Final Philippine Post

Starting on Thursday my picture taking gradually ended. It turns out that I was starting to have some stomach problems (which you do not want to hear about I am sure) and so I just had no energy. So, here are a few assorted last things to say about the Philippines.

One goal in coming the the Philippines, besides seeing friends was for Steve to do some lectures. His first two were for the Catholic Biblical Association of the Philippines. The second one was at Ateneu University, which is a Catholic institution run by the Jesuits.

We also met up with our friend Don Goertzen, a college friend. It was great to spend some time together and catch up. He is such an interesting person and has done some very interesting things in his varied career. He is about to go off and work in Kabul, Afghanistan for a few months!  The Philippines is home to him and where he plans to retire. He speaks Tagalog fluently.

Transportation

I think one of the first interesting things I saw here is a Jeepney. They are everywhere. The history of them is that at the end of WWII there were lots of jeeps and so they were cheap. People got them and repurposed them by making them long and they became one of the main types of transportation in Manila.

The second common type of transportation is a tricycle. It is actually a motorcycle with a sidecar built onto it so that it can carry two or three extra people. They are all over. Our friends here at times said that they would think of taking one, but it was way too small for our American bodies.

They also have a metro (light rail) and busses and taxis. Even with all of the various types of transportation the streets are congested most of the time. We spent lots of time in traffic going to one place or another. Most of the time we were taken in vans or took taxis. Unfortunately I did not get to experience a trip on a Jeepney.

Politics

One thing that was happening here which reminded me very much of home was the inauguration of the newly elected president. Rodrigo Duterte was elected despite swearing and offending most people. He even slandered the Catholic church which is very strong in the Philippines. One thing that is interesting is that in the Philippines the Vice President is elected separately from the President, so a more liberal person, Leni Robredo was elected Vice President. Because they do not see eye to eye they had separate inaugurations!

What is happening to our world when so many people are voting for people who are so offensive and for isolationist policies?

Final Impressions

Filipinos are friendly and optimistic people!  Almost everyone has a smile and sincere welcome. I wasn’t here long enough to know how deep that goes, but from the few people we know long-term I think that it might be deep. They took such good care of us. We did not pay for hardly anything and were given lots of gifts (a Barong (a man's shirt), a large piece of material which is a woman's traditional clothing, a t-shirt and jacket from Ateneu) I think we will try to go back sometime and try a different beach place. In the meantime I may try to like eating food with lots of bones. My apologies for the horrible picture of my friends, but I did not take all of the right pictures. I also cannot believe I did not take any pictures of the nuns!

It is also still a pretty inexpensive place to travel. For example a nice meal at a rooftop restaurant was the equivalent of $30.

Coming up
Next I will write about our adventures in Seoul, South Korea. It is about a 4 hour plane trip from Manila and then another hour by taxi.

Final Philippine Post

Starting on Thursday my picture taking gradually ended. It turns out that I was starting to have some stomach problems (which you do not want to hear about I am sure) and so I just had no energy. So, here are a few assorted last things to say about the Philippines.

One goal in coming the the Philippines, besides seeing friends was for Steve to do some lectures. His first two were for the Catholic Biblical Association of the Philippines. The second one was at Ateneu University, which is a Catholic institution run by the Jesuits.

We also met up with our friend Don Goertzen, a college friend. It was great to spend some time together and catch up. He is such an interesting person and has done some very interesting things in his varied career. He is about to go off and work in Kabul, Afghanistan for a few months!  The Philippines is home to him and where he plans to retire. He speaks Tagalog fluently.

Transportation

I think one of the first interesting things I saw here is a Jeepney. They are everywhere. The history of them is that at the end of WWII there were lots of jeeps and so they were cheap. People got them and repurposed them by making them long and they became one of the main types of transportation in Manila.

The second common type of transportation is a tricycle. It is actually a motorcycle with a sidecar built onto it so that it can carry two or three extra people. They are all over. Our friends here at times said that they would think of taking one, but it was way too small for our American bodies.

They also have a metro (light rail) and busses and taxis. Even with all of the various types of transportation the streets are congested most of the time. We spent lots of time in traffic going to one place or another. Most of the time we were taken in vans or took taxis. Unfortunately I did not get to experience a trip on a Jeepney.

Politics

One thing that was happening here which reminded me very much of home was the inauguration of the newly elected president. Rodrigo Duterte was elected despite swearing and offending most people. He even slandered the Catholic church which is very strong in the Philippines. One thing that is interesting is that in the Philippines the Vice President is elected separately from the President, so a more liberal person, Leni Robredo was elected Vice President. Because they do not see eye to eye they had separate inaugurations!

What is happening to our world when so many people are voting for people who are so offensive and for isolationist policies?

Final Impressions

Filipinos are friendly and optimistic people!  Almost everyone has a smile and sincere welcome. I wasn’t here long enough to know how deep that goes, but from the few people we know long-term I think that it might be deep. They took such good care of us. We did not pay for hardly anything and were given lots of gifts (a Barong (a man's shirt), a large piece of material which is a woman's traditional clothing, a t-shirt and jacket from Ateneu) I think we will try to go back sometime and try a different beach place. In the meantime I may try to like eating food with lots of bones. My apologies for the horrible picture of my friends, but I did not take all of the right pictures. I also cannot believe I did not take any pictures of the nuns!

It is also still a pretty inexpensive place to travel. For example a nice meal at a rooftop restaurant was the equivalent of $30.

Coming up
Next I will write about our adventures in Seoul, South Korea. It is about a 4 hour plane trip from Manila and then another hour by taxi.

Filipino Food

If my Mother was reading this she would want to know what I have eaten. This page is dedicated to her and to Shiff the Chef our ancestor from whom some of us in the family (not me) inherited talents with cooking. 

Let's start with breakfast. Every morning at the convent where we were staying they prepared a very nice breakfast for us. Breakfast is a full meal. There was always rice and then three choices. One was some sort of meat, another was some sort of fish or egg and one was vegetable. The vegetable choice was very limited. 



However, the meal started with fruit and there was amazing fruit. Some mornings there were various types of mangos, other mornings there was a huge slice of papaya, and sometimes there were also bananas. In the Philippines there are a lot of different types of bananas. Our Filipino friends feel sorry for us that we have to get those long bland tasting bananas, but they are the only ones that can survive the transportation.

See this Article on banana varieties from the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eatingwell/cavendish-bananas-tropical-race-four_b_809327.html

It seemed to me like lunch and dinner were both very similar. There is rice, some sort of meat or fish, and vegetables. We did eat out for lunch and there were sandwiches and salads and pancakes. Several lunches eaten with others included some sort of fish soup. There is a pretty clear looking broth and big pieces of fish including bones, clams in their shells or shrimp.

Often meat is adobo. All kinds of meat can be prepared as Adobo. According to Wikipedia Adobo come from the Spanish adobar which means marinade. Meat, seafood or vegetables are marinated in vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. This is then browned in oil and simmered in the marinade. We have had mostly pork adobo.

Some sort of seafood soup has been common with most meals that we have eaten. One lunch we had some sort of fish in broth, at another was a sour soup with another kind of fish. Yesterday we had a soup of clams with the shells and everything in it and later we had soup with shrimp in it.

Here are some things that were new to me:

• Jackfruit-It was served as part of a main dish cooked in coconut sauce and eaten with rice.
  
• Avocado is considered a fruit! Even though I saw them growing on many trees and for sale in markets I don't think I  ever ate any here. In one place that we went at the beach there was an avocado fruit shake. Betty Rae's Ice Cream has an avocado ice cream, so I guess they are on to something.
• A snack is something totally different than I pictured. At one of Steve's talks there was a break and snack for everyone. Below you see a picture of the snack. I am not sure what it is called. It was sort of a rice porridge with half a fried egg, some pork adobo and some pieces of tongue. It came with lumpia, which was described to me as filipino fried spring roll. 
• A Filipino (and probably other locations) delicacy is the head of the prawn. My friends debated about cooking the prawns with the heads on or off and decided to leave the heads on. 

Prawns with heads

Filipino Snack
Lucky for me I was trained well to try everything and did not make a scene, but the food was very different for me.

One breakfast I had in a restaurant I decided to order yogurt and fruit. It was a huge plate of really nice looking fruit cut in bite sized pieces and on the side was a container of yogurt. It was delicious



One evening at dinner I ordered "Asian Fried Rice and Chicken" (or something like that). I pictured that I would be getting a stir fry of sorts with rice and bits of chicken and some vegetables. What I got was a bowl of rice and a plate with a large piece of chicken (bone- in) sliced and dipping sauces. I think what is difficult for me is the number of bones and all of the seafood that I am encountering.

A talk about Filipino food would not be complete without mentioning JollyBee, the Filipino version of McDonalds. Filipinos LOVE JollyBee!  






We had a bacon, egg and cheese between two pancakes instead of muffins. Our friends had sausage, eggs and rice.

At another time we had a rice patty and fried chicken. I hear there is one in San Francisco (and probably in most cities where there are Filipinos).