Art and Celebrations

We were blessed to be able to visit the "Filipino Way of Life" - an art exhibition by the Portrait Artists Society of the Philippines Inc.  It included approximately 80 paintings by 39 artists.  It is impossible to do it justice in the amount of room I have here, but I have chosen a few pieces that particularly appealed to me to share a small taste of this magnificent collection.  I wish I had been able to go back and get the artists names and titles of all the pieces, but as I did not, I will simply reflect on the feelings they inspired in me.

                                                Living in grace can happen in any setting.

Childhood is everywhere the same & their needs are simple, but important.

Work hard and give thanks - as a people they are very hard-working, religious, and appreciative.

Life has seasons, accept it.

Show reverence for those who go before us.

Be at peace.

Keep your family close.

There were so many others I can not begin to share even just my favorites, but I hope these will give you a small taste of the delightful culture and diversity included.

Next was the subject of birthday celebrations: this month had my birthday and that of our office manager, Mary Ann Balen.   Our birthdays were both celebrated as "official" "un-birthdays" as some members of the staff were unable to be present on the day of our birthday.

Sister Keller with official Birthday poster by May & Aljane.

And official very chocolate and delicious birthday cake.

 Sister Evans took me out for birthday dinner at the "Golden Cowrie -- A Filipino Restaurant"  where I ordered "fried baby squid  con tinto" and "ngohiong" (similar to Chinese egg roll).  Actually, the squid was surprisingly tasty in a light mustard-y sauce.  The second picture is a close-up of a bite of squid.  Sister Evans even tried a bite.

                         Sr Evans had the "pandam chicken" - chicken wrapped in pandam leaves.

Mary Ann celebrated her birthday in true Filipino style: invited us all to come to her party and furnished everything herself -- as she was working she only went to her 8 favorite restaurants so she could be sure we all had a taste of the very best of some of her favorite Filipino foods.

Start with barbecue (pork, I believe), pandam chicken, 

lots of rice, ngohiong, more chicken,

pansit noodles,

napoleonis and sapin-sapin for dessert.

And then there was the ube cake -- purple yam, no artificial color added -- totally delicious.

Here are a few other new Filipino favorites at home and work.

Calamay is a traditional sweet from Bohol made from coconut milk and rice flour -

between the consistency of  jello and salt water taffy, very tasty.

A "small" piece of jack fruit -- approximately 6 inches at the base by 10 inches high and weighing approximately 3 pounds - is obviously a very small part of the whole fruit.  

The inside is somewhat segmented and the strong fruity aroma is 

delicious enough you wish you could eat it too!

Mangosteen is interesting inside & out and a new favorite.

Lychee & rambotan are special favorites of mine,

but too much work for Sister Evans.

She prefers lancones, kind of a citrus-y fruit that's a bit on the tart side

and comes out of its shell easier.

We also found the "rose- apple", the little fruit we found along the road

in Bohol.  They do look and taste something like apples, 

but are about and inch and a half long.

We also saw banana hearts on the trees in Bohol.  They are on the bottom 

of a stem of developing bananas.

Notice the tiny undeveloped bananas inside the peel.

You peel the harder outer layers off and cut up and cook as vegetables.

The largest snack areas in the grocery stores seem to be dried fish

and other dried sea food delicacies (shrimp, squid, etc.).  I'm afraid I

don't have a properly appreciative stomach in this area!

I do want to put American grocery stores on notice, however, that Filipino grocery stores have

important priorities that they lack: notice - nearly every large grocery store has an aisle devoted exclusively to chocolate!

Religious celebrations are taken very seriously here and they have many of them.  Some are national holidays and many are only for members of a single congregation, but all are accorded a great deal of respect.

This is a parade apparently to honor the founding of  a large Catholic church near our area.  It started right during rush hour and traffic was simply brought to a halt in our direction for the duration (nearly an hour).  Traffic was slowly shuffled off the main road and diverted to a side road.

Floats can be very simple or very elaborate

and dress varies from very casual to very formal.

It is a very special people that recognize the overwhelming importance of 

religion and are willing to grant respect to its wide diversity.

Yes, we feel very honored to be here.