Philippines Adventure, Pt. 4
This may come as a surprise but I think that Filipina Kelsey is more Type B than she ever thought possible! I know this is shocking news, but let me explain. I no longer rush around with my head cut off, thinking about the hundred things I must accomplish when normal people cut the number off at two or three. I do not sleep for three hours between 9 am and noon, but I am getting regular sleep! Thank the Lord ☺ I am reading books upon books. I have finished three alone this past week. I am exercising regularly, albeit only a 30-minute to 40-minute run, but still it’s something to keep me going. I am still making lists of what I want to accomplish, so maybe that is my true nature popping up, but the rest has wonderfully calmed down. I get up at 6 am or before and I go to bed between 11 and midnight with a wonderfully mundane routine in between. Sometimes, although I love adventuring and scouring the earth for more excitement, I am content to simply stand still and enjoy being alive.
I have finally discovered what part I can play in house maintenance. I have not concerned myself with house maintenance for a long time. Sure, when I go home, I help with the dishes, but it has been a
while since I cleaned toilets and scrubbed floors. On my floor, there are two bathrooms and three bedrooms, mine included. One of the bedrooms is used for a storage area and the other bedroom is used as the guest bedroom. In that room, there is a bathroom with a shower that produces warm water. (I have to say that although I am content to wash my clothes in an orange bucket, it would have been difficult to acclimate myself to a cold shower although the body can do anything when put to the test.) There is no one who cleans these bathrooms regularly, so I have decided that this task will be my task. None is the students is assigned to clean these bathrooms, so I will maintain them. It felt good to take the floor mats and scrub them by hand, leaving them out to dry in the sun, and it was surprisingly satisfying to wash the toilets with bleach and scrub the floors. Before making this decision, I had almost resigned myself to do nothing; I saw my dirty sink, and I thought to myself, “Who really cares if this sink is clean or dirty?” That was not productive; we should always take care of the things we have been given even if we are the only ones who avail ourselves of them. I am glad I shook that thought off and joined the ranks of students and staff as they maintained their abode.
This week I was a diligent teacher, teaching my fair share of one hour per day, four times a week, plus I taught three extra lessons to cover for the director of the school who was in Manila offering comfort to some of the pastors and some of their family members who lost all their belongings in the typhoon flooding. On Wednesday, I taught three class periods in a row, or three hours in total. I felt so bad for the students who had to listen to an American for three consecutive hours. Well, they weren’t the only ones exhausted. I have a new found appreciation for those teachers who teach on a regular basis on that schedule. It is hard to keep both the students and oneself invested in the lessons. So, my blog this week reflects observations I have been making since my arrival and delves more deeply into some academic issues that are pertinent to my stay here. It is fun to talk not just about personal things, but to tie my personal experience into the larger web of cause-and-effect situations that apply to the general population. I hope that you appreciate my efforts although you may find the information a little tedious. Pick and choose and enjoy ☺
Burning Trash
Remember how I said the smell of burning trash is always lingering in the air, that there is always some pile of trash smoldering at some location? Well, I was reminded of this phenomenon while running one day at Wright Park. I was running at the same time that two big piles of trash were burning to my left. Each time I rounded the corner, I saw the burning heaps of refuse and thought to myself, “What is better for the environment: burning trash or keeping a garbage dump full of non-biodegradable products like plastics, rubbers, polymers of various shapes and sizes, and myriad other things that get carelessly thrown away because its convenient. But what happens when you throw something away and there is no one to take it from you? You are left with the reminder of your waste, so there are few alternatives than to incinerate the evidence to make room for future incrimination.
I went on-line to do a little digging about the effects of burning trash and to see if it was considerably worse for the environment than garbage dumps. After my small amount of research, I cannot say that it is better or worse. Each has its problems to which we must attend, but it does seem like professional incinerators that are equipped with air filters and burn trash at high temperatures may be the best method out there, even though I am sure they use magnificent amounts of energy to fuel the conflagration that effectively destroys the trash. It seems as if I can say with confidence that if you are planning to burn trash, do not burn it in what are called “burn barrels” which look like the metal barrels over which homeless people huddle to warm their bodies in the winter. Apparently, these barrels do not permit the fire to burn at a high temperature because they stifle the flow of oxygen. When the temperature of the fire is low, more toxins are released into the atmosphere. The types of toxins that are released depend on the types of things being burned. So, harmful chemicals are released into the air when trash is burned, not unlike the harmful chemicals that seep into water reservoirs under dumps or noxious gases that are produced from the aging of the dump. Therefore, the best method of getting rid of trash is to not make any, and that is the difficult thing. Reduction is always the most challenging thing when it is applied to things we take for granted. The only way to reduce is to be conscious of the consequences of our actions.
Cell Phone Usage (Bear with me on this one; it will pay off in the end)
Filipinos love to talk; or rather, I should say they love to text. There are several reasons for this affinity towards texting. First, it is really cheap to text, and second, sometimes the cell service is not strong enough to get through to people, but texting almost always seems to work. Now, it would seem easy enough to figure out the system of cell phones. Well, let me tell you, it is not as easy as the Filipinos make it look. They need a Cell Phones in the Philippines for Dummies because the amount of details you have to know in order to get the best plan is quite a maze. For example, there are many different cell phone companies from which you can choose—not unlike the United States, and I dare say the system in the U.S. is as complicated and maybe even more so. I guess I take for granted the cell phone system in the U.S. I am on my mom’s plan and before that I was on the “family plan” paying my stepdad and not the cell phone provider. It is amazing what protection a family nucleus can provide without so much as a thought.
Well, I have learned th
at when you travel, you are bound to make some mistakes and from those mistakes learn the best route to take. I have never been a tour lover; meaning I do not like organized tours or being spoon-fed on how I should act and what path I should take in order to appreciate my surroundings fully. No, I want to forge my own way, take the winding paths that lead to unknown destinations and smile with my pretend machete in hand. (I finally saw a real machete up close and personal. In the Philippines it is called a bolo and it is small, allowing for effective usage. Before I leave, I am going to cut down some bamboo or some firewood, not just for sport, but that’s what they do with it. I am sure that it will be more work than help for me to assist, but I am sure that the kind maintenance staff member will humor me at least one time. And, who knows? Maybe I will be an excellent bolo user or whatever you would call someone who uses that tool.)
So, I am like Magellan sailing across the open seas with no idea as to where I am going or what lands I will find, just trying to get through that next narrow passage to find glories and wonders never before seen. (I just hope I don’t get killed like Magellan did by the Filipino chief, Lapu Lapu. I am more prudent than that. Did you know that he was killed in the Philippines? He allied himself with Humabon, one of the chiefs near the town now called Cebu in the Visayas, where he landed, and the chief took advantage of the fact that Magellan was prideful and viewed himself more highly than he ought. So, the Humabon asked Magellan to help him fight away his enemy, Lapu Lapu, and Magellan agreed, even going as far as refusing the men that Humabon offered to aid in the effort. Cocky and dangerously self-assured, he and his men attempted an amphibious attack, only to realize the island did not lend itself as a good harbor. Their cannons were out of range, and the men could not move very fluidly in their metal armor as they waded through the water. The natives, practically naked and nimble, quickly overtook the would-be soldiers, and Magellan was fatally wounded. He did, however, save many men as he pushed forward while commanding everyone else to retreat. So, that’s account of Magellan.)
Amazing how I can go from cell phones to bolos to Magellan, huh? That is my skill, and it is called stream of consciousness. I hope that you enjoy its veritable continuous appeal. But, now I will return to my original intent and that is to talk about cell phones. I realize that cell phones are necessary things these days. It is really hard to use a pay phone because there are even more bells and whistles you must undergo than for the cell phones. Anyway, I wanted to get a SIM card because I did not want to get myself into a situation where I would really need to contact one of the staff members, and I would be without a means for doing so. (I learned this lesson in France, so I do learn lessons, albeit slowly; but, once learned, always learned.) I decided on SunCell, which is one of the cheapest providers but also one of the most unreliable in the mountains. There is a joke that says that where there the sun shines, the SunCell signal is strong! I did not know this when I purchased it; so when I took it back home, I had no signal.
It took me a couple of days of hoping I would soon have cell signal to call the effort flawed. I consulted my Vietnamese friend, who is a part of the staff and close to me in age, almost exactly one year my senior, and decided to discuss this matter with her. She often times seems all-knowing about these simple details because she has been navigating them for five years now. She explained to me the nuances of the system and advised me to buy Smart, which is better in the Baguio area. Fortunately, though, my SunCell experience was not a complete waste because the staff all uses SunCell during the large conference we will sponsor in January. Yeah! I didn’t really make a mistake; I simply delayed success. That is much better ☺ I am improving!! Then, once I figured out the cell provider process, I had to wade through the issue of “loads.” This is what they call the process of getting credit on your cell phone. The majority of people use the pay-as-you-go system. It has so many bizarre restrictions that I think are in place to keep the prices cheap.
To send one text, you only have to pay two cents if you choose the standard option, meaning that if you buy a “load” worth 50 pesos, you will be able to send 50 texts. That is pretty straight forward, but they all have different periods of validity. For instance, you could buy unlimited texts to those who share your provider for 50 cents, but this “load” is only valid ONE day! Can you believe it? How annoying to have to load every single day! I did not like that. I bought that “load” once and used maybe 10 texts before it was no longer valid. I queried as to whether I could get a “load” that would last longer considering I have few people I need to text on a regular basis. I finally figured out the perfect plan for me! It only took me two weeks and a couple silly attempts. The Philippines is a little more financially forgiving than France was, so I might have only lost one dollar or two dollars. (It seems like a lot more, though, because one dollar is about 46 pesos. It always seems like I am spending a lot more than I am. That is better than the reverse!) I bought a 100-peso “load” that lasts one month. This means that I can send about 100 texts plus there were 35 texts included in the package. This only cost me $2.50. What a deal and how ideal ☺
So, I finally accomplished my point, but the reason why I even decided to share all the those details is to expound on the value I place on communication and the pleasure it brings me, particularly when I am traveling, to see that people are thinking of me and to send e-mails, letters, and messages to my loved ones as well. I am so content here. Loneliness is not even a part of my vocabulary, but peaceful isolation is a blanket that covers me throughout the day. It is such a small celebration when I hear from home, and now, when I hear from Erik, my stepbrother, who is volunteering in Romblon, a set of three small islands in the Visayas. He and I text at least once a day, and it is such a small blessing to be connected to someone like that, to know that someone is thinking of you. It brightens an already bright day for me. When I get an e-mail from a loved one or better yet, a letter, I cannot help but smile expansively. It brings me joy not because I was sad before, quite the contrary; I rejoice because of the human connection that makes life that much sweeter, and it’s free (aside from the cost of postage if you are sending a letter, of course). So, my whole cell phone litany was really about the innocuous and lovely glee I feel when I can communicate with those I love. We should never take for granted this small gift we can give one another. It’s like a smile with ready-made interpretation.
Taho and other Filipino Foods
Now I will talk about food. Everyone likes food stories. First, I will talk about taho because it is delicious, looks gross, and has a very unique place in the market of Filipino foods. Taho is a soft tofu-like product. It is silky smooth and is served lukewarm. (I don’t know if it is supposed to be served lukewarm, but its temperature is a result of the manner in which it is sold.) The reason it looks gross is two-fold: soy products are not known for their appetizing appearance; nondescript would be a better adjective to use for soy; and it is mixed with these small pale-colored tapioca balls (like a
muted yellow-green crayon) and with dark sugary syrup that gives this treat its memorable flavor but incidentally makes it look like a repulsive explosion of stomach acid and leftover lunch. One must be ready to avert one’s eyes and prepare one’s mouth for the gastronomic treasures of an unfamiliar culture. Now, the coolest thing about taho is the way it is sold. First, there is the container that carries the taho, made from two 10-gallon aluminum pales; one is reserved for the soy curd, slinky like jello as it falls from the long, flat spoon into the six-ounce plastic cup, and the other is reserved for the syrup and the tapioca, being cleverly divided by an aluminum wall. The spoon used for the tapioca and the syrup is much longer, in order to reach more profoundly into the bucket, and is effective for stirring up the concoction as one, two, three and sometimes four spoonfuls of syrup is deftly incorporated into the creamy soy. For 25 cents, I could eat this everyday. But wait, I almost forgot the best part. These two buckets are connected by a long wooden pole, which the traveling taho man carries over his shoulders. Instead of a bell like an ice cream truck may use to indicate its presence, the taho man uses his bellowing voice to announce his arrival. I can hear hom coming slowly up the hill, and I can hear him as he continues to town, all the while yelling, “Ta—HOOOOOOOOO! Ta—HOOOOOOOO! Ta—HOOOOOOO!” He does this over and over; the only time he stops yelling is when he is making a sale. The same man comes up our road at the same time everyday. It is incredible his regularity, and yet, it is difficult for me to gauge his arrival because his voice is so ubiquitous, I never know if he is close or far. How I love this native treat!
Besides taho I have been eating a lot of great food since I arrived. I love to try new things and to be adventurous, tantalizing and tempting the tongue with the dual possibility of pleasure and disgust. I have eaten more types of leaves than I ever thought possible. Since I am vegetarian, I am more apt to eat a lot of different vegetables, including things like kale and spinach, which are really good for you. Filipinos take eating healthy to a new level. (The sad thing is that Westernization has gotten a hold of the country and fast food is almost as commonly consumed as the traditional foods, which are far cheaper and better for the body. Soda, chips, candies, and all manner of unhealthy junk food have swept through the country and are plaguing the majority of the population. The taste for traditional foods is being lost, particularly on the urban landscapes.) I have eaten more leaves since arriving than I ever thought possible. It is amazing how you can eat the whole plant of many of the Filipino vegetables. I wonder if we could do the same in the U.S. if those leaves were reserved and not disposed of, like sweet potatoes. Yeah, you can eat the leaves!
I love the sour taste of the leaves, like I am biting into health ☺ Then, there are so many different types of root vegetables that you can buy and make all sorts of different ways. We bought this one root vegetable that looked like a deformed and stunted potato from a street vendor. It was already cooked and the coarse, ashen flesh was starting to peel off. When we got home, we soaked it in hot water to sanitize it from the dirty market, then took a knife and removed the outer layer. The flesh was surprisingly creamy and kind of tasteless to be honest. It could not compare to the sticky cassava treats I was eating alongside this healthy root. The cassava treats are so wonderful I could eat them everyday. It is boiled cassava that is mashed and mixed with only a dash of sugar, then formed into long tamale-shaped rolls then placed into a banana leaf and steamed. Yum! They only cost 12 cents a piece, and they are a great addition to any meal and a perfect snack. I also love to eat these soft white rice cakes called puto. They are cheap and yummy!
I ate a whole fish the other day. Yeah, I decided that because it was caught in the Philippines and was still whole (I mean, this was a real fish with the scales and head and everything still on it) and unfrozen, I was not making a bad environmental decision eating it. I have been able to reclaim my wholehearted vegetarianism because the students and cook have really accommodated me. I did not press the issue, but I think they got tired of seeing me silently scoop around the meat pieces, and they probably thought, “Well, more for us!” Anyway, the fish I ate was tilapia, which cracked me up because I thought of the way the tilapia looks in the States: frozen, devoid of any last fishy sort of characteristic, and ready for breading and frying. That is the kind of fish I don’t want to eat, one that have been completely divested of all natural components and left with a mildly flavored piece of protein and omega-fatty acids.
Did you know that I eat my food with a fork and spoon? There are no knives ever at the table. We reserve the knives for cutting the vegetables and the meat in the kitchen. The system is very effective and civilized. I hold the fork in my left hand and hold the spoon in my right, mixing the rice and veggies together with both utensils then pushing the food onto my spoon with my fork. The spoon is the device that carries the food from the plate to the mouth. This is quite logical since rice can easily slip through the spaces in a fork and the meat pieces are always small enough that they mix thoroughly into the rice and need no additional cutting. It took me a few days to figure out that I was supposed to use both the utensils to eat, and now, I think it is one of the greatest things ever. I am just happy I don’t have to use chopsticks! It might have been different if the Japanese had retained control of the Philippines instead of the European/American influence that managed both to ravish and to lavish the Filipino society.
Anyway, I could go
on about the good things I am trying, but I will end with two lovely confections called ube (prounounced oo-bey) and mongo hopia. The first is the purplest thing you will ever see! When I first saw it, I thought it was died with some sort of potent combination of red and blue food coloring, but I was informed that the color was the natural color of the purple yam. It was a yam! I have never seen a purple yam before, so naturally, I was curious to at least try it, though I sincerely doubted that it would actually taste good. Once I consumed one spoonful of the viscous substance, I was a changed woman (okay, not really, but I was hooked, let’s say). Now, I could eat ube at every meal. I can even buy ube ice cream and ube rolls and even ube filled hopia, which I will discuss next. Hopia is the name of a small pastry that is filled with something, usually mung beans or pork. The beans are so nicely ground and mixed with sugar to form a sweet and sort of sticky paste that is encased with a thin breading. The hopia filled with mung beans are called mongo hopia and those that are filled with ube are called ube hopia. I buy myself these treats when I make my way into town. I always manage to buy myself a little treat while I am running errands downtown. It makes for a sweet diversion.
Rice Economics: complicated and curious
Apparently, the month of November is Celebrate Rice Month. There are cooking competitions in Manila and some children activities as well. Here in Baguio, I have not heard anything special about rice. It maintains its central position at every meal as a one-and-a-half-cup serving for each student and a communal platter for the staff. I can’t say that I will miss rice when I leave the Philippines, but I think that once I leave the continent of rice I will be surprised to rediscover all the whole grains I used to eat. I tried to describe some of the hearty and delicious grains from back home. The words quinoa, buckwheat, bulgur, couscous are completely unfamiliar. They did recognize the word barley but only to say they don’t have much of that here. Thank the
Lord they have oatmeal. I resisted the desire to eat it, and I told myself I wouldn’t buy myself comfort foods from home, but the staff persists in buying it, knowing that I like it, so I eat it. I have never been a waster, so if it’s there, I am going to eat it ☺ I am not going to force myself to eat chicken rice gruel, which they love, when I can thick and hearty oatmeal. I would eat the gruel if there were no oatmeal; I maintain my flexibility.
I decided that since I am eating rice at every single meal and am surrounded by the versatility of rice, I would learn something about the economics of growing rice and its importance to the Filipino people. The government has decided that it would like the Philippines to be ricetainable (this is my word for describing the sustainable and adequate production of rice in the Philippines to meet at least domestic demand) by 2013. It will be interesting to see if this happens, considering the Philippines is currently the largest importer of rice in Asia. This is going to be kind of a long entry, so if you are interested in rice, continue to read, otherwise, you might want to wait until next week to pick up my blog ☺ Happy reading!!!
On the news, I read that there is a big agreement with Thailand in the works to get more rice in order to cover the rice that was lost in the typhoon flooding. In fact, I saw this loss firsthand in the region of Nueva Ecija. Some members of a church we visited in that province lost many hectares of rice because of flooding, so I imagine the domestic production is down, regardless of whether rice imports are regularly needed or not. So, there will be a big auction of thousands of metric tons of rice. I cannot even fathom that much rice. Seeing people gather the rice together, painstakingly drying it and bagging it, I cannot fathom harvesting that much rice either. I guess that gigantic amount of rice can be attributed to the wonders of modern production (I say this with a sardonic tone of voice as I am not convinced that modern production is the best for society or the environment).
According to an in-depth report I read from the Center for Global Development, 90 percent of the rice in the world is produced in Asia! Half of the world considers rice to be a staple food, and generally, the rice is eaten within a limited radius of where it is produced. So, the people in Nueva Ecija that eat their own rice tend to be the norm and not the exception. In fact, only seven or eight percent of the rice production is for export; this is another surprising tidbit of information. Another fascinating piece of information about rice is that it has long been one of the most volatile food commodities on the world market, owing its volatility to the politics of Asian governments. I suppose when so many people consume the item, it becomes a point of contention. Did you know that in ancient Japan, rice had monetary value in that people used rice as income? It is strange for Americans to see rice as anything but a white, tasteless and basically nutrition-less substance. We are positively wrong!
Rice can be stored for up to one year in ideal conditions, making the sale of rice a precise action. That is why the farmers I met in Nueva Ecija said they would store the rice until they could sell it for a good price on the market. Could you imagine being so in tune with your market that you sell your wares piecemeal as the price increases? This also means that farmers can lose a lot of money if they sell too early or wait too long. What an industry! No wonder the producers never get ahead. It is such a complicated web of trade that the ones on the bottom, the indispensible ones, the ones who actually grow the “commodity”—a word effectively utilized to remove all emotional and physical connotation thereby enhancing its monetary value and reducing its life-sustaining importance—are left behind and taken advantage of in their ignorance. At least rice producers can always eat their harvest, so even though a rice farmer may never understand the market in which he or she is selling the rice, the farmer can always feed his or her family. This is the advantage of producing something that can be simultaneously eaten and sold as opposed to growing coffee or tea or other cash crops that fetch a good price on the market but do not contribute to the nutritional health of a family. Even the article is inconclusive about the rice market. It is just remarkable that such a small and plain food item can be so enigmatic. Now, I have some things to think about as I shovel spoon after spoon of freshly cooked white rice. At least I can flavor the rice with locally produced soy sauce mixed with small native lemons. Yum!
I have finally discovered what part I can play in house maintenance. I have not concerned myself with house maintenance for a long time. Sure, when I go home, I help with the dishes, but it has been a
while since I cleaned toilets and scrubbed floors. On my floor, there are two bathrooms and three bedrooms, mine included. One of the bedrooms is used for a storage area and the other bedroom is used as the guest bedroom. In that room, there is a bathroom with a shower that produces warm water. (I have to say that although I am content to wash my clothes in an orange bucket, it would have been difficult to acclimate myself to a cold shower although the body can do anything when put to the test.) There is no one who cleans these bathrooms regularly, so I have decided that this task will be my task. None is the students is assigned to clean these bathrooms, so I will maintain them. It felt good to take the floor mats and scrub them by hand, leaving them out to dry in the sun, and it was surprisingly satisfying to wash the toilets with bleach and scrub the floors. Before making this decision, I had almost resigned myself to do nothing; I saw my dirty sink, and I thought to myself, “Who really cares if this sink is clean or dirty?” That was not productive; we should always take care of the things we have been given even if we are the only ones who avail ourselves of them. I am glad I shook that thought off and joined the ranks of students and staff as they maintained their abode.This week I was a diligent teacher, teaching my fair share of one hour per day, four times a week, plus I taught three extra lessons to cover for the director of the school who was in Manila offering comfort to some of the pastors and some of their family members who lost all their belongings in the typhoon flooding. On Wednesday, I taught three class periods in a row, or three hours in total. I felt so bad for the students who had to listen to an American for three consecutive hours. Well, they weren’t the only ones exhausted. I have a new found appreciation for those teachers who teach on a regular basis on that schedule. It is hard to keep both the students and oneself invested in the lessons. So, my blog this week reflects observations I have been making since my arrival and delves more deeply into some academic issues that are pertinent to my stay here. It is fun to talk not just about personal things, but to tie my personal experience into the larger web of cause-and-effect situations that apply to the general population. I hope that you appreciate my efforts although you may find the information a little tedious. Pick and choose and enjoy ☺
Burning Trash
Remember how I said the smell of burning trash is always lingering in the air, that there is always some pile of trash smoldering at some location? Well, I was reminded of this phenomenon while running one day at Wright Park. I was running at the same time that two big piles of trash were burning to my left. Each time I rounded the corner, I saw the burning heaps of refuse and thought to myself, “What is better for the environment: burning trash or keeping a garbage dump full of non-biodegradable products like plastics, rubbers, polymers of various shapes and sizes, and myriad other things that get carelessly thrown away because its convenient. But what happens when you throw something away and there is no one to take it from you? You are left with the reminder of your waste, so there are few alternatives than to incinerate the evidence to make room for future incrimination.
I went on-line to do a little digging about the effects of burning trash and to see if it was considerably worse for the environment than garbage dumps. After my small amount of research, I cannot say that it is better or worse. Each has its problems to which we must attend, but it does seem like professional incinerators that are equipped with air filters and burn trash at high temperatures may be the best method out there, even though I am sure they use magnificent amounts of energy to fuel the conflagration that effectively destroys the trash. It seems as if I can say with confidence that if you are planning to burn trash, do not burn it in what are called “burn barrels” which look like the metal barrels over which homeless people huddle to warm their bodies in the winter. Apparently, these barrels do not permit the fire to burn at a high temperature because they stifle the flow of oxygen. When the temperature of the fire is low, more toxins are released into the atmosphere. The types of toxins that are released depend on the types of things being burned. So, harmful chemicals are released into the air when trash is burned, not unlike the harmful chemicals that seep into water reservoirs under dumps or noxious gases that are produced from the aging of the dump. Therefore, the best method of getting rid of trash is to not make any, and that is the difficult thing. Reduction is always the most challenging thing when it is applied to things we take for granted. The only way to reduce is to be conscious of the consequences of our actions.
Cell Phone Usage (Bear with me on this one; it will pay off in the end)
Filipinos love to talk; or rather, I should say they love to text. There are several reasons for this affinity towards texting. First, it is really cheap to text, and second, sometimes the cell service is not strong enough to get through to people, but texting almost always seems to work. Now, it would seem easy enough to figure out the system of cell phones. Well, let me tell you, it is not as easy as the Filipinos make it look. They need a Cell Phones in the Philippines for Dummies because the amount of details you have to know in order to get the best plan is quite a maze. For example, there are many different cell phone companies from which you can choose—not unlike the United States, and I dare say the system in the U.S. is as complicated and maybe even more so. I guess I take for granted the cell phone system in the U.S. I am on my mom’s plan and before that I was on the “family plan” paying my stepdad and not the cell phone provider. It is amazing what protection a family nucleus can provide without so much as a thought.
Well, I have learned th
at when you travel, you are bound to make some mistakes and from those mistakes learn the best route to take. I have never been a tour lover; meaning I do not like organized tours or being spoon-fed on how I should act and what path I should take in order to appreciate my surroundings fully. No, I want to forge my own way, take the winding paths that lead to unknown destinations and smile with my pretend machete in hand. (I finally saw a real machete up close and personal. In the Philippines it is called a bolo and it is small, allowing for effective usage. Before I leave, I am going to cut down some bamboo or some firewood, not just for sport, but that’s what they do with it. I am sure that it will be more work than help for me to assist, but I am sure that the kind maintenance staff member will humor me at least one time. And, who knows? Maybe I will be an excellent bolo user or whatever you would call someone who uses that tool.)So, I am like Magellan sailing across the open seas with no idea as to where I am going or what lands I will find, just trying to get through that next narrow passage to find glories and wonders never before seen. (I just hope I don’t get killed like Magellan did by the Filipino chief, Lapu Lapu. I am more prudent than that. Did you know that he was killed in the Philippines? He allied himself with Humabon, one of the chiefs near the town now called Cebu in the Visayas, where he landed, and the chief took advantage of the fact that Magellan was prideful and viewed himself more highly than he ought. So, the Humabon asked Magellan to help him fight away his enemy, Lapu Lapu, and Magellan agreed, even going as far as refusing the men that Humabon offered to aid in the effort. Cocky and dangerously self-assured, he and his men attempted an amphibious attack, only to realize the island did not lend itself as a good harbor. Their cannons were out of range, and the men could not move very fluidly in their metal armor as they waded through the water. The natives, practically naked and nimble, quickly overtook the would-be soldiers, and Magellan was fatally wounded. He did, however, save many men as he pushed forward while commanding everyone else to retreat. So, that’s account of Magellan.)
Amazing how I can go from cell phones to bolos to Magellan, huh? That is my skill, and it is called stream of consciousness. I hope that you enjoy its veritable continuous appeal. But, now I will return to my original intent and that is to talk about cell phones. I realize that cell phones are necessary things these days. It is really hard to use a pay phone because there are even more bells and whistles you must undergo than for the cell phones. Anyway, I wanted to get a SIM card because I did not want to get myself into a situation where I would really need to contact one of the staff members, and I would be without a means for doing so. (I learned this lesson in France, so I do learn lessons, albeit slowly; but, once learned, always learned.) I decided on SunCell, which is one of the cheapest providers but also one of the most unreliable in the mountains. There is a joke that says that where there the sun shines, the SunCell signal is strong! I did not know this when I purchased it; so when I took it back home, I had no signal.
It took me a couple of days of hoping I would soon have cell signal to call the effort flawed. I consulted my Vietnamese friend, who is a part of the staff and close to me in age, almost exactly one year my senior, and decided to discuss this matter with her. She often times seems all-knowing about these simple details because she has been navigating them for five years now. She explained to me the nuances of the system and advised me to buy Smart, which is better in the Baguio area. Fortunately, though, my SunCell experience was not a complete waste because the staff all uses SunCell during the large conference we will sponsor in January. Yeah! I didn’t really make a mistake; I simply delayed success. That is much better ☺ I am improving!! Then, once I figured out the cell provider process, I had to wade through the issue of “loads.” This is what they call the process of getting credit on your cell phone. The majority of people use the pay-as-you-go system. It has so many bizarre restrictions that I think are in place to keep the prices cheap.
To send one text, you only have to pay two cents if you choose the standard option, meaning that if you buy a “load” worth 50 pesos, you will be able to send 50 texts. That is pretty straight forward, but they all have different periods of validity. For instance, you could buy unlimited texts to those who share your provider for 50 cents, but this “load” is only valid ONE day! Can you believe it? How annoying to have to load every single day! I did not like that. I bought that “load” once and used maybe 10 texts before it was no longer valid. I queried as to whether I could get a “load” that would last longer considering I have few people I need to text on a regular basis. I finally figured out the perfect plan for me! It only took me two weeks and a couple silly attempts. The Philippines is a little more financially forgiving than France was, so I might have only lost one dollar or two dollars. (It seems like a lot more, though, because one dollar is about 46 pesos. It always seems like I am spending a lot more than I am. That is better than the reverse!) I bought a 100-peso “load” that lasts one month. This means that I can send about 100 texts plus there were 35 texts included in the package. This only cost me $2.50. What a deal and how ideal ☺
So, I finally accomplished my point, but the reason why I even decided to share all the those details is to expound on the value I place on communication and the pleasure it brings me, particularly when I am traveling, to see that people are thinking of me and to send e-mails, letters, and messages to my loved ones as well. I am so content here. Loneliness is not even a part of my vocabulary, but peaceful isolation is a blanket that covers me throughout the day. It is such a small celebration when I hear from home, and now, when I hear from Erik, my stepbrother, who is volunteering in Romblon, a set of three small islands in the Visayas. He and I text at least once a day, and it is such a small blessing to be connected to someone like that, to know that someone is thinking of you. It brightens an already bright day for me. When I get an e-mail from a loved one or better yet, a letter, I cannot help but smile expansively. It brings me joy not because I was sad before, quite the contrary; I rejoice because of the human connection that makes life that much sweeter, and it’s free (aside from the cost of postage if you are sending a letter, of course). So, my whole cell phone litany was really about the innocuous and lovely glee I feel when I can communicate with those I love. We should never take for granted this small gift we can give one another. It’s like a smile with ready-made interpretation.
Taho and other Filipino Foods
Now I will talk about food. Everyone likes food stories. First, I will talk about taho because it is delicious, looks gross, and has a very unique place in the market of Filipino foods. Taho is a soft tofu-like product. It is silky smooth and is served lukewarm. (I don’t know if it is supposed to be served lukewarm, but its temperature is a result of the manner in which it is sold.) The reason it looks gross is two-fold: soy products are not known for their appetizing appearance; nondescript would be a better adjective to use for soy; and it is mixed with these small pale-colored tapioca balls (like a
muted yellow-green crayon) and with dark sugary syrup that gives this treat its memorable flavor but incidentally makes it look like a repulsive explosion of stomach acid and leftover lunch. One must be ready to avert one’s eyes and prepare one’s mouth for the gastronomic treasures of an unfamiliar culture. Now, the coolest thing about taho is the way it is sold. First, there is the container that carries the taho, made from two 10-gallon aluminum pales; one is reserved for the soy curd, slinky like jello as it falls from the long, flat spoon into the six-ounce plastic cup, and the other is reserved for the syrup and the tapioca, being cleverly divided by an aluminum wall. The spoon used for the tapioca and the syrup is much longer, in order to reach more profoundly into the bucket, and is effective for stirring up the concoction as one, two, three and sometimes four spoonfuls of syrup is deftly incorporated into the creamy soy. For 25 cents, I could eat this everyday. But wait, I almost forgot the best part. These two buckets are connected by a long wooden pole, which the traveling taho man carries over his shoulders. Instead of a bell like an ice cream truck may use to indicate its presence, the taho man uses his bellowing voice to announce his arrival. I can hear hom coming slowly up the hill, and I can hear him as he continues to town, all the while yelling, “Ta—HOOOOOOOOO! Ta—HOOOOOOOO! Ta—HOOOOOOO!” He does this over and over; the only time he stops yelling is when he is making a sale. The same man comes up our road at the same time everyday. It is incredible his regularity, and yet, it is difficult for me to gauge his arrival because his voice is so ubiquitous, I never know if he is close or far. How I love this native treat!Besides taho I have been eating a lot of great food since I arrived. I love to try new things and to be adventurous, tantalizing and tempting the tongue with the dual possibility of pleasure and disgust. I have eaten more types of leaves than I ever thought possible. Since I am vegetarian, I am more apt to eat a lot of different vegetables, including things like kale and spinach, which are really good for you. Filipinos take eating healthy to a new level. (The sad thing is that Westernization has gotten a hold of the country and fast food is almost as commonly consumed as the traditional foods, which are far cheaper and better for the body. Soda, chips, candies, and all manner of unhealthy junk food have swept through the country and are plaguing the majority of the population. The taste for traditional foods is being lost, particularly on the urban landscapes.) I have eaten more leaves since arriving than I ever thought possible. It is amazing how you can eat the whole plant of many of the Filipino vegetables. I wonder if we could do the same in the U.S. if those leaves were reserved and not disposed of, like sweet potatoes. Yeah, you can eat the leaves!
I love the sour taste of the leaves, like I am biting into health ☺ Then, there are so many different types of root vegetables that you can buy and make all sorts of different ways. We bought this one root vegetable that looked like a deformed and stunted potato from a street vendor. It was already cooked and the coarse, ashen flesh was starting to peel off. When we got home, we soaked it in hot water to sanitize it from the dirty market, then took a knife and removed the outer layer. The flesh was surprisingly creamy and kind of tasteless to be honest. It could not compare to the sticky cassava treats I was eating alongside this healthy root. The cassava treats are so wonderful I could eat them everyday. It is boiled cassava that is mashed and mixed with only a dash of sugar, then formed into long tamale-shaped rolls then placed into a banana leaf and steamed. Yum! They only cost 12 cents a piece, and they are a great addition to any meal and a perfect snack. I also love to eat these soft white rice cakes called puto. They are cheap and yummy!
I ate a whole fish the other day. Yeah, I decided that because it was caught in the Philippines and was still whole (I mean, this was a real fish with the scales and head and everything still on it) and unfrozen, I was not making a bad environmental decision eating it. I have been able to reclaim my wholehearted vegetarianism because the students and cook have really accommodated me. I did not press the issue, but I think they got tired of seeing me silently scoop around the meat pieces, and they probably thought, “Well, more for us!” Anyway, the fish I ate was tilapia, which cracked me up because I thought of the way the tilapia looks in the States: frozen, devoid of any last fishy sort of characteristic, and ready for breading and frying. That is the kind of fish I don’t want to eat, one that have been completely divested of all natural components and left with a mildly flavored piece of protein and omega-fatty acids.
Did you know that I eat my food with a fork and spoon? There are no knives ever at the table. We reserve the knives for cutting the vegetables and the meat in the kitchen. The system is very effective and civilized. I hold the fork in my left hand and hold the spoon in my right, mixing the rice and veggies together with both utensils then pushing the food onto my spoon with my fork. The spoon is the device that carries the food from the plate to the mouth. This is quite logical since rice can easily slip through the spaces in a fork and the meat pieces are always small enough that they mix thoroughly into the rice and need no additional cutting. It took me a few days to figure out that I was supposed to use both the utensils to eat, and now, I think it is one of the greatest things ever. I am just happy I don’t have to use chopsticks! It might have been different if the Japanese had retained control of the Philippines instead of the European/American influence that managed both to ravish and to lavish the Filipino society.
Anyway, I could go
on about the good things I am trying, but I will end with two lovely confections called ube (prounounced oo-bey) and mongo hopia. The first is the purplest thing you will ever see! When I first saw it, I thought it was died with some sort of potent combination of red and blue food coloring, but I was informed that the color was the natural color of the purple yam. It was a yam! I have never seen a purple yam before, so naturally, I was curious to at least try it, though I sincerely doubted that it would actually taste good. Once I consumed one spoonful of the viscous substance, I was a changed woman (okay, not really, but I was hooked, let’s say). Now, I could eat ube at every meal. I can even buy ube ice cream and ube rolls and even ube filled hopia, which I will discuss next. Hopia is the name of a small pastry that is filled with something, usually mung beans or pork. The beans are so nicely ground and mixed with sugar to form a sweet and sort of sticky paste that is encased with a thin breading. The hopia filled with mung beans are called mongo hopia and those that are filled with ube are called ube hopia. I buy myself these treats when I make my way into town. I always manage to buy myself a little treat while I am running errands downtown. It makes for a sweet diversion.Rice Economics: complicated and curious
Apparently, the month of November is Celebrate Rice Month. There are cooking competitions in Manila and some children activities as well. Here in Baguio, I have not heard anything special about rice. It maintains its central position at every meal as a one-and-a-half-cup serving for each student and a communal platter for the staff. I can’t say that I will miss rice when I leave the Philippines, but I think that once I leave the continent of rice I will be surprised to rediscover all the whole grains I used to eat. I tried to describe some of the hearty and delicious grains from back home. The words quinoa, buckwheat, bulgur, couscous are completely unfamiliar. They did recognize the word barley but only to say they don’t have much of that here. Thank the
Lord they have oatmeal. I resisted the desire to eat it, and I told myself I wouldn’t buy myself comfort foods from home, but the staff persists in buying it, knowing that I like it, so I eat it. I have never been a waster, so if it’s there, I am going to eat it ☺ I am not going to force myself to eat chicken rice gruel, which they love, when I can thick and hearty oatmeal. I would eat the gruel if there were no oatmeal; I maintain my flexibility.I decided that since I am eating rice at every single meal and am surrounded by the versatility of rice, I would learn something about the economics of growing rice and its importance to the Filipino people. The government has decided that it would like the Philippines to be ricetainable (this is my word for describing the sustainable and adequate production of rice in the Philippines to meet at least domestic demand) by 2013. It will be interesting to see if this happens, considering the Philippines is currently the largest importer of rice in Asia. This is going to be kind of a long entry, so if you are interested in rice, continue to read, otherwise, you might want to wait until next week to pick up my blog ☺ Happy reading!!!
On the news, I read that there is a big agreement with Thailand in the works to get more rice in order to cover the rice that was lost in the typhoon flooding. In fact, I saw this loss firsthand in the region of Nueva Ecija. Some members of a church we visited in that province lost many hectares of rice because of flooding, so I imagine the domestic production is down, regardless of whether rice imports are regularly needed or not. So, there will be a big auction of thousands of metric tons of rice. I cannot even fathom that much rice. Seeing people gather the rice together, painstakingly drying it and bagging it, I cannot fathom harvesting that much rice either. I guess that gigantic amount of rice can be attributed to the wonders of modern production (I say this with a sardonic tone of voice as I am not convinced that modern production is the best for society or the environment).
According to an in-depth report I read from the Center for Global Development, 90 percent of the rice in the world is produced in Asia! Half of the world considers rice to be a staple food, and generally, the rice is eaten within a limited radius of where it is produced. So, the people in Nueva Ecija that eat their own rice tend to be the norm and not the exception. In fact, only seven or eight percent of the rice production is for export; this is another surprising tidbit of information. Another fascinating piece of information about rice is that it has long been one of the most volatile food commodities on the world market, owing its volatility to the politics of Asian governments. I suppose when so many people consume the item, it becomes a point of contention. Did you know that in ancient Japan, rice had monetary value in that people used rice as income? It is strange for Americans to see rice as anything but a white, tasteless and basically nutrition-less substance. We are positively wrong!
Rice can be stored for up to one year in ideal conditions, making the sale of rice a precise action. That is why the farmers I met in Nueva Ecija said they would store the rice until they could sell it for a good price on the market. Could you imagine being so in tune with your market that you sell your wares piecemeal as the price increases? This also means that farmers can lose a lot of money if they sell too early or wait too long. What an industry! No wonder the producers never get ahead. It is such a complicated web of trade that the ones on the bottom, the indispensible ones, the ones who actually grow the “commodity”—a word effectively utilized to remove all emotional and physical connotation thereby enhancing its monetary value and reducing its life-sustaining importance—are left behind and taken advantage of in their ignorance. At least rice producers can always eat their harvest, so even though a rice farmer may never understand the market in which he or she is selling the rice, the farmer can always feed his or her family. This is the advantage of producing something that can be simultaneously eaten and sold as opposed to growing coffee or tea or other cash crops that fetch a good price on the market but do not contribute to the nutritional health of a family. Even the article is inconclusive about the rice market. It is just remarkable that such a small and plain food item can be so enigmatic. Now, I have some things to think about as I shovel spoon after spoon of freshly cooked white rice. At least I can flavor the rice with locally produced soy sauce mixed with small native lemons. Yum!
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