When I first moved here in 2007 there was one synagouge in Makati, in Metro Manila, but nobody really took an interest in it. All things considered there were maybe 150 Jews in the entire nation, including the Israeli Embassy (also in Makati). Fast foward to 2011 and there are now enough of us to support another synagouge and two koser take away joints (all in Makati). Seeing as how I still sublet a studio in Makati I had planned to spend a good week and a half or two shacked up with Joysa and take in the 10 day Holy Period from Rosh HaShanah (New Year) to Yom Kippur.
Of course good plans often go awry. Even if the NPA (Maoists) didn't start blowing up ships last week I still wouldn't have gone because I became very ill. Everybody here is pushing me to go to a shaman. Here they basically have two cures. Either it is a coconut or a cobra. When Rizza was young she almost died from a childhood disease until a shaman shoved cocnut oil down her gullet but the usual bullshit involves a dash of cobra venom. No thanks.
That reminds me. Ever since some rice farmer killed a 7 meter (21 ft) cobra (I saw it personally so it isn't an exaggeration) I have been anal retentive about getting some cobra anti-venom. Hospitals here don't stock it, but then cancer patients get anti-psychotics due to a lack og analgesics (blame me for that one maybe haha, nah it predates me by decades). I planned to buy it in Manila but then saw a nature show where this bloke was in Papua, on New Guinea and paranoid he went to the best Rx in the capital. He wanted it because he was shadowing some fat Aussie whose mission in life is milking highly venemous snakes so as to synthesise anti-venom for outlying settlements.
The man shadowing him buys a single vial that the Rx had for something like 500 US. He goes to the snake freak's house and proudly shows him his big prophylactic and Aussie fatso laughed at him. He told him it is for a snake found in some other part of the world.The journalist was a bit peeved and so he and fatso went to see the Minister of Health to complain. The Secretary made a big show of going back to the Rx and reaming out its Chinese propietress who calmly shrugged her shoulders in that non-commital way that most Chinese habve, guess when you eaty rat tongues and deep fried kittens (actual menu items mind you and the kitties are skinned alived and then dumped in boiling oil yum yum) you can be non-plussed about everything.
So, in the end, I reckoned that even if I had the one in a million cobra bite the rare vial I shelled an arm and a leg for wouldn't save me so why bother?
Speaking of giant wildlife, long time readers of this Blog will remember that a year or two ago a little Manobo tribal girl living in a floating village in Agusan Marsh had been travelling in her tiny dugout canoe when a giant croc nearly 7 meters long (almost 21 feet) snatched her by the head and had an hors d'ourve. Now, the record for crocodiles I believe is a mere 19 feet. Noone believed that croc was that big, a record-breaking specimin. Last week one well over 21 feet was taken alive in the neighbouring municipality of Bayugan and so now Guiness is sending some motherfucker with a sweetass job to come "officially" measure it despite having it already certified by several experts already. Me? I would just be happy if the artillery stopped long enough for me to go buy a case of Sprite down the road.
Of course good plans often go awry. Even if the NPA (Maoists) didn't start blowing up ships last week I still wouldn't have gone because I became very ill. Everybody here is pushing me to go to a shaman. Here they basically have two cures. Either it is a coconut or a cobra. When Rizza was young she almost died from a childhood disease until a shaman shoved cocnut oil down her gullet but the usual bullshit involves a dash of cobra venom. No thanks.
That reminds me. Ever since some rice farmer killed a 7 meter (21 ft) cobra (I saw it personally so it isn't an exaggeration) I have been anal retentive about getting some cobra anti-venom. Hospitals here don't stock it, but then cancer patients get anti-psychotics due to a lack og analgesics (blame me for that one maybe haha, nah it predates me by decades). I planned to buy it in Manila but then saw a nature show where this bloke was in Papua, on New Guinea and paranoid he went to the best Rx in the capital. He wanted it because he was shadowing some fat Aussie whose mission in life is milking highly venemous snakes so as to synthesise anti-venom for outlying settlements.
The man shadowing him buys a single vial that the Rx had for something like 500 US. He goes to the snake freak's house and proudly shows him his big prophylactic and Aussie fatso laughed at him. He told him it is for a snake found in some other part of the world.The journalist was a bit peeved and so he and fatso went to see the Minister of Health to complain. The Secretary made a big show of going back to the Rx and reaming out its Chinese propietress who calmly shrugged her shoulders in that non-commital way that most Chinese habve, guess when you eaty rat tongues and deep fried kittens (actual menu items mind you and the kitties are skinned alived and then dumped in boiling oil yum yum) you can be non-plussed about everything.
So, in the end, I reckoned that even if I had the one in a million cobra bite the rare vial I shelled an arm and a leg for wouldn't save me so why bother?
Speaking of giant wildlife, long time readers of this Blog will remember that a year or two ago a little Manobo tribal girl living in a floating village in Agusan Marsh had been travelling in her tiny dugout canoe when a giant croc nearly 7 meters long (almost 21 feet) snatched her by the head and had an hors d'ourve. Now, the record for crocodiles I believe is a mere 19 feet. Noone believed that croc was that big, a record-breaking specimin. Last week one well over 21 feet was taken alive in the neighbouring municipality of Bayugan and so now Guiness is sending some motherfucker with a sweetass job to come "officially" measure it despite having it already certified by several experts already. Me? I would just be happy if the artillery stopped long enough for me to go buy a case of Sprite down the road.