Rizza is crazy about them but they make me want to puke...and in my life I have eaten incredible things, even eaten raw rat. That is how disgusting I find Balut (I am sorry Filipinos!).
They use their thumb, etc., to poke a hole in the top of the egg, then they season it, usually with "kalamansi" (I will explain shortly) and then scarf it down raw. YIKES!!! Little feathers, yolk, ugggghhhhh....
A "kalamansi" is a citrus fruit native to the islands here. They are tiny, smaller than "Key Limes," very round and very green skinned. Inside they are orange fleshed and medium sour to taste. Usually, it is used as a condiment on EVERYHTING, often mixed with soy sauce. In any cafe they offer them without asking, it is that much of a staple condiment.
Well, one of our drivers trucked in the hogs, and with labourers sitting astride their necks, while 2 others held their legs, I cut their throats and drained the blood, which we usually allow our labourers and machine operators to have as a treat.
After all the blood has stopped running we hoist the hog up on a hook and chain via a pulley inside the mill, and let ALL the blood drain. Then comes the skinning. In the past we used to allow the labourers to also keep the skins, but I stopped that 2 years ago because of the amount of money we were pissing out the door with that largesse.
I then allow the labourers to butcher it, along with our head cook who makes sure they do a good job. We always give them a few pounds of pork, all entrails, tail, and ears.
I just do the killing. Funny, that has been my best skill on through life. Mom used to freak out when I would butcher something. You would imagine that living in the countryside all her life that butchering would be common work for her but life is not like that at all here.
Mom grew up and has remained an upper class woman and life here while not based on any real caste system is very much conscious of class. For example, I cannot drive our mill trucks (10 and 18 wheerlers) because it would then show me to be working. I can only do very supervisory things, such as counting sacks, to make sure the money is right, etc.
She could never understand how I could kill so easily, and it is difficult to make her understand. She has never been abroad, never fired a gun, etc. She is not so innocent, she is very intelligent but still, she has not seen the world.
Speaking of "guns," I received one from Mom and Dad, a 9mm Sig which they had saw me handle at the S and M Mall in Davao City. As a foreigner here I cannot get a permit, but everyone carries guns on Mindanao. I also carry it in Cebu, admittedly.
Aside from having a wife get the piece, or a family member, a person can also use one of the gunsmiths in places like Mandue right outside Cebu City which has a cottage industry. Just as when I was in Peshawar, Pakistan I was amazed to see people taking a magazine picture of a modern advanced weapon and within 5 working days craft probably a better working version!!!
Anyway, I have a 32, a 45, now 2 9s, 1 M16, and 1 Galil. We have alot more spread throughout the compound and that is a good thing given the lifestyle here. Life is very cheap.
Last New Years my eldest bro-in-law Ariel, aged
23, and Dad took the Provincial Course required
for gun permits and both got new chrome 45s. Now Rizza is bugging me to allow her to take a course as well. She says that she wants to be "just like Israeli girls" (sic) she is so cute sometimes. OK, I tell her, I will teach you. "No, I want a permit to carry it openly." WHAT?
Well we are still discussing that. It is difficult to get her to understand that once you have a gun in your hand, in real life (meaning outside of practice), you must be ready and willing to use it. In other words, if it is in your hand, it should only be because you are going to try and KILL something. It is not a toy, a prop. You do not pull it for show. If you draw down it better be to put in work.
Shortly before I left for NYC this last trip, must have been March this year, ending of March, I was discussing the New Testament with Dad in the sala (living room/parlour). All of a sudden we heard screaming from the northen end of our compound, female screams.
We are embroiled in a family feud, which I will explain shortly, and my first reaction was that it was related to that. I ran in my flip flops (everyone wears them, called "tsinela" here) and kicked them off as I got to the fence/wall.
It was the 2nd maid from the Main House (Mom and Dad's house)...But I will have to get ot that in my next entry because of the vile character count...
I meant to follow up immediately, on my last entry, but got sidetracked with all the guests and commotion.
I got into alot of music and a book yesterday so I will omit my music and book for this entry (sigh of relief heard from the readers).
The family is Catholic, but none even in the extended family are very religious at all. I do not know of one relative who goes to mass, ever. ALL the kids though, from the entire Beldad and Sigayle family (Beldad is the extended family, and Dad is a Sigayle) attend a school run by the Catholic Church , "Mt. Carmel College."
This is to be expected. Education is held in very high regard in this country, in almost all parts although sadly not for most Muslims. Interestingly, I have found this far and wide in the Muslim World. As long as a child is taught enough Qur'an they are considered "educated." In Israel we send our kids to school, 8 to 12 hours a day from age 3. Arabs though, especially Muslims, do not do so until state mandated (age 5 to 6 depending on the birthdate). The result is a gap in earning power which translates into a greater social divide and you can guess the rest.
It sounds terrible to say it but it is an actual fact.
Here, it also leads to a gap with Muslims and Lumad (Tribals on the low end of the totem pole) and Catholic and Christians on the high end. In addition, the Spanish naturally gravitated towards Catholics and Christians in administering the country and so on. The Yanks did the same and now today this is probably the greatest reason why there is so much sectarian strife here. We make Indonesia look like a liberal nation.
So, all the kids go to Mt. Carmel, as it would be a terrible thing "face" wise to go to the state schools - but we do not even have Christianity in our lives (Thank G-D) except at funerals, which I cannot attened (Jewish Law forbids me attended a service of another religion). How is X-mas celebrated then? After all, it is never lower than the low 70s Farenheit here.
Well, most villages have a square, etc. We have a circle, a traffic circle on National Hiway, where our road Mangga meets National Hiway ,actually, about 2 km west of us. It is called the "Rotunda," but is just a fenced grassy traffic circle with some tall trees standing in the middle.
This time of year the trees are strung with coloured lights just as one would see in the US, etc. At any time of the year the Rotunda is the focal point for the young people of the village. Dating is non-existent here. Cities I am sure are different, Manila, Cebu, but not here in the far Provinces.
Marriages have not been arranged for a couple of generations, in most cases, but casual dating is non-existent. This is why when young Filipinas go on line and meet guys they all of a sudden start talking marriage (as I have learned from the 2 expat sites I had been spending time at). All the whitemen say, "Get a girl from the Provinces," specifically because they are so very innocent.
No offence , but those men disgust me. They cannot get a girl in their own country because of caveman like mentalities so they travel 16,000 miles to meet one. I was reading them on those sites verbally denigrating Western women (hey, I happen to agree but not for the same reasons), because in their worldview women should only speak when spoken to, etc.
Filipinas, at least Province girls (i.e. "Countrygirls") are insulted, almost always, if you do not allow them to pamper you. The same is true of Jewish girls. Men and women have sharply defined roles. However, this generalisation does not always hold water. It is most often true, but not all the time and those in large cities probably are more liberal than those expats and Westerners like to imagine.
In any regard, you can see teens and young adults talking, very innocently in the Rotunda anytime of the day, as long as it the sun has not gone down. Most people out here sleep very early, by 9 it is rare except on festival nights, etc., to see anyone up and about. We all wake up before sunlight, and I love it, just like the army hahaha.
Anyway, X-mas Eve I was pulled in to to do the job noone wants to do, including our workers. I had to slaughter 6 of our hogs but because of the heightened security conditions we arranged to have them trucked from Propseridad village, where we have most of our livestock.
In our compound, where we live, we have a small flock of chickens for daily meat and/or eggs, a few goats for butchering, usually one hog for the youngest kids in each family to raise for money - to learn responsibility, and Dad's flock of turkeys which drive him crazy but give him something to do.
We also have ducks but we let them be , they live in the creek beside the compound, but we always have to be vigilant because our workers eat roadkill. What do you think they would do with those ducks? Sometimes we steal the ducks' eggs to make the Philippine delcacy, "Balut."
"Balut" are fertilised duck eggs, still in the embryonic stage. You can find them all over the country, sold as street snacks. They are extremely popular. Rizza is crazy about them but they make me want to puke...and in my life I have eaten incredible things, even eaten raw rat. That is how disgusting I find Balut (I am sorry Filipinos!).
They use their thumb, etc., to poke a hole in the top of the egg, then they season it, usually with "kalamansi" (I will explain shortly) and then scarf it down raw. YIKES!!! Little feathers, yolk, ugggghhhhh....
A "kalamansi" is a citrus fruit native to the islands here. They are tiny, smaller than "Key Limes," very round and very green skinned. Inside they are orange fleshed and medium sour to taste. Usually, it is used as a condiment on EVERYHTING, often mixed with soy sauce. In any cafe they offer them without asking, it is that much of a staple condiment.
Well, one of our drivers trucked in the hogs, and with labourers sitting astride their necks, while 2 others held their legs, I cut their throats and drained the blood, which we usually allow our labourers and machine operators to have as a treat.
After all the blood has stopped running we hoist the hog up on a hook and chain via a pulley inside the mill, and let ALL the blood drain. Then comes the skinning. In the past we used to allow the labourers to also keep the skins, but I stopped that 2 years ago because of the amount of money we were pissing out the door with that largesse.
I then allow the labourers to butcher it, along with our head cook who makes sure they do a good job. We always give them a few pounds of pork, all entrails, tail, and ears.
I just do the killing. Funny, that has been my best skill on through life. Mom used to freak out when I would butcher something. You would imagine that living in the countryside all her life that butchering would be common work for her but life is not like that at all here.
Mom grew up and has remained an upper class woman and life here while not based on any real caste system is very much conscious of class. For example, I cannot drive our mill trucks (10 and 18 wheerlers) because it would then show me to be working. I can only do very supervisory things, such as counting sacks, to make sure the money is right, etc.
She could never understand how I could kill so easily, and it is difficult to make her understand. She has never been abroad, never fired a gun, etc. She is not so innocent, she is very intelligent but still, she has not seen the world.
Speaking of "guns," I received one from Mom and Dad, a 9mm Sig which they had saw me handle at the S and M Mall in Davao City. As a foreigner here I cannot get a permit, but everyone carries guns on Mindanao. I also carry it in Cebu, admittedly.
Aside from having a wife get the piece, or a family member, a person can also use one of the gunsmiths in places like Mandue right outside Cebu City which has a cottage industry. Just as when I was in Peshawar, Pakistan I was amazed to see people taking a magazine picture of a modern advanced weapon and within 5 working days craft probably a better working version!!!
Anyway, I have a 32, a 45, now 2 9s, 1 M16, and 1 Galil. We have alot more spread throughout the compound and that is a good thing given the lifestyle here. Life is very cheap.
Last New Years my eldest bro-in-law Ariel, aged
23, and Dad took the Provincial Course required
for gun permits and both got new chrome 45s. Now Rizza is bugging me to allow her to take a course as well. She says that she wants to be "just like Israeli girls" (sic) she is so cute sometimes. OK, I tell her, I will teach you. "No, I want a permit to carry it openly." WHAT?
Well we are still discussing that. It is difficult to get her to understand that once you have a gun in your hand, in real life (meaning outside of practice), you must be ready and willing to use it. In other words, if it is in your hand, it should only be because you are going to try and KILL something. It is not a toy, a prop. You do not pull it for show. If you draw down it better be to put in work.
Shortly before I left for NYC this last trip, must have been March this year, ending of March, I was discussing the New Testament with Dad in the sala (living room/parlour). All of a sudden we heard screaming from the northen end of our compound, female screams.
We are embroiled in a family feud, which I will explain shortly, and my first reaction was that it was related to that. I ran in my flip flops (everyone wears them, called "tsinela" here) and kicked them off as I got to the fence/wall.
It was the 2nd maid from the Main House (Mom and Dad's house)...But I will have to get ot that in my next entry because of the vile character count...