Random Oddities

We thought it was probably time to share a few more observations of life in Manila.  Are you ready?

• walking through the mall we often hear many Christmas songs, but the most irrelevant for the Philippines seems to be Winter Wonderland.  Sing it with us.... Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?  In the lane snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland....  There are no bluebirds, snowmen, it is WAY too hot for a fire, it doesn't snow, our noses are not chilling, and it certainly is not a winter wonderland. 

• can you identify this power tool?  If you said belt sander, you would be right.  Can you identify an unusual use for it?  As I walked through one of the walled villages a few weeks ago, I saw a gardener using this gently over the grass to mow it....did you come up with that use?  It was a new one even for the power tool king Jeff.  That's when you start to understand how cheap labour really is here.

• speaking of cheap labour, a recent article in a newspaper showed a picture of men moving large bags of cement on their shoulders from trucks to a building store.  They worked moving these immense bags for 10-12 hours a day, and earned a pay of 150 pesos ($3.50 Canadian). Puts into perspective why so many people buy things in single packages (like shampoo, gum, pills) and individual cigarettes. 
• the Filipinos always have fun in whatever they do, even work.  Click on this video to see one example for a Philippine airline:  
• yesterday Linda was in a taxi heading home, when the driver did an illegal U-turn.  The very efficient Makati enforcement officer pulled him over and they had a discussion.  The officer told him to move to the side a bit more, and when he approached the taxi again, the driver handed him his driver's license with some folded money under it.  The officer looked at it, they had another discussion, and the taxi driver was handed back his license without the money nor ticket. 
• today we observed Hallowe'en Manila style - in the mall.  Whole families were in the mall in costume trick-or-treating from store to store.  Here is the line up at a book store where they were giving out bags of chips.

• Along with that, even the cars were dressed up for Hallowe'en

 

A Happy Hallowe'en to each of you...happy trick-or-treating however you do it.  Love you all

The Quest for Thanksgiving

Also known as:  "A Tale Most Fowl" or "The Search for the Holy Quail"  or "A Bird too Far" or "Lord of the Wings (One Bird to Rule them All)" or "Gizzard of Oz" 

Thanksgiving in the Philippines became a quest - a quest to celebrate and give thanks in the Canadian way.  As you have heard, there are numerous roosters in all parts of metro Manila, but sigh, no turkey to be found.  We ventured in our little vehicle to Market! Market!, a yet-undiscovered and large territory that, based on tales, may hold the Butterball of our desire.  As we rounded a corner, there it was - a freezer full of Butterball turkeys!  Our prayers had been answered in abundance.  And believe it or not, they were reasonably priced (see past blog re: price of celery).  Jeff softly opened the door, hoping to spot the perfect bird before they were startled and frozen in fear.  A plump little 10-pounder was perfect.  Jeff grabbed it, it tried to slip away, but Jeff flipped it into the cart as if it were already dead.  We were on our way to Thanksgiving.

Now, potatoes were easy, cranberries were canned and ready for us in our local grocery store (in the imported from America section), the stuffing recipe was already in Linda's head thanks to 46 years of watching her mother make it.  We continued the check list - gravy (just as Mom makes), veggies (cream corn treat for Jeff, other veggies for Linda), stuffing ingredients, cranberry juice to drink - we were almost there. 

And yet....we were so far away from Thanksgiving dinner. 

Pumpkin - pumpkin - pumpkin - the one ingredient that breaths life into Thanksgiving itself but alas, none were to be found.  Store after store after store - no pumpkin pie filling mix to be found; no lush, round, orange pumpkins to be found. We searched and searched among the millions of people in Manila but could not find a reason to join in Psalm 35:18 "in the mighty throng I will praise you" for no pumpkins were here.

Was our quest for Thanksgiving over?  How could we go on?  Was Jesus right when he said "Is not life more than food?" (Matt 6:25).   Surely we were not the first Canadians trying to have Thanksgiving in a foreign land? As a last resort we turned to technology, and found that we were not alone.  A lady in Manila had created a Thanksgiving pie from kalabasa squash that she said was pretty close.  Do we dare?  We had often eaten this squash before after roasting in the oven. 

So went and gathered..... here is what the "pumpkin" looked like:

So we stuffed the turkey, made pie from scratch, mashed potatoes, and prepared our stomachs.  Due to unknown length of cooking time (ah, our Manila oven!) and a cold hanging around Linda, we decided not to invite anyone over...next time.

AND LOOK!!!!!  Turkey success!!  oh, notice the new roasting pan and meat thermometer we also hunted down (as an aside, this Corning Ware French White roaster and a small round serving dish cost less than the celery mentioned in a previous blog - seriously!)

Jeff got to his usual carving and scooping out of the stuffing.  (Jeff missed Laura scavenging while he did this).  We feasted on our roast turkey and gave great thanks!

 

 It was clear that Linda could not wait for the pie - it smelled good, it looked good, would it taste good?  How much whipped cream would it need?

 You can tell by the look on our faces that it tasted very good - not quite pumpkin but very very close.  Our quest was a success!  A Canadian Thanksgiving (minus cool weather, red leaves and family friends) had been conquered.  So we gave thanks - for wonderful memories of past Thanksgivings spent with many of you - in Waterloo, in Licoma Bolivia, in Kenora and at the Post Cottage.  We gave thanks for our new adventure in the Philippines and all we are learning here.  We gave thanks for all that we have been blessed with.

And the evening ended with this final gift to give thanks for: