Lunch Lady Land

Remember that time when I was like, "Sorry, food hijacked my life but it's all good now"?  Apparently that was a lie. There is something remarkably romantic about food.  Not a boy-meets-girl romance.  It is more of a quaint romance, the quiet kind that settles contentedly in one's soul.  To be honest, it is one of the purest joys any basic creature can experience.  The amazing part is that God allows mankind to take it one step further.  We have not only been given the ability to play with flavor and elements, but we also get to share it with each other.  In short, good food lays better foundations for great relationships than anything else.

Don't argue with the facts. Jesus himself ate with his disciples and demanded they continue that tradition until his return.  Nearly every budding relationship is nurtured with well-made food. (Coffee counts.) Babies bond with their primary food source for the majority of their early lives.  Good food isn't an accident and someone sharing that food with you isn't just nice.  It's everyday romance.  Deal with it.

All of that said, good food or bad, I hate seeing it go to waste.  Imagine a house where people compete to see who can eat the oldest left overs.  (Yes, that's you, Uncle David.) But in tribal Filipino culture, waste is even more offensive and they don't have refrigerators.  One social gathering will tell you all you need to know.  Personally, rice is the only permissible choice as far as food goes at these things, but take a glance at everyone else's plates.  They're happily tucking into fried pork blood and intestines with gusto.  Get the picture?

Daily life is organized around meal times...and coffee times...and the preparation of food for those times.  There is an ongoing assessment of The Fresh: What is going to spoil first, so it can be eaten first? Is anything too far gone to be eaten that is salvageable for baking or cooking? Can this be preserved by freezing?  Is anything showing signs of worms or rot?  The surprising part is that it's more of a game than a chore because all of the above questions have follow-up questions: Cookies or bread? Stir fry? Would these flavors pair well together? Could I try substituting this for that? What if we invented something savory with this, instead of the usual sweet?  The results of our labors are almost always good.  If they aren't, the process was still fun, a lesson was learned, and the desire to make it better is undeniable.

Around the food, life waltzes along.  Just yesterday a beautiful baby girl was born in the village. Two of the kids spent time expanding their portion of the garden this morning.  Adobo the pig has an umbilical hernia that might determine the length of her extended lifespan. All of these things happen slowly, then all at once. Through it all, we break out bread, give thanks, and bask in the romantic blessing of it all.

They Say It Lasts A Lifetime: Photo Edition

 

(Men playing the gansa drums.)

 

(Dancing!)

 

(Look closely. That's fish head soup.)

 

(The rice featured here was the only dish I could eat,  but apparently the stuff in the green dish tastes like bacon.)

They Say It Lasts A Lifetime

I think we all have random memories.  Something from the dark recesses of long-term memory will occasionally bob to the surface of recollection and we think, "Seriously? Out of everything you could have saved, you picked that, Brain? Consider yourself fired." Exhibit A: is it really that important for me to remember the orthodontist's tuna breath at 3 a.m., a decade later?

But we hopefully also experience moments that we know, without a doubt, are memories that we'll carry as long as our brains are sufficiently functional. Exhibit B: yep, I definitely remember the time I dropped, not one, but two perfectly good tampons, applicator and all, into a dirty toilet.  Talk about five bucks in the toilet.  Maybe a better example is Exhibit C: thanks for holding onto that midnight trek through the jungle by moonlight, Brain.  While I didn't get pictures of the moonlit mountainscape (not for lack of trying, mind you), I know it is a memory that will linger.

In addition to that hike, I was privileged to attend a couple different weddings the week. One was a massive affair with 1,500 guests that the hosts fed for a grand total of three meals, if I'm not mistaken. The other had fewer guests, but still an impressive gathering.  Apparently, the way weddings work here is everyone gets together the night before the wedding for a blowout party that goes strong until the ceremony the next morning, only to revive the party afterward the the remainder of the day!

All that said, I think my take away memories were two traditional dances.  The first is one I think of as the bird dance.  Men play brass gansa drums while men and women dance around each other with their arms raised like bird wings.  A man will single out a woman and dance around only her.  After several minutes, he will offer his hand to her and she will either reject it or accept.  If she rejects, he can try again or try to get another girl. If she accepts, they walk out from the dancers together as a pair. If she doesn't, he can try again or go after a different girl.

The second dance is strictly (to my understanding) a wedding thing.  The bride and groom are the only dancers and the sort of slowly revolve in the middle of everyone.  The guests bring out money and pin it to the bride and groom's clothing as a kind of gift!  This dance can happen several times at one wedding and they'll end the dance covered in money every time.  Another similar dance happened at the second, but not the first. A scarf was draped across the bride and groom's arms, then guests placed folded bills or coins in either the bride or groom's mouth. If the coin started between the groom's lips, he would pass it mouth-to-mouth to the bride and she would drop it into the scarf.

That's all I have for today, except some pictures that will upload at their leisure!

The Master Chef?

Did I mention I spent almost every night watching cooking shows in Manila?  Well, I did.  Most of them were of Australian origin and my favorite was by far Master Chef Australia.  Despite it being an old season (and literally NONE of the food being vegan), my inner foodie was all like, "No big deal.  We can do that."

So, with our limited supply of produce, my work has been cut out for me.  I'm talking breads, muffins, slaws, salads, humus, baked tofu... Heck, falafel is even on my "to make" list.  It's fun to try recipes, dabble in creating dishes, and hodge-podge whatever substitute ingredients we need.

Granted, this normally wouldn't be the best time of year to go all Martha Stewart.  Hot season is supposed to be cranking up to high heat right about now.  Key word: supposed.  The past couple days have brought some of the coldest weather I've experienced in the Philippines thus far.  We even dropped to 19°C (which is something like 65°F, but still, I had woolly socks on, okay!), so the heat of the oven has been welcomed for the most part.

In addition to baked goodies, I've been enjoying some mailed love from my family.  Letters and packages and even emails from the states have perked me up just as much as Banana-Pineapple Bread.  Trust me, it's delicious.

We're slogging away through 4th and 2nd grades with the girls, but they've seen the light at the end of the tunnel.  Once they realized there are less than 60 school days to go, the morale in the schoolroom brightened considerably. I feel kind of bad because my being here means they don't really get a summer break.  We'll "finish" the school year with the month of June and be neck deep in the next grade by mid July.  Even still, we're all pretty excited for the finish line.  Finish line = a trip out of our village to do some cultural exploring in other areas of Luzon!

I just need to remind myself that this isn't a sprint. It's cross-country through and through. The analogy would probably work better if I was actually a runner.

Seriously, The Pictures on Instagram Are Better

 

(View of some farmland from the helicopter)

 

(Walking down a crowded street in Tuguegarao)

 

(Ladies and gentlemen, a jeepney.)

You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country...

After a ten-day trip to Manila and blessings too numerous to count, I was more than ready to return to the quiet life in our village.  How could that be?  My theory is, no matter where I go or choose to live, I was born and bred in the middle of nowhere, so that is where I will always feel the most at ease.  City life, with all its convenience, is nothing short of exhausting.  There are always people around; the noise never sinks below a dull roar.  The hustle and bustle is fun for a while, then it's a relief when it's over.

Video chatting was definitely the biggest plus to our stay in Manila.  I got to see my Ohio family for the first time since October and my New York family for the first time since Christmas.  It felt wonderful to catch up on each others' lives, to hear one another laugh, to ramble on in comfortable (and comforting) conversation.

Oddly, the video chats might have been one of the more difficult parts at the same time.  It is one thing to live isolated from your loved ones with small, infrequent messages.  It is another experience entirely to visually and audibly interact with them without any means of physical expression of love or joy.  Try as we might, we cannot squeeze air with all the strength in our arms.  Our heads cannot rest on shoulders over 8,000 miles away.  Kissing air is the same as not kissing at all.  Loneliness that had been held at bay by distance, came crashing in.

Even in the midst of all these emotions, I could not say that I regret the decisions that brought me here.  I long to be home, but I dread the day I have to leave.  That's the trouble with giving your all wherever you go.  I have a sneaking suspicion it is all going to be worth it, though, and that gives me hope for whatever God has next.

Another top experience was FOOD.  Vegan or not, I've always been such a foodie.  As a vegan, I particularly enjoy food of the green persuasion.  Rest assured that I'm no longer grumbling in my heart, but God saw fit to give me some veggie-goodness anyway.  Believe me when I say I pounded that rabbit food.  I horked those suckers down till my stomach distended into a mound that resembled three months of pregnancy.  Spinach, corn, artichoke, roasted red peppers, cabbage, broccoli, snow peas, cauliflower, pineapple salsa, mushrooms... I went to town (literally and proverbially).  Not to mention other goodies like freshly roasted peanuts with salt and garlic.  Or kutsinta and kakanin, also known as some of the best varieties of sticky rice cakes ever created.  Food might have hijacked my Instagram for a couple days to say the least.

Other experiences were newer and took longer to process.  Over our time in Manila, we caught multiple jeepneys.  My favorite jeepney ride took place later one evening.  Shannon and I caught went to get some last minute supplies, namely frozen berries and soy milk. The guy at S&R packed up our spoils, but he put all of the soy milk in the flimsier of the two bags.  All was well until we went to get off the jeep and the handles of the bag came away in my hands, sending the soy milk straight to the pavement.  Thankfully, nothing broke and I was able to carry the handle-less bag back to our room on my shoulder.

One day, our taxi driver seemed unable to keep his opinions to himself.  Shannon told him we were Canadian, rather than explaining that I was an American.  THANK GOD!  This guy spent the next good chunk of our drive telling us how much he hated Americans, how America stole all of the Filipino silver and copper, and how much he loves the Filipino president and his choices.  Now, I have nothing against patriotism, and I felt he was entitled to his own opinion.  That being said, I have never been more stressed out during a conversation in my life.  Eventually, he got tired of speaking politics and turned his attention to religion.  While his questions may have been designed to give himself more speaking time, Shannon was still able to share the gospel with the guy.  All in all, I'd call that a win.

The entire trip could boil down to a muddle of malls, department stores, stalls, scents, and sights.  I'm thankful for the opportunity to meet other missionaries at the guest house.   The walking and shopping facilitated building stronger relationships between my host family and I.  Sure, we're all as exhausted as ever, but we're living with purpose and joy.  I, for one, would trade a good night's sleep for daily purpose any day of the week.

With all that said, I'll add some pictures next.  March out.  April, bring it on.

Reassessment In Progress

Today's message came out of Numbers 11.  In that passage, Israel is complaining about the lack of fresh food even though God gives them fresh manna every day.  They crave meat and Egypt despite all God has brought them through.  Moses has had enough.  God is full out irritated with his chosen people. Not because they want some meat, but because they're rejecting their savior.  As always happens, God has to teach them a lesson.  The saddest part is that the same situation happens again in John 6, except this time they reject Christ himself, not just a picture foretelling Christ.

All this past week I've been craving spinach. It sounds so trite, but the craving has turned me into an absolute bear. God is filling my belly with perfectly decent food and I'm sitting here whining about my greens. Talk about a slap in the face.

Naturally, this conviction and the ensuing conversations/observations turned slightly introspective.  A close look at my social media showed me a girl, not so much focused on Christ, but on societal opinions.  At least, that's what my shy, self-consciousness is allowing me to share.  The reality is, if I want this insane love for my savior to shine through, it can't just be in my heart or my daily life. This love needs to bleed over into Instagram, blogs, journals, and prayers.  I can't afford to be self-conscious at this stage in the game.  God-consciousness, not Vivian-consciousness, is necessary at all times on every platform. 

It's all or nothing now.

Ready.

Set.

Go!