No Wang-Wang in the Airport

The Philippines continues to surprise me daily. This sign at the airport was a nice reminder that I probably only understand about 45% of what is going on around me. According to this article, "wang-wang" is a term for sirens used by rich people to get through traffic. At the airport, it basically means that no one is too important to wait in line. The website, "The Guide to Sleeping in Airports" rated Manila's  Terminal 1 as the worst airport in the world in 2011, and the worst airport in Asia in 2012. Honestly, I was so excited to go home that I didn't think it was that bad. Maybe in the past it was worse with all that wang-wang.

Holiday Baking

The main reason I run is so that I can eat what I want. Not preservative-filled, chemical-laden, dyed and processed crap, but good, wholesome, and often a little too fatty foods. Like most people, my memories of holidays revolve around food (or maybe that's just me?). While I am the first one to dig into some mashed potatoes and stuffing, I prefer to do the baking. Peanut butter kiss cookies and snowball cookies are two of my favorites, and pumpkin pie is a must. 

I used this recipe for the kiss cookies, however, I recommend using an all-natural flour like Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur because your average flour is bleached with potassium bromate (according to the interwebs, potassium bromate has been linked to thyroid dysfunction.) I couldn't find an all-natural Hershey Kiss, so we ate some soya lecithin, vanilin, and artificial flavoring - note to self to order some real chocolate next year. For the snowball or Russian teacake cookies, I followed this recipe. Next time, I would add a little more flour to make the cookies more dense. For the pumpkin pies, I followed the recipe I have been using for years and used my brother-in-law's famous pie crust recipe. Sorry, can't reveal the family secret here. 

The Shark's brother made the famous kolachi. This Czech dessert has been a staple in The Shark's family for as long as he can remember, and it is so delicious with coffee. I also love sugar cookies, but since we had already made them in Manila I couldn't muster the energy for all that work.

A New Perspective

Oh, hi. We are in California. And it is awesome. Because you can do things like yoga on a paddleboard. And go to Target. Surprisingly, it is not as hard as it sounds to keep your balance on a paddleboard. Most poses kept you pretty steady, but I could not manage to do the headstand on open water - more fear than capability. The coolest part was staring at the sky during shavasana and the shore during down dog. 

BTW - Toto was amazing on the plane. We were nervous based on her previous flight from CA to Manila when she was 7 weeks old and literally cried for 10 hours straight. This time from MNL to NRT, she kept herself busy playing in the bulk head area with a series of new, small toys purchased to keep her quiet. Fortunately there was a children's play area in the Narita airport to keep her occupied for the 2-hour layover. Then came the big one - 10 hours from Narita to LAX. She kept her cool during the dinner service, and once they dimmed the lights we changed her into pj's and put her to sleep on a million airline pillows on the floor. Knowing that the friendly Delta stewardesses might have a problem with that, we made a blanket tent to hide her. That little girl slept for 6 hours. And when they came around in the morning with her breakfast, Yaya pretended the toddler meal was for her so they wouldn't get suspicious - which after 10 hours on the plane managed to slip by the stewardess. Oh, I didn't mention Yaya was with us? Well, we wanted a real vacation. And we are having one. 

Kid Recipe: Cheesy Broccoli

Adapted this one from here. I cut the pieces much smaller, and didn't add salt or garlic. Toto loves it, like she loves most food. I have trouble finding good green veggies for here, so end up supplementing with this combo of spinach/peas/brown rice/barley or mixing turkey into this spinach/pea/pear combo. Luckily, she will still eat these "baby" foods, because I have friends who toddlers have rejected anything pureed. These are so convenient for the park, airplane, hotel, etc. But she definitely prefers whole foods like pasta, bagels, rice, cheese, pancake...hmm, that's a long list of carbohydrates, but at least we stick to whole-wheat, organic options.

Any ideas for green veggies for toddlers that you can find in Manila?

Counting Down

Toto will be 15 months this Christmas, and appears to have a bit more of a clue what's going on than she did at 3 months last year. Everyday she advances the Christmas calendar, gets super excited at every Christmas decoration she sees, and has no problem wolfing down an entire cookie.

Now is probably a good time to mention Filipinos start celebrating Christmas in September, as Christmas is celebrated in all the "ber" months - September, October, November, and December. At work I attended 3 parties, where we played games like pass the lifesaver ("Polo") to each other on sticks in our mouth and dressed each other in recycled paper for a "trashion show." You know, for the birth of Christ. As an American, I refuse to acknowledge Christmas until after Thanksgiving, then it's on.

A homage to our "homes."

Sewing Their Way Out of Poverty

The Shark and I, together with some colleagues, wrote a grant to purchase sewing machines and other supplies for a women's group living about 2 hours south of Manila. The families were relocated to this neighborhood after a development project forced them to move from their previous homes. The group had a couple sewing machines that they used to make school uniforms and other items, but it wasn't enough for all the women. Our grant added 8 new machines, an edger, and some other sewing supplies that the group plans to use to make various goods to sell. The mayor graciously assisted in having the building renovated to include electricity. One woman was so excited that she wouldn't have to use the old-school foot pedal machines anymore! It was a good reminder for us to get out of our expat bubble, get out in the community, and do some good.

Taking marching band very seriously.

Ready for the ribbon cutting.

Fancy-schmancy.

Get your wedding needs made here!

Swimming in an Active Volcano

The Shark and I love hiking. We have hiked in New Mexico, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia, Rwanda, Uganda, Ghana, Mali, Uganda, Indonesia, pretty much everywhere we have lived and traveled. But the introduction of Toto has put a halt on hiking since she prefers to be carried in our arms to being carried in a carrier. Although, she was a trooper during some hikes in Michigan and Indonesia.  So on another Philippine holiday (how I love all these holidays), we headed out to hike Mt. Pinatubo.  

We used the Filipino Travel Center, and for about $75/person, we had a car, driver, 4x4 jeep, and local guide. The van arrived at 4am, which was sadly way before Starbucks opened and even more sad was that there were no Starbucks anywhere near the start of the hike. At the registration "center" we hopped on a 4x4 jeep for a 1-hour bumpy, at times terrifying, ride across Crow Canyon. The 7km hike through the desolate, dusty wasteland created by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was rewarded when we got to the crater lake.

Luckily they sold cold water and gatorade at the top, despite the fact that it was double the normal price. Kind of like a beer at a baseball game, but I digress. We got in our swimsuits behind a bush and jumped into the surprisingly frigid water.  Even though the sun was out, the breeze was cold and dry. We could see smoke rising off a hot area of the volcano and that freaked me out a bit. 

The hike back and subsequent jeep ride seemed to take an eternity and my calves got burned, but overall it was a great experience. I recommend you bring lots of snacks, a big lunch, change of clothes and socks, a towel, lots of sunscreen, and a big hat.

Want to know more about the devastating eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991?  Great wikipedia article here. Yaya told us that she thought "the world was ending" that day and rushed her 5-month old baby to the capitol city to stay with her father for 3 months. She said it was pitch black for over 24 hours after the eruption. 

This jeep was 40 years old. I am not kidding. The driver was about 14.

Ended up belonging to the senior citizens.

Made it.

Is that smoke rising from the sand? I'm hot, let's swim.

Praying we made it back.

Vegetarian Challenges

Being vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian, can be difficult. In Ghana, I was offered a chicken head with the feet coming out the beak, in Rwanda I saw every part of the cow hanging in market stalls, and in the Philippines, a half formed egg is a bar snack. Fortunately, Manila is home to many great restaurants, including an outstanding vegetarian/vegan place called Corner Tree Cafe. And I just heard of another called Pipino. Most restaurants have a vegetable section, but I've noticed they often contain fish, and sometimes even pork or beef! I had to laugh when we passed this sign on the way to Tagaytay - "vegetarian meat" - I really don't even want to know. But I do. Actually, the traffic was so bad, I probably could have gotten out and bought some. Next time.

Giving Boca Burgers a run for their money.

Kid Recipe: Roasted Carrots

For locals, if you don't already know, Healthy Options has expanded their frozen section (turkey burgers, frozen blueberries) and also added locally-sourced, organic produce and meats.  We roasted an entire chicken and it was delicious.  I am not a big meat-eater and I certainly do not like touching raw meat, but I felt good about getting this organic source of protein into Toto's diet - and she loved it.  In the produce section they carry lettuce, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, herbs, and carrots, and other things I may be forgetting.  I checked out a bunch of recipes online, but settled for this one from one of my favorite recipe blogs.  Pretty simple, just tossed the carrots in olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary and baked at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Toto scarfed them down with some turkey sausage (also from the frozen section), veggie noodles and cheese.

I ate about half of these while Toto was napping.

Manila Thanksgiving

Good friends hosted us for Thanksgiving. Although we have had fantastic Thanksgiving dinners in Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda, this one came the closest to being authentic. S&R carried big ol' turkeys, Healthy Options had whole cranberries, and camote was subbed for a delicious sweet potato casserole. The Filipinos at the dinner liked everything, which was surprising after being in other countries where people thought the Americanized food we served - sandwiches, stir fry, pasta - was disgusting. Everyone left happy and full, even Toto who ate an entire bread roll by herself.

Dig in,