I got this news item from one of my e-newsletter subscriptions. It’s a story that’s very familiar to Filipinos: women being sold by their families to become servants. A story that’s straight out of a soap opera or a telenovela that I thought has become a cliche. I was wrong, since it’s still happening some place else and perhaps even in the Philippines. Read on.
I read obituaries in the newspapers. Kinda weird but I find the posts
very interesting. Makes me wonder how the person died, how the person
lived, and who the relatives are - sort of a genealogy study there. I’ve
informed Asawa Ko of obits where the person is part of his network (we come
from different networks, you see).
One thing I could not figure out though, is when someone is from another
country usually the US where
relatives have to write the obit with all the details of where each member of
the family is currently located and it usually happens that everyone is in the US. <name>
of Batangas City and Daly City, California died at the age of ___. Survived
by children: <name> of Glendale, California; <name> of New Jersey; <name> of Delano,
California; etc. etc.
This does not happen when the person who died and
the family is in the Philippines.
The obit would list all the names of members of family minus the places where
they live. I mean, what’s the difference? Why doesn’t it happen
when the family’s only in the Philippines? And do people
really care that everyone in the family’s in the US? It makes sense when it’s
the address of someone where people can send their condolences to but listing down
the towns where they live in the US just because it’s in the US?
I wrote once in another social network blog that one weird thing about me is that I am addicted to buying books. Not seriously addicted but probably getting there.
Asawa ko and I came home from a family visit in California carrying the two smallest boxes on the airport carousel (compared to the balikbayan boxes for each Fil-Am family member): one contained books (mostly purchased secondhand from bookstores in Berkeley), the other his bottles of wine purchased from way back. That’s all we needed to bring to the Philippines. Both of us are readers by the way although his books are more serious than mine.
So when Nora invited me to join Shelfari last week, I have been able to put on my account’s shelf over a hundred books in a few days. Books I have bought but still sitting on the bookshelf at home, books that have been partially read, books that I’ve read one time, and books that I keep going back again and again.
I used to spend a big chunk of my salary on CDs and books, now I have more for books since I download most of my music. The stories in these books have been a comforting presence when I’m feeling low, a relaxing one when I needed to calm down, and an exciting one when I can’t travel to the places I would’ve wanted to go. These have driven my imagination wild when everything else in my life has been so mundane. A few shaped how I think, perceive, and analyze.
Check out Shelfari and find me there and my books.
but piss, hoo, and die!
Yep, finished ‘Deathly Hallows’ yesterday afternoon. It was good but I’m not going to tell you how it ends. I’m going to tell you though that it has a feel of Narnia and the concept of deeper magic.
Rowling’s lesson also was clear that people should not be judgmental and that there is no such thing as purely good or purely bad (One can’t either be black or white, we are grays and every color of the rainbow). Our actions are often results of our emotions, perceptions, and experience. We do change as we travel through our life’s journey.
It was a good read and a good end (I think). Now’s the time to read the entire series again.
Because we’re Harry Potter suckers, we bought tickets two weeks before the opening of the Order of the Phoenix. And of course, we’ve also reserved the 7th book on the 1st day the bookstores were accepting reservations. Counting the days now for the last book.
Oh, lots of hints in the movie on what’s going to happen…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdqhcvFvDkE
If there’s anyone out there who has a copy of the movie, Temptation Island, pahiram!
Looks like everyone’s out on vacation. Buti pa sila.
‘No one suffered like we suffered’ because 1. we stayed home during holy week, and 2. our stove ran out of gas, just when all stores are closed. We HAD to use the electric burner. We seldom use that single electric burner that the first pot’s bottom that we cooked in this week was so greasy. The grease got stuck to the burner from frying all these years on the other frequently used gas burners. It’s that type of oven range (or is it range oven?? ok, I have to admit, I don’t know what I’m talking about here. Husband’s the cook, not me) where we have one electric burner and the rest runs on gas. We thought it was a wise buy but never really imagined using the electric burner. We would rather use gas.
We usually spend Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday at home because it’s so peaceful and quiet in Metro Manila. This year’s difference is that we didn’t go anywhere before the long break. I had to work, we have to save money. It’s that simple.
A couple of years ago we were in Makati on a Black Saturday. Had lunch at Mexicali and counted six interracial couples there including us which makes it very interesting. Are interracial couples not as religious as the others? (ok, there’s an assumption here that being religious is being a Christian for the sake of Holy Week). I don’t think so. We’re Christians but not Catholics maybe there’s the difference. So why all the interracial couples? Heck, dunno. We’re probably the only ones that are not on vacation but DARED to go out on a Black Saturday and didn’t care what others say.
Anyway, back to the oven, I started making brownies Friday night and didn’t realized that we need gas for the oven to bake it (See, told you I’m not a cook!). I had to put the baking pan, already with the batter, in the fridge and leave it there until we can get gas. Black Saturday comes, stores are still closed (the stores that mattered to us anyway, the ones that sell gas). We called our suki again Sunday morning, still no luck. By noon, we decided to walk to the talipapa where we found this one store open and finally got to bake the brownies, which turned out to be too sweet for our taste. Geez…
Nothing to say… but you can check out my other blog for photos and stuff…
Oh wow! Do I feel old!
Agnes posted a message in her bulletin board about this directory that the Grand Assembly is doing for its session this May. Aprille, the letter sender, was a baby when I was still an active member. Jeez, has it been that long? They call me Ate now although I know some of you here are Moms!!
The directory sounds exciting. I hope I can get a copy of it since it’s been a long time since I’ve been involved with the group. Whoever, because it only said Anthurium Assembly, answered my email sent me this link to the Grand Assembly website: http://www.freewebs.com/iorg-ph. The pictures on the website brought back a lot of both good and bad memories (hehehe… the bad ones are those when we: usually ako, Sheila A., and Pam, would try to escape the sessions during Grand Assembly that one time I was late for practice where I was supposed to lead).
I don’t know though if I can attend the Grand Assembly this year but it would be nostalgic for me. The first Cagayan de Oro held Grand Assembly was my term.
