Sarap

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Man, if I lived here, I would be a little piglet in no time. The food here is so fatty, fried, and sugary. The major cause of death is diabetes and heart disease. And I look around and everyone is partaking in it. Depending on genetics, people seem to be really thin here...or not. But no one is obese like in the US. But I sure would be if I lived here. With the sun and the fatty food, I would soon become a crispy pata - fried up & fatty.

We had a short lunch in the cafeteria. Even cafeteria food here is better than the Wilmington cafeteria. I had a fresh mango shake, two caramelized bananas, and pancit, which is glass noodled with fish cake and other random stuff. Filling. I had also had a few of our quiz show prizes to stave off my hunger in the morning - Kit Kats. No wonder I have put on 5-10 lbs this week (hard to tell because the scale seems inaccurate and reported I was only 145 when I arrived last week). The food here is tasty and appeals to my sweet tooth. It is sarap, that is why I am getting fat. Sarap, the first word I learned in Tagalog and for good reason.

Then we left work. We went to Donabel's hometown of Marikina. The driver brought us to the mall. Now here was a true Asian mall, with flashing lights, loud sounds, throngs of people. It was very different from Glorietta and Greenbelt, which seemed more like the Natick Collection than anything else. There is a store here where different shoe manufacturers sell their wares. This town was once famous for its shoe-making, until China's low prices encroached. I bought two pairs of dance shoes at half the cost we'd pay in the US, and with the knowledge that they fit and I was able to try them on. They even had a section labelled "Belly Dancing Shoes". But I didn't buy those - they didn't fit. I got low-heeled ballroom dance shoes. This place is so famous for shoes that it has the world's largest pair of men's shoes, all made of leather like a real shoe, in this mall. When she said "big shoes", she didn't mean for my big western feet. She meant big shoes as in giant shoes in a shoe monument. A shoe fetishist's wet dream.

Dona's family invited me over for dinner. I accepted, and we told the driver to come back to pick me up at the mall around 8pm. Dona thought I should try local transport. First, we got into a jeepney. This is a very low-ceilinged public transportation, pretty much the back of a jeep. It is hard to describe because the Jeepney is its own unique vehicle, nothing we have in the states. The hardest thing is breathing in all the pollution in the open windows. I am really getting a sore throat here from it and I don't know how people can breathe it every day. Maybe your lungs toughen up over time. After we got off the jeepney, we got into a tricycle, basically the sidecar of a motorbike. I was so scared! We couldn't see in front of us because the window for the sidecar was too dirty. But we were very close to the road. The driver's foot was right next to my ear and so was the engine. I thought any moment now and we are going to be hit by a car. I had been training people on Accident Reporting software all day and so I had accidents on the brain. I was relieved when we got out.

Donabel's neighborhood is very leafy and full of trees, amongst the houses. Marikina is a very clean neighborhood because the mayor has enacted many laws. For example, you cannot have animals wandering about like in other cities around Manila. Dona's house is set back from the street, down a lane. It is a 4 story house and she lives there with her husband, her brother and his wife, and her parents. Her aunt and uncle live down the street and also came to visit. Donabel brought me up to the top floor where there is a garden and roofdeck. We sat outside and talked. For dinner, we came down and had dinner. The dinner was spring rolls. Sarap! I had my fill of those, and rice. Then there was dessert, jello in a strawberry cream sauce. And something with graham crackers and cream. I thought I was done, by her aunt and uncle gave me some special Filipino candy, freshly made. it was very sticky and made of coconut milk and rice. It had a very familiar flavor. I thought I was stuffed then, but there was more. I thought we were done. We were about to leave when her mom offered me a salted egg. Now, I had eaten everything up to this point and complimented them. But this one, I could only say "Hmm..it's salty." I did finish it but I made Donabel eat the other half! I couldn't bear to eat the whole thing, as salty as it was and as full as I was at that point. I practically had to be rolled out! "Salamat Po", I said to her mom - thank you for a great dinner!

Now I am going to be going home. I will be home in about 24 hours.

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Comments

[Vince]

Crispy Pata
That was funny, great way to compare yourself to crispy pata...But delicious nonetheless, right?