There are five Dunkin’ Donuts in this city this week. Last week there were none. The catchy and true slogan is Pasalubong ng bayan or “This country’s official gift to bring when you visit somebody.” Really? To this I say: wait for Krispy Kreme. Then you really won’t know what hitcha.
Nobody has complained, but I do feel I shortchanged fiesta in my last post. Sure, they eat a lot of pig, but it provides a great opportunity for friends and relatives to see each other. The mood is certainly festive.
And at least none of the pig goes to waste, cuz for those who can’t attend, bring-house, as doggie-bags are affectionately referred to, is “messengered” to them.
To coincide with fiesta, nature delivered papa a whole bunch of banana bunches. I couldn’t understand why they cut down the whole tree. But apparently I forgot what I learned in elementary school. Banana trees aren’t really trees, and once the plant bears bananas, it’s pretty much done for. So it’s chopped to allow the room for the little plants coming up all around it.
Sometimes the resourcefulness of Filipinos makes up for the horrific number of plastic bags this country goes through on a daily basis. In the case of the banana tree, the leaves are used to wrap sweet rice. It tastes and smells better that way.
Papa is very opposed to eating sour mangoes. He says when he consumes them, “it’s as if my face looks like you are watching a horror movie.”
I’ve been pretty unbusy lately, as The Philippines pretty much shut down for elections. (The miniature incumbent, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo seems to be the winner in the presidential election, but the counting is not official and might be contested by the sideburned Filipino movie legend FPJ, the closest of her four challengers.
Plus it’s been raining here every day, which helps keep me unbusy. If the Filipinos are afraid of anything more than raw vegetables, it would have to be the water that falling from the sky.
But unbusy is ok. I’ve read a bunch, started the compost pit in the backyard --using banana leaves and pig poop-- and listened to some very staticky shortwave radio.
I can’t stand it. On the surprisingly non-judgmental Voice of America, I picked up George Bush making a “statement” about his continued faith in his Secretary of Defense, when he probably should have been announcing Donald’s Dismissal. And hen he had the nerve to turn it into a stump speech. In case you missed it, the gist of it was “yeah, the soldiers who misbehaved are jerks, but let’s not forget that nobody argues that the world is not a better place now that Saddam isn’t able to torture his prisoners.”
I’ve never scratched so many mosquito bites in my life.
Posted by dbs at May 12, 2004 06:49 PM