Just a reminder folks!

January 16, 2014 by feyma

Just a reminder folks!

A few days ago me and Aaron went to the Department of Foreign Affairs or DFA to file for our Philippines passports. First time for Aaron to get a Philippine passport and a renewal Philippine passport for me. We’ve been wanting to go there since middle of last year, but didn’t get around to it until end of the year. We know we had to be there early, I mean really early even before the mall opened. Luckily now the DFA office here in Davao City located at the third floor of SM City Mall Matina, not too far from our house. Good thing that the office is inside the mall, so it’s not so hot inside the office anymore while waiting. So Aaron and I went there like around 9:30am just right before the mall opened.

Aaron & Feyma

We already went there last year to get the applications. We just want to get the application paper from the security guards. They were just handing out outside the door of the DFA office there. We didn’t even have to fall in line for that. Our purpose of going there to renew my passport since its already expired a long time ago ever since I was still living in the States. When it’s expired (around mid 1990′s) I just didn’t bother to get a renewal since I already had my US passport anyway. At that time the Philippines would not recognize the dual citizenship yet. They just passed the law on august of 2003.

So after we (me and the kids) got our dual citizenship here early last year, we then decided to get our Philippine passports. Since Aaron is going to the States this year, its good for us to get his Philippine passport for the first time. When the person at the DFA office explained the requirements to me for Aaron to do, he could tell I am cringing every time he’s explaining. Duh in short too many requirements to fulfill. Big Sigh. One of the requirements you have to fill the same papers (7 times) and have it notarized by the lawyer. Wow unbelievable… One of the requirements that will takes us long to get is the NSO birth certificate for Aaron. They will not bend down there, the applicant had to submit the NSO birth certificate. So any Filipina giving birth in the USA should report the birth of the kid to the nearest Philippine consulate office in your area. So that the kid will have records in the Philippines too. Easier to get any Philippine documents then especially passport after dual citizenship. Unfortunately none of my kids were reported of their birth to the Philippine Consulate Office after giving birth. I never knew and never had friends that reported the birth of their kids too as far as I know. I really wish to God we did. It will be all easier for us by now then.

The personnel at the DFA office told me that the processing for the reporting of the birth (NSO) since we are in the Philippines will take around 4-6 months. Wow, really long, but we don’t have a choice but to report it. My understanding when the personnel explain, they will send the papers again to the USA (at the consulate office there) for their records that the child was born there. Send it back to the NSO office here in the Philippines for verification and approval. At least the kid already has records both countries. Oh well just have to do what they requires us to do.

So reminder again Fil-Am friends: To please report your kids after giving birth in the USA to the nearest Philippine Consulate Office in your area. Some of you might want to get a dual citizenship of your kid. It will be easier to get the Philippine passport then.

Cheers!

January 9, 2014 by feyma

Conversation that I heard!

It’s really nice now that we decided to ride jeepneys in going anywhere here in the city area. On one of our jeepney routes, me and my niece overheard a very interesting conversation of 2 old friends. One of the ladies might be in her mid 50′s and the other one might be a little younger than me. I am just estimating their ages. The route was a bit longer because of the traffic accident. So even with the traffic I was not agitated because of the delay, just thankful of the interesting conversation I’ve heard inside the jeepney. As the minutes went on, their conversations got intense. Both of them shared each other stories about their friends or close friends rendezvous. I will share their conversation here, some readers here might know of similar stories happens to their friends or relatives. Feel free to share here. I will make 2 post from the lady’s chitchat.

Overheard on the Jeepney

As I gathered with their conversation, both ladies used to be neighbors. They were just in that jeepney together accidentally. When the older lady converse about the wedding of I think her close family member. She was asked to be the godmother (ninang) of the couples to be. She was happy to do it. She was even helping the couple in the wedding preparation. Just by listening I could tell that the wedding was a success. The godmother said that the guy, a foreigner from the States, was a bit older than the lady. I guess the guy had money and was getting a big pension. As I was hearing the conversation, the bride was a lavish spender. Bought stuff that’s not even necessary. They had a really nice wedding. Which was understandable since she was just married once, so why not have a fancy wedding? She bought stuff for their house and of course the typical thing partied almost every night, drinking beer and liquor.

The guy wants to live here in the Philippines because he has the money to live here comfortably. The lady really insisted before the wedding that they had to live in America. So the guy agreed to the wishes of the girl because he really loved the girl so much. Thinking about it, it might also good for the lady to live in the States for a few years for her to learn American culture and that she will get her US citizenship and after that they will settle back here in the Philippines for good.

Well, after the wedding when they should have the honeymoon somewhere. The girl postponed it and said that she’s not up to it going somewhere, because she was really exhausted with the prep of the wedding. So she just wants to go to the hotel and sleep. The godmother saw the reason for her not going with the honeymoon somewhere. The bride already had an affair with her ex two days after the wedding. Instead of spending time with her husband she was in bed with her ex. The husband was alone in his hotel room. He thinks his wife spends time with her parents. That really shocked the people that saw her and the ex especially the godmother.

So the godmother was fuming. She told the bride to end the relationship with the ex or she will tell the husband immediately, she said not tomorrow, its going to be today. She told the bride that if she ever do that again that she will never want to get involve with the family because she will never tolerate that kind of behavior. She also added that from now on she will monitor the bride and if theirs something she notice that’s not appropriate to the marriage, she will tell the husband and the church. Hmm. Shocking.. It worked though, because she said the bride really straighten up and behave like a wife after their talk. Just by listening I was hoping too for the happy ending of the new couple.

So I guess you better get godparents that are really close to the family. At the end it will help out both husband and wife. I’m just glad that the godmother really stood her ground and gave her piece to the new bride. I think the parents were also giving advice to the bride to stick with the husband because not just he had the money but also they could tell that the husband will be there for their daughter until the end. They know that the ex will just be there while he can dig in money from their daughter. Plus morally they know that their daughter was already married. They bride was still processing her papers to go to the States. Hoping for the best for the husband and wife while living in the States. Good luck to them.

Watch out next week for the other story. If the story rings a bell to you feel free to comment. Have a great day!!!

January 2, 2014 by feyma

Dear Feyma: My sister’s problem!

Dear Feyma, I saw your website recommended by my friend. I am writing to you maybe some Filipina went through what my sister gotten into her married life. She’s married to an American. When they were writing, the guy he is nice and getting along with my family. I am married to a guy from Europe. I am lucky to have married him. He is really a nice man. My sister on the other hand was just so unlucky in love.

Anyway, they were married in the Philippines. My family came from the Northern part of the Philippines. My family thought everything was okay with them. It looks that way anyway. My sister got her papers process after the wedding. Over a year after the wedding, she went to the States. My sister said the marriage was okay in the beginning. Few years after living together, she can see signs already of the husbands bad behavior. At first my sister stayed in the house, since they had no children yet, the husband said it was okay for my sister to go get a job. So my sister was happy since not much to do at their house. She works as a waitress in a small restaurant. I think after months of working, my brother-in-law didn’t like it that my sister was out of the house. So it didn’t take long my sister quit her job and stayed home again. Well, my brother-in-law when they had arguments starts hurting my sister. It really shocked my sister because she never thought he’s that type of a man. But he did. My sister just let go the first physical fight. But later on he started doing it more often, my sister finally said that enough is enough and move out and stayed with my cousin on the other State.

Domestic Violence

Feyma Bayoy Martin He tries to ask for forgiveness, but my sister, she’s not yet ready to be with him again. My family was not happy with the outcome with the marriage of my sister, but my parents supports my sister a hundred percent and they don’t want also my sister to be the punching bag of my brother-in-law. I know that there’s 2 sides to the story. But my sister has evidence that she’s been abuse and she sent it to my parents. So I don’t want to start a debate here. I just want to share with you what my sister been through. The husband had no power to have my sister deported since she’s already a resident of America. We thank god for that. Maraming salamat Feyma for reading my email. Hanggang sa uulitin. Hannah.

Hi Hannah,

Thank you so much for writing. I’ve heard to many stories similar to what your sister been through. But not just Filipina to foreigner kinda marriage. It’s really a universal problem. Abusive people makes excuses to abuse somebody and blame the victims for their behavior. Like your sister, I bet you she’s the one blamed by your brother-in-law of his bad behavior. You know It’s been going on also with some members of my family and other people that I know. We really tried to help out the one in our family, we want her to leave her husband but unfortunately it never happened her leaving him. He left the wife for a year or so, and we the family were so happy, but he came back and beg for forgiveness and the wife give in. Same cycle again. We just give up and leave them alone. It’s been going on for so long that we just shrug it off. Nothing we can do about it anymore. Very frustrating.

I really hope Hannah that your sister will be safe and she will really decide what’s really best for her. You and your family can’t decide about that. Praying for peace of mind for her. Good luck to you and your family especially to your sister. God bless!

December 26, 2013 by feyma

My homemade pumpkin-kalabasa pie!

I am giving you now the recipe for my pumpkin-kalabasa pie, Feyma’s style. It’s really a simple recipe. You also just need another local ingredients here in the Philippines. The main ingredients would be the kalabasa (a local squash). You can buy the Kalabasa in any malls here. Of course a good and cheap kalabasa can be found in the palengke (public market). At least there you can really choose the size of the kalabasa that you want. We are so choosy with ours. We want it the outside will be on the almost orange side. It means the kalabasa is ripe and good to cook for the purpose of making pie.

Pumpkin Pie in the Philippines

My niece Glenda is the expert of choosing ripe kalabasa, since her parents, they had a whole farm of it. She’s trained by her parents to harvest and choose the ripe one. So when it comes to buying our kalabasa here, I am sending her. Now our helper is good too. But I am learning in that department. I’m kind of good on doing that now too. I’ve seen butternut squash here in some of our malls. But I am not using that for my pie. It’s more money than the kalabasa. So for sure we will never use butternut squash.

“First job before making the pie is to make the squash (kalabasa) puree”:

Pies galore

To boil the squash:

1 whole ripe squash (kalabasa) – cut into cubes
Pinch of salt
Brown sugar

Procedures:

Wash the kalabasa and peel off the skin. Make sure to not leave any of the skin and the seeds and the stringy fibers before cutting into cubes. If skin not properly remove it might give a bitter taste. And it will ruin the taste of your pie.
Put water to a big pot and put a pinch of salt and bring to a boil.
Add the kalabasa to the boiling water and cook for about 40 minutes or until its tender when pierced with a fork.
Puree the kalabasa in a blender, or food processor or in a food mill or with a hand held blender or potato masher or by hand. Giving you too many options there. LOL
Let it cool. Save the extra for kalabasa bread, cookies or a pancake.

***** Kalabasa (squash) – Pumpkin Pie *****

Thanksgiving fun isn’t complete without pumpkin pie

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups pureed kalabasa
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 egg, beaten
1 cup evaporated milk (Alaska, Alpine & Angel brand or other brand is good too)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A pinch of allspice
A pinch of ground cloves
A pinch of ground ginger
A pinch of nutmeg
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C).
In a mixer: combine the squash, brown sugar, cornstarch, egg, milk, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Mix until combined and smooth (might have to use strainer to make sure it’s not lumpy).
Pour into the unbaked pie shell.
Bake in a preheated oven for an hour or more, or until when you insert in the middle of the pie with toothpick it comes out clean.

Let it cool before serving. When serve put whip cream on top. Yummy for your tummy.

Have fun eating. Maybe you will make kalabasa pie for your Noche Buena.

Merry Christmas To All Of You LIP Family/Reader!!!

December 19, 2013 by feyma

My homemade yams!

Another recipe that we made here in the house during Thanksgiving, using local ingredients is Yams. In the States they use sweet potatoes for the yams. Here in the Philippines we use the camote (similar looks to the sweet potato in the USA). Growing up here in the Philippines, we cooked the camote in lots of ways. Like slicing the camote into round sort of thin slice, maybe like around quarter of an inch, fry it until tender then add sugar. Other ways is just by boiling it and it can be substitute as a rice, eat with fish kinilaw (similar to sashimi). Really good to have that dish eating in the beach. Other ways of cooking is by boiling and mashed it and add sugar and wrapped it with lumpia wrapper and fry. All the dishes that I mentioned were really good but the yams is really something else. Its so good.

The holiday table

Feel free to share here some of your sweet potato/camote recipe.

***** Homemade Yams (Sweet Potato) Recipe *****

Ingredients:

2 lbs camote
2+ cups brown sugar (Keep tasting until it comes to the sweetness you desire)
2 cups marshmallow
pinch of salt
3/4 – 1 cup of butter (eyeball if needed more)

Yams at left, and other holiday food

Procedures:

Peel and quartered the potatoes. Boiled water in a large pot and add a pinch of salt. Boil the camote for 20 minutes or so, or until the camote are no longer crunchy; when its cooked. Drain just a little of the water. Not all to avoid dryness. Mash it with the potato masher and add the butter and the sugar. Keep tasting and add more sugar and butter if needed. Put like 1/2 cup of the marshmallow and mix to the mixture.
Butter the bottom of the 8 x 8 Pyrex oven dish. Pour the camote mixture to the dish. And put the rest of the marshmallow on top of the mixture.
Bake at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until brown. Really keep an eye for not to get burn.

***** Wondering if marshmallow is readily available here in the Philippines? Definitely yes. Almost all the malls carry it. If one mall is out, usually the other mall has it. Here in Davao one place that you will always see marshmallow is at Baker’s Basket, along Mabini Street, Davao City. Not far from Central Bank. Just near MacArthur Highway. S & R carries them too. *****

We do cook yams not just during Thanksgiving. Sometimes on some other occasions too. We are addicted to yams I guess. Ha ha ha.

Have fun eating you guys. Happy Holidays!!!