Destination: Palawan!

So, we've been gone for ten months.  

We had one major project before we left- we brought Trumpets Musical Theater to Palawan.  45 students signed up for a two-week workshop filled with learning theater techniques through play.  We even had 3 students who were sponsored by generous hearts from Manila!  A few days after the recital, we left for Manila.  

It was a work assignment that brought R back to the city, and of course, we went with him.   Despite our resistance, it was the best thing that could have happened when it did because we needed to be there for our family during the one time that we were needed the most, ever.  

We lived out of a few suitcases, knowing that we'd go back to get more of our things if we ended up relocating again.  Kids became restless.  Our dream life haunted us.  We were growing older way too fast and time was running out to make it happen. 

Patiently, we waited.  We kept nurturing our dream, one step at a time.  We percolated our ideas and expanded our network.  Then - we took a deep breath - took several deep breaths, clasped our hands and hearts together as one family, and got ready to free fall into the beautiful and bright abyss that would embrace us and launch us back into the bright sky, past the clouds towards the sun!!!! 

In other words, we decided to go back to Puerto Princesa. 

Amidst the house and car maintenance, settling back into our homeschooling routine, reconnecting with good friends, the universe is converging... Our prayers are being answered so generously, beyond our expectations and hope!  

Soon, we will really Be Home again. 

Love Affair With Nature

We've been sadly missing this annual February 14 event every year for various reasons.  Finally, this year, we deliberately made plans to join the citizens of Puerto Princesa City in planting mangroves along the coastline to express our love for nature --- in fact, our love for Puerto Princesa, which has been our home for the past three years.

Conveniently as well, Mangrove Ecosystems was Elise's lesson in her Science home school program for February.  So we had a stronger reason for participating!  We set off, along with another family, at 4:30A.M. to Pook Silangan in Barangay Tagburos, a small coastal fishing village.

When we got there, three priests just finished celebrating Holy Mass by the beach for a huge crowd.  

We hurriedly registered and got our mangrove seedlings.   They were packed in small black bags.  We proudly carried them over to the areas which were assigned for planting. 

As we walked towards the mangrove planting area, we saw many other people walking too.  We were all silent, overwhelmed by the dramatic sky, the cool breeze, the shadows and the rising sun.  This was indeed an expression of love for nature -- walking on the shore with family and friends at the break of dawn to do our part to save the coastline from eroding and eventually protecting them from storms and building a sturdy mangrove ecosystem.  So, we marched on. 

 

We found some marked spots and got some help with planting our seedlings.
 

 
The city government offices like the City Tourism Office and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources sent their staff and managers to plant and help out. Even the PNP and the Philippine Navy were there.

 

Private organizations were there too! 

Locals like us were lingering even after planting several seedlings.

Back at the beach, we caught a glimpse of Mayor Edward Hagedorn officiating a free mass wedding for about a hundred couples. 

     

Around the bend, some dancers were getting ready for the festivities..... 

We spent around an hour and a half there, feeling connected to the community.  We left Tagburos knowing that we helped saved the coastline by planting at least six or seven mangrove trees there. 

We love you, Puerto Princesa!

Home Sweet Home in February

What happened to the sprawling 1000 square meter property with a two-storey six-room house we saw previously? Ha!  Rene was concerned that it might be pitch black at night, and with it being located quite far from the main road, we might be isolated and helpless during an emergency.  Emergencies will include break-ins, accidents and wild animals like the small cobra that was caught last night around here.

Also, the caretaker is a "manghuhula", "manghihilot" and an "albulario" and Mama was concerned that it might be a bit too spooky for comfort.
 
But tomorrow, February 25, I am meeting with a very nice old lady.  She is a widow, has grandchildren, and does not look like she is well into her 70's.  I am meeting her to give her two month's deposit for the rent of a small house and lot that Rene found last week.  He feels more comfortable with this one, and to him, feels just like our home in Manila.

The property is located in a small, quiet, gated, guarded subdivision that even has a small chapel in it. It has friendly neighbors and cute houses all around.  Very simple and homey.  There is public transport that passes in front of the main gate.  It is ten minutes to the market, ten minutes to the church, and fifteen minutes to the kids' school and Rene's workplace.  And the best part is that we have the first option to purchase the house as tenants - That little detail in our wish list was left out in the previous property we saw.

The small 100 square meter bungalow sits on a 300 square meter lot with a calamansi tree, a kasuy tree, a guava tree and a malunggay tree.  The bungalow has a two bedrooms, a spacious kitchen, and a good-sized living area. 

Our big house with the Arts &Crafts Room, Music Room, and Elise's Studio Unit shall have to wait.  Now, it's just time to give the kids their own private spaces, for me to have my heart's desire of a proper kitchen and cook nutritious meals for my family, have a small home office, and host grandparents, uncles, aunts, little cousins and babies from Manila for weeks at a time, and not just a few days.

We're getting settled.

OUR HOUSE

I excitedly explored a nearby road where I heard there were some houses and apartments for rent.  I got the tip from the owners of the car wash place we go to weekly.   The road was not cemented yet, so I drove slowly.  After months of checking out houses, apartments and pads, I was slowly getting discouraged. Some were so expensive and were aimed to be rented out to expats and foreigners.

And others were like this, needing much repair and had holes in the wall and roofs.  I shuddered at the thought of all the little animals that could com into the house.  More than twice, I've seen huge monitor lizards crossing the road. There are also scorpions and some scary looking bugs.   

I slowly muttered a prayer to St. Joseph, and asked him to help us find a good home, and I chanced upon this:

There was a tall red gate along the road, and another tall red gate about 300 meters away.  I rapped at the gate with a stone and shouted, "Tao Po!!!!"  ("Someone is here!")  Three barking dogs appeared,  jumping up and down.  A little later, a tanned man with Japanese features came out without a shirt and cheerfully acknowledged my presence.  His grown-up kids own the huge property and are all live elsewhere.  He takes care of the several houses being rented out within it.  He showed me some small one-bedroom duplex houses and an old two-bedroom house, then mentioned that he was finishing up the repair of one big house.  I asked to see it anyway. 

He led me to a red gate, and told me to back up and drive backwards to another red gate.  It opened up to a 1,000 square meter property with a house that looked more like an office building. 

It had almost everything we had in the wish list we made last November! It was not a bungalow type and the deal is not Lease To Own.  But it had a huge garden and lots of fruit trees - two santol trees, two mango trees, several papaya and banana trees, a few malunggay trees and even some cashew trees.

The front lawn was once covered with bermuda grass, but there were eggplant and sweet potato vines crawling all over the place.  It would be fun to clean up and shove the vines over to one side to let the grass breathe once again.   

And guess what, when I entered the house, the layout of the house was almost exactly like what Elise drew a few months after we arrrived in Puerto!


I closed my eyes and was lost in my daydream.  The kitchen opens up to the garden, and I see Elise and Nacho playing in the tree house across the other tree with a tire swing.  I am baking with my brand new oven, grilling fresh seafood in the garden, arranging a small gathering on picnic tables in the garden under the shade of the two mango trees.  I suddenly have a green thumb and am tending tomatoes, herbs, green onions and stemming roses!  I am composting and recycling. I am having playgroups with other mothers and holding cooking, art and reading classes for kids.  I am painting the walls, having shelves made, choosing curtains....

I got pulled back into reality when he told me that the repairs would take a few months.  The rate was good, for such a big property.  Yes, we can wait.  We'll be busy anyway, with the kids' classes ending in two months, then off to Manila for the entire summer, then back here again..... June would be perfect.

And so today, at 4:00p.m., in one hour, I will bring Rene and the kids to see the house.

Fish at San Jose Public Market

Mama gave us a three-level steamer last September when she visited.  Since then, I've just used it for steamed Lapu-Lapu, steamed carrots and steamed rice.

Last weekend, I decided to make frequent trips to the New Public Market of San Jose and learn about local fish from the fishmongers.  I will buy fish, steam them, and try them! Steamed fish is the best way to taste fish! 

The fishermen usually arrive at about 4:00P.M. with their day's catch, and the market will be alive and bustling with the noises of huge knives splitting large tuna, the grating of heavy pails and crates filled with ice and fish against the pavement and the banging of the aluminum trays against the weighing scales.  All the hype will die down after an hour, and the catch will last up to about noon the next day.   So off we went: Elise, Nacho and I. 

The fish section was wet.  But it was NOT smelly.  Elise said the air smelled a little sweet, like sweet smelling fish, good enough to eat. Nacho's eyes were wide open and he was talking nonstop about all the different shapes and colors of everything.

Saw some eel. Unagi!  Can't steam that.

Some "mulmol", sometimes called "loro" or parrot fish were available.  But they're endangered, so I did not have the heart to buy them.  Although I heard that when they are grilled over a charcoal fire, they are very tasty, and the the liver is especially delicious.  But then again, NO!  They are endangered!

Saw some "pagi" or mantarays. They are usually cooked in coconut milk, but I wasn't sure how.  Besides, I tasted some before and did not really love them...

Saw some "karatungan".  Looked like rock fish, but I was not sure.  The fish's back was covered with spines, which you have to pull out with tweezers as part of the preparation process. But the meat, they said, is very tender. I wasn't up to the spine-pulling preparation, so we skipped that. 

I asked the fishmonger what fish is good to steam, and she pointed to some "kanuping" or "isdang bato", and at P100 per kilo, two good sized ones found their way to my cutting board...

 ...and to our steamer, along with some ginger and leeks and all those good stuff.  Okra and tomatoes went on the first level of the steamer, and the rice went on the second level. A complete meal in one cooking appliance! 

The meat was so firm and tender.  The taste was so, so clean, with no aftertaste. The skin was thick, and it easily came off, I almost peeled it from the cooked fish. I suspect that this fish would also be good when skinned, filleted and used for fish 'n' chips or fish sticks, or with some sort of oyster sauce-shitake mushroom sauce. 

We enjoyed our simple meal with all the condiments!  Toyo (soy sauce), calamansi (Philippine lemon), siling labuyo (red chili pepper), suka (vinegar), and bagoong (fish paste)!

Aloha House

We first chanced upon this place a few months ago when we were viewing some empty lots for sale at Santa Monica.  It was behind a 1,000 square meter lot along the main road.  As the sun already set, and the sky was getting dark, the place was closed.  I saw a small sign that herbs were for sale.  I made a mental note to myself to make this one of the places that we should visit soon.

The perfect opportunity came a few days ago when Mama and her sister, Tita Baby, visited us here in Palawan.  The Aloha House was right on Mitra Road on the way back from Baker's Hill, where we had lunch. 

We knocked on the gate and we were let in by a nice Cebuano speaking lady.

She led us right to the Farm Store.

There were bottles of molasses, virgin coconut oil, coconut-pineapple jam and pesto.  They even had brown, red and black organic rice.

There were also some crocheted goblet covers and necklaces made by the women.

Mama and Tita Baby shopped for a bit.

A small roundabout was in the center, surrounded by a see-saw and and some bouncing wooden animals, all set on a little pool of smooth white stones. Elise and Nacho noisily played and the lady had to ask them to tone it down, as the little orphan babies were napping.

We took a peek inside, and there were several cribs side by side where the children, some barely a year old, were stretching and yawning and napping. Aloha House is also an orphanage licensed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. 

Across the store was a cozy open living room where a friendly dog was sitting.

Behind the sofa were little cars made from small plastic water drums with wheels fastened to them.  They were linked together to form some sort of pull-train.  VERY CLEVER!!!

Another clever thing was a dog house with a small tunnel.

All these were overlooking a rolling garden of lettuce,

tomatoes, 

and gotocula! I got very excited when I saw gotocula, as Mama keeps a pot of these in her porch at home and eats about three leaves a day.  It helps her arthritis.  She gives them away to people whom she knows might need them for arthritis.  It is also known to sharpen memory.  Last year, when she found out I had joint pains in my hands, she gave me some, and since we have not tended to our garden in Manila, I found them all over the bermuda grass in our garden.  Here, a few days ago when they visited Lawiswis Organics in Irawan, she she asked for some.  So I have a pot of it sitting on some water in our balcony, waiting for me to plant them in a nice pot with some topsoil.  I now eat two to three leaves a day and my joint pains are gone!

I wandered to the back and found another rolling field full of vegetables and herbs and found out that they also sell fresh lettuce.

There were some training materials since Aloha House is also a center for training for sustainable agriculture. Some folks over from the Department of Agriculture even trained here.

They also sell cheese: cheddar, mozzarella and feta. Yum. They are building a creamery at the back and it is almost complete.  No wonder we saw some goats grazing on the grassy lot across the house. 

By this time, all I could think of was FRESH green salad with sweet red tomatoes tossed in some coco vinaigrette, sprinkled with feta cheese.  But we'll have to go back for that creamery.  When it's completed, we'll take another field trip.

Vacation in the City

For someone who grew up in Manila amidst the rising of the malls since SM North Edsa, had SM Megamall, Robinsons Galleria and Shangrila Plaza a walking distance away, I was awed by my recent mall trips a week ago. I wanted to go into every store, look at all the new things, and taste all the interesting food.  Even the supermarket excited me and I got a high from reading labels and just marveling at all the choices!  I truly turned into a promdi.

We spent an afternoon in SM Megamall and got the kids some clothes and shoes.

We dropped by their favorite ice cream shop: Thumbs Up!, where they got small portions of their favorite flavors!  No sugar high after!

Enjoyed Polly's chocolate cake twice during the trip, where it was the perfect ending of two very special birthday dinners.  What a coincidence. It IS The Best Chocolate Cake EVER.

 

 

A highlight of the trip was when the kids went to Eastwood City with their cousins.

We watched Despicable Me,

had a burger lunch at Stackers,

and went bungee jumping.  

 

We carefully watched everyone else who tried it.  The kids went twice. The first one scared them, leaving them stiff and almost throwing up. But they pleaded for a second one, and this time, they just let go and had fun.

Can you find Nacho among the branches? 

Here is little cousin Nina, who was the bravest of them all.

Finished the afternoon off with some yoghurt in Dash, a cozy toy shop.

Most of our time was spent talking and spending time together with family, which is why visited in the first place.  Even got to visit Papa more than once.

Now, everything is the other way around.  I used to escape the bright city life and travel to the seaside every few months.  Now, I live by the sea, and go off to the city once every few months.

We are back to the reality of studying with Elise and Nacho, going on our final stretch of house hunting, and gearing up our entrepreneurial spirit for the upcoming holidays.

After catching up on some much-needed rest when we got back, we ran straight to the beach!

And played once more.

And peacefully ended the day. 

Been back and forth for nine months, and it looks like this is Home Sweet Home.