As everyone knows that some part of Mindanao was totally damaged by typhoon Pablo in the beginning week of December. We went to the area a week after the typhoon hit. It was my first time seeing a typhoon hit area. I’ve been hearing from the news and seeing on TV how bad the places were. But really looking the place personally its more difficult.

It’s hard to explain to all of you. My heart was torn into pieces when seeing the kids or the elderly carrying buckets to get some water, they have to walk quite a ways to get some too. We brought some water when we went there. Of course we favor the kids and the elderly, we gave them first of the stuff we have. No matter how chaotic the people there were to get the stuff, we really looked for the older people and the kids first. Everyone of us knows already whose on top of our list to be given.

Some people were so polite and just waited their turn. Others were just so aggressive that they will just snatch the stuff from the elderly. We had to get it from them and give it to the person we are intending to give. Later they know that we don’t put up with their aggressiveness. We have to take charge at some point. If they don’t listen really we just left them there and go to some other areas. While driving we saw one elderly and gave her stuff, all of a sudden there are 5 to 10 people coming running towards the truck. Wow, they must have a very good vision to see what’s going on from a good distance away, AMAZING. It’s really something though. People now were begging money or something on the roadside. They have to do what they need to do to survive.

Pablo wreaked havoc on Mindanao

Just seeing the devastation, I could never imagine the faces of the kids in fear. I’m sure with the wind blowing so loudly and strong it scares the kids to death. Most houses there lost their roofs. Some houses even flew from one place to the other. Metals from the roof all over the place. Some good looking houses before the roofs were bent and others the gutters were gone.

We went to the main area in Monkayo. They had a nice gym there (shown in the photo above), just by looking at it, it’s not that old. But Pablo really damaged that gym. The roof was totally damaged. Just by looking at the angle we were at when we parked our truck to take some pictures I was thinking that all the roofs were all gone. I’m hoping that the town will rebuild soon with the help of the government of course. Some stores there were still muddy in front. Just by looking all the devastated area that we passed by, I was thinking it will take years and years for the place to rebuild. I just hope that the local officials will really pursue the high up government officials to help them.

I’m hoping that the farmers will get enough help from the government to rebuild soon. All the farms there were totally damaged. The crops were all damaged by the flood and the winds. I’ve seen most of the plants lying on the ground. Driving from Tagum down to ComVal area was so depressing now. It used to be so green and vibrant.

The most depressing part of the trip was hearing and seeing what the needs of the people and we don’t have the stuff in our truck anymore to give them. Let me tell you it was a heartache. They need the stuff  badly but you can’t give it to all to them. I felt sorry for those people. Please still  continue praying for the people there!

 ***On the other note: I personally give THANKS to the friends of Bob and some of them my friends too on Facebook on making our trip to COMVAL possible. You guys’ help means a lot to us and most especially to those people there. You guys really had a big heart. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you again!!!***

Last week I went to the grocery market to shop for the goods that we are going to take to the typhoon victims of Typhoon Pablo. Me and my niece wanted to buy lots of water in a bottles of different sizes and also lots of crackers. In the store if you just get a few cans of the crackers or a few bottled water you can get it from the shelf. Well, since we wanted to get cases of crackers and bottled water we had to go to the customer service area and order from there.

Well, I didn’t realize how many people were there ordering. Most of them were for their sari-sari store (little store). There were orders of a few hundreds in every items. with so many people so it took us a long time to just get what we wanted. But it’s okay, we were there waiting patiently for our turn. It took probably like 20 minutes before we could talk to the sales person there. So when he entertained us, he saw what we wrote on the paper of how many pieces of bottled water and how many cans of crackers would we want. He then called up the sales person of the said product that we want. Those sales person were there immediately when called up. So we talked to them. Both don’t have the product in hand the quantity that we want. They told us that they could get the next morning since we ordered the products late in the day. So I told them it will be okay, but I want the product early the next morning. So they told me to be at the store first thing when they open and pay it and they could give it to me right away. I also asked the manager of the customer service if the product could be delivered at our house. They said no charge since its way over the amount of  Php10,000 that I will be spending there.

Pablo spared nobody in his path!

I even told them that you guys should give me good discount since we are bringing that to the typhoon victims. The manager of the customer service just said we just are allowed to give 1% discount. I just laughed to that. 1% big deal,  I told her. Nothing she can do about it , I guess. Just our stores here just not a relief friendly kind of thing. Oh well, at least they will have the products that I wanted to get. To be honest we stayed at that customer service for over an hour. Just going through the sales person and them calling the warehouse. Really at the end me and my niece were exhausted. But, it’s okay we will do it for the victims of Pablo.

Really while waiting there I’ve also met some people that were also buying for the typhoon victims. Most of them were connected to an organizations here. I was happy seeing them buying for the typhoon victims. Happy to see one organization buying plenty sacks of rice and boxes of sardines and odong (like pasta to mix in with the sardines). Others were buying already packed ready to eat food, just like sardines type food and mix that with rice. Then some were buying something to make spaghetti, she said she will pack them and distribute there same day. Really I was so happy seeing people care with other people.

We also bought lots clothing at the ukay-ukay place. I asked the owner to give me a good discount which he did. Me and my niece were really digging in for good clothes for the people there. We bought for men, women and kids. Really we dug in mostly shorts and shirts. At least they can really use it.

When this article is posted we have already  given out the stuff. I would like to thank a few people that helped us out on this. You know who you are. You responded to Bob’s post on his Facebook wall. From the bottom of my heart THANK YOU SO MUCH. It really meant so much to those people too. I really appreciate you guys help. God Bless you always.

Mabuhay!

I got an email and I would appreciate you guys help and comment. I think another one of those scams is going again. The problem is the guy still believes in the lady. Not sure what to say more to the lady that wrote me the email though. I had a similar email before and I had posted about it here. I will just give her the link to that I think.

“I am a lady from the US. I have been reading you and your husband’s blog when I can. I happened to come across your blog just because of my brother’s dilemma. He was married before to an American lady. They got divorced. He befriended a co-worker who happened to be married to a Filipina for a long time. To make the story short, the friend advised my brother to find a bride there in your country. Just talking to the friend and meeting them, they seem very happy. So my brother went online and chatted few ladies until he finally met the love of his life. The lady was from somewhere in Cebu he told me. They were emailing and talking on the phone. My brother also sent money to her often for her daily needs and also bought cell phone.

Is it a scam?

The lady emailed my brother that she needed money for family emergency. I did not bother to asked my brother about it. None of my business. He sent money for that family emergency. Just a couple of weeks ago the family emailed and called up my brother and said that the lady was in the hospital. She got in an accident. I guess she was riding a scooter. She was badly hurt, that’s what the family member told my brother. My brother was so worried and sent $2000 for the lady for her hospital bills. I don’t really know about hospitalization in your country, I don’t really know if she has insurance. Maybe she had insurance since my brother just sent $2k.

I met a lady in our church. I didn’t bother to know her origin, I just know at that time that she’s Asian. But later upon knowing that my brother had a Filipina fiance, I then asked my friend in the church what country was she from. When she told me that she’s from the Philippines I was happy,  at least when my soon to be sister-in-law comes to the States she will have a new filipina friend. That filipina friend that I knew from church she’s really nice. She’s in her mid 50′s. She came to the US 30 years ago. I was talking to her about my brother marrying a Filipina. She’s excited to meet the fiance of my brother just like us too. I’ve been learning a lot about your country through her. She let me taste some of the filipino foods during church get together. Very good. I can’t wait for my brother’s fiance to come. For me and my family to learn some of you guys culture and foods. Anyway, my friend was telling me to contact the hospital that the fiance of my brother was brought. Since I didn’t know anybody in your country my Filipina friend volunteer to let one of her family do it. She did let one of her family contact the hospital for me, the bad news, nobody with the same name of the fiance of my brother was hospitalized on any of the hospitals there in the area where his fiance suppose to live.

Me and my Filipina talked more about the matter and she told me that she heard of so many stories now. Scams that so rampant on the net. She told me that she was spared by that since she went to the States before internet was born. She also told me about a lady with multiple guys on the net to chat with. Some were even gay posing as a woman. She also said that guys from abroad also had many girlfriends in the Philippines. So I told her it goes both ways then. Don’t you think? My friend said that the ways of the girls now in the Philippines is totally different than she was growing up. Why is that? I told her same here in the America too.

My brother still believes in his fiance. I hope that he is right on believing her. I hope my brother is spared by the scam. Thank you for entertaining my email. I hope to hear from you! Ellen”

Cheers!

Wow, it was indeed a good celebration for us. As you may know we celebrate Thanksgiving 2 days after the Thanksgiving Day in the States, since Thursday was not a holiday here and we want the kids to be around for our celebration. Never thought we would invite some other people for this Thanksgiving, but we decided to let each of our kids invite one of their close friends. Aaron invited his schoolmate, Marie. Jared invited his best friend in 5th grade, Roberto. Jean invited her best friend since freshmen year, Hennesey. Chris & Glenda  invited their cousin from Kidapawan, Bebe, she’s studying medical technology here in Davao City and will continue on her studies next year to become a doctor. Glenrose and Nicole’s friends didn’t show up for the occasion. They had some other things going, I guess.

Thanksgiving Masterchefs

Me and Glenda, my niece, were the cooks in the house. We started preparing that Monday before thanksgiving. We’ve been buying the ingredients first for our pies, the cookies and pumpkin shakes. We decided to make more pies and cookies. We want our guests to enjoy the evening. We ended up making 6 pies all together. 3 pumpkin pies and 3 chocolate chess pies. We bought our 6 chickens on Friday, the day before we celebrated our Thanksgiving. We bought it in the wet market, since they had bigger chickens there than any of the grocery mall here in town. We were so happy to find some big birds there.

Glenda, Chris and one of our helper went to the market also to buy the other ingredients for our menu. We really made the typical American foods for Thanksgiving. The only non-American menu was added was the rice. Same as what I had experience in the States before. Well when I said typical American Thanksgiving menu that would be turkey/chickens, gravy, mashed potato, beans, stuffing, pumpkin pies and other pies, eggnog (we substitute it with pumpkin shakes), soda and rice of course.

Article continues below pictures. Click on the picture to see a larger view!

After Bob said the grace, we then started eating our dinner. While eating we then let each person say what they are thankful for the whole year. Started with one of our kids. They were a bit nervous since saying in-front of the table with other guests listening. We let our guests join in too. I know our maids were dreading for the occasion because of that. So we just skipped the maids for that. I don’t want them to be uncomfortable while eating. Honestly it was nice hearing what the kids and our guests said.

I don’t think one of the person in the house was hungry until morning the next day. We really are so stuffed. We did joke after dinner we should walk from our house to the new SM Lanang. It was quite a ways. Nobody did it. The kids were walking and others were biking in our neighborhood area. Really the next day I was a bit exhausted because of the preparations that we made prior to the occasion. But in all honesty, it was all worth it. I talked to my niece who assist me in everything we did from the start. She’s also happy what we did and the end result was fabulous. Same style for us again next year. Not sure how many guests will the kids invite then. Ha ha ha.

We sure were glad we rented some tables and chairs. We did have long tables that we brought from the States before, somehow the boards of it got damaged. I have to wait for my brother-in-law to come here for him to fix that. Our chairs could have been enough, only thing is we hang out from one area to the other. So we did need some chairs that no one would keep hauling it for us. We did use chairs outside in our backyard while cooking our chickens there in the MindanaoBob grill. We also put some in-front in our porch. It was worth it renting those furniture’s for the party. Honestly it didn’t cost that much to rent the tables and chairs though.

Anyway, I hope you guys did have a good Thanksgiving Day with your family. We sure did. Now we are looking forward to our LIP Drive Family give away here.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL LIP FAMILY!!!

It’s another time of the year again for all the Americans throughout the world to celebrate the Thanksgiving day today. I am wishing everybody a very Happy and wonderful celebration. May it maybe simple or lavish or fancy or whatever you and your family celebrated.

As for my family we will celebrate Thanksgiving the way the family of Bob were celebrating. I first celebrate with them 21 years ago. It was really an eye opener for me. As you know I came from a big family here in the Philippines and when they celebrate there it just Bob, me, Chris and his parents and his brother and his family. It was really intimate. I did enjoy it. It was the first time for Bob’s family to have rice included in the menu for thanksgiving or any occasion afterwards.

Happy Thanksgiving

I did really study the way Bob’s family put the whole feast together. Me and Bob wanted to follow the tradition of his family so that we can pass it along to our children. As you know we moved from the States over 12 years ago. Our youngest son Jared was just barely 1 months old. Since he never saw the way we celebrated in the States, Bob and I made sure that he knows about a lot of the holidays in the States and how they are celebrated. Since the time he remembered, we did celebrate the Thanksgiving the way his grandmother in the States did. During our first year here we bought a live turkey from our neighbor. They found out from Jun my brother-in-law that we wanted a turkey, so they offered their turkey. I can’t remember how much we paid for the 2 turkey. I had Jun roast (lechon style) the turkey outside in our yard. When it was done, when tasted it was not the same as the Butterball or the Norbest turkey like in the States. It was tough. But it’s okay, we couldn’t get brand of turkey that we want. The other food that were prepared were good anyway.

After 2 years of living in GenSan, we then moved to Davao. A few years of celebrating Thanksgiving here in Davao we usually bought our pumpkin pie from the restaurant here. It cost a lot. I still bought yams in a can from the grocery store here. Even the croutons were still from the grocery stores.

The imported items before were not as wide of a varieties as now. Luckily overtime Gaisano Mall here in Davao stocked up more and more imported items over the years. Few items they had were yams in the can, white marshmallows,  crouton’s and other Thanksgiving stuff. So I bought a few cans and it was good. At that time I didn’t make any pumpkin pie, I just bought different desserts then. Made mashed potato, Bob made the gravy. I am not into cooking at that time yet.

Until one Christmas Bob bought me a stove with built-in oven in it. I guess he is hinting for me to start cooking. . LOL. So I started to be the cook then. Lots of trial and error. Thank God for the internet, surfing the net was my safety blanket then. Ha ha ha. Really I am searching the net for the new recipes and substitution for the ingredients that I can’t find here. Still this day we still have more ingredients that so hard to find here. Bob really was the one encourages me to try to make the pumpkin pie out from the squash. I was so happy that he really showed confidence in me on everything I do especially the cooking. I don’t like cooking before. He really gave me the boost to do it. Now, I am so confident on how to cook and make something even using the substitute ingredients. I make everything now from scratched, from the stuffing’s I made my own sausage and croutons. Yams from the local sweet potato here in the Philippines. Pumpkin pie from the local squash from here.

Since we don’t have the off day of the kids on Thursday (the day of Thanksgiving, it’s not a holiday here), for a long time now we do our Thanksgiving on the Saturday, it’s just 2 days after the Thanksgiving day anyway. So Thanksgiving Day for us will be on Saturday the 24th. Which means a busy week for me and my niece Glenda preparing our food for Saturday Thanksgiving Day. New recipes to be added on our menu for Thanksgiving this year it will be a pumpkin shake. It will be replacing the eggnog. Bob and the kids like the pumpkin shakes better than the eggnog. So pumpkin shake it is.

I hope you guys have a good Thanksgiving Day with your family. Happy Eating.

Happy Turkey Day!!!