Sweet Life With Mary

“How come you’re so good at helping me make friends?” Mary asked me with some resentment. I guess, her way of saying “Thank You!” for making sure that she had a better time at recess.

Yes, she had a much better second day at school. She made not just one new friend, but TWO!!! She earned her quarter from Gramma fair and square, the smile came very easy. She had a great day in school.

A little while later Mary asks me, “How did this day get better with my mom?”

I guess, its her way of saying, “You’re the best, Mom!”

I was glad I could help…

Mary and I have been back in the United States for two weeks now and had finally gotten back into the swing of things.  It had been hectic, getting ready for school, looking for a place to live (we are currently staying with relatives) and most of all, for me, getting used to driving around, again.

Mary is now in first grade and first day of school was yesterday, August 18th.  We had thought to ease her discomfort about starting at a new school by taking her there to walk around a few times before school started.  The school had an open house last Thursday where we all got to meet her teacher (the teacher seemed very nice) and saw her classroom.  Her school is small, only have Grades 1-5 with maybe 50-70 students per grade. 

First day did not go as well as hoped.  Mary “hated” the new school, “hated” recess.  “Everybody just ignored me.  I talked to me and nobody would listen.  I hate it!”

I explained how everybody was probably just all feeling shy, that it will get better, that she keep trying to make friends, that to give it a few weeks.  Gramma said that she will give Mary a quarter everyday when she comes home with a smile.

This morning, as much as Mary hated the school (or so, she says), she went.  I had promised to talk with some of the girls in her class and to her teacher about it and I did.  We will see how it goes…

Mary and I are back with her daddy in the United States after a 101 days in the Philippines.  As much fun as Mary and I had with my family, Jack and I both agreed that it was too long to be separated from one another.  So long that Mary was a little shy with her daddy when we first met him at the airport!  Of course, after a couple of seconds, when daddy offered to carry her in his arms, out of the airport, Mary got over her shyness.

Some random notes/tips from our return trip…

• What do I expect to pay at the airport (in this case, NAIA - Ninoy Aquino International Airport - airport code: MNL)?  I am Philippine-born with Canadian passport and US Permanent Residence Card and Mary has a US passport so both of us possess a non-Filipino passport— we only had to pay Terminal Fees.  At this time, it was a total of PHP 750 or USD 17.00 PER person.  If you are a vacationing immigrant and still possess a Philippine passport, you would need to pay the terminal fees as well as Travel tax.  If you are an Overseas Foreign Worker (OFW) like my sister in Dubai, you are exempted from paying travel tax or airport terminal fees as long as you already have your Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) which incurs a different set of fees.
• If you are one adult, travelling with a child, with a few carry-on baggage and a long wait to get on the plane, make friends with similarly situated travellers.  Makes it easy to go in and out of the secured area (to get snacks, make a phone call, use the bathroom, etc.) and not have to drag your child AND all your baggage with you.  Of course, it is best to always have your boarding pass, passport and other documents WITH you, at all times.
• When faced with option of take a nap or wait for the food service to get a Sprite and food for your 6-year-old who went on to take a nap herself… GO TAKE THE NAP, along with your child.  Airplane food is better not eaten anyway (especially Japan Air Lines’ international meals - ugh!) and you could always summon the attendant and get a drink when YOU are ready.
• Bring plenty of snacks that you know your child likes.  No beverages from home, though.  They will not make it pass security.
• Unlike the other airports I passed through (Des Moines, Chicago O’Hare, NAIA), at Narita International Airport (Tokyo), deplaning passengers go through security to get into the terminal.  Even soda or water you have saved to take with you from the airplane so you did not have to purchase any while waiting for your connecting flight WILL be taken away from you.  Actually anything that has liquid in them wll be taken away by security— I had a can of Marie Callendar’s Chicken Dumplings soup as a last-minute addition to my carry-on which passed security at Des Moines International did not make it to Manila because the Japanese security lady said soup is liquid and therefore forbidden.
• I am loving the Boeing 777 jets - American Airlines has them for the Chicago-Tokyo run (maybe, other routes as well). It is a wide-bodied plane with high ceilings, comfortable reclining seats (whose tray tables in the back DO NOT recline with them), adjustable head rests and BEST OF ALL, individual TV monitors with on-demand features.  While Mary was enjoying Nim’s Island, I was watching Iron Man.
• For the US Customs Declaration Form, it is OK to declare that you are bringing in food, if you INDEED have food from another country.  Does not necessarily mean that your luggage will be searched.  (I overhead one traveler telling his companion not to declare he has food even if he did so as not to be searched.) Everytime I go through US Customs, I always check the Yes box across from the statement “I am (We are) bringing in: fruits, vegetables, plans, seeds, food, insects” because I always have snacks along (chips, nuts, cookies, dried fruit).  The next statement “: meats, animals or animal/wildlife products” — I always check NO and made sure that I do not bring in any MEAT products (canned fish or any canned food that may have any kind of meat in it, dried fish/meat, etc.)  Not sure about the regulations, I think, they change often, some meats are allowed and some are not based on the “scare” of the moment, so its wise to just not bring any type of meat.

Thank you to all my family in the Philippines— Mom, Dad, my brothers and sisters and their spouses, nieces and nephews and cousins and second cousins— and also to Jack and my mother-in-law for making our Philippine vacation possible.  Mary will remember and treasure all her adventures and memories of love, fun, companionship and tradition.

Shots I took of me and Mommy

More photos taken by Mary - we were on a taxicab to visit cousins.

Soon, Mary and I will travel back to the States, after a little over three months vacationing in the Philippines.  For the next few days, let us entertain you with the pictures she took.

Here are photos from our first weekend at my sister’s in Angono.  We went for a morning run to get pan de sal.

I grew up behind that wall with the small, rusty windows up in the second floor.   Back then, all I saw through those windows were gravestones, markers, a few sizable burial plots.  I would often wonder about the people who visit their dead relatives during November 1st in that spacious area right across from the back of our house.  They must have been affluent to have afforded all that room to honor those who had passed on in their family.

But now, twenty years later, I wonder about you.  I can’t help but watch your lives from up above our second floor window.  While I had gone on and explored the world, you have settled in this narrow strip of land between the creek that runs behind our house and the wall of that sizable burial plot. You had married, had your kids, put them to school and they have gotten married and now I see a grandkid’s crib inside that little room you call home.

You probably thought this was going to be temporary, living in a patchwork house.  You had hopes and dreams for your children, rising above this place.  At least I hope you did.

How about your kids? My mom said that your two girls are now both married with small children and they are barely out of high school.   And instead of having husbands that took them away from there, the husbands (who are just barely men, themselves) had come to stay with you.

How do you survive? Yes, you do not have a mortgage or rent to worry about. Electricity for a few lights and a TV is tapped from someone’s line. Water is free, courtesy of an open pipe you have connected to the city line. Your wife does laundry to put food on the table. The only thing you have to worry about is that creek that floods every time there is a heavy rainfall (which could be everyday during the rainy season which is six months of the year).

The other day, monsoon rains dumped a deluge in a matter of hours. Did you even have time to cook lunch and get your family fed before the water rose?

The water did go down by mid-afternoon. I hope in time for dinner.

My daughter, Mary, who was born and being raised in the US and is on a visit with me here in my childhood home had also looked out a few times at you — our “neighbors” down below. Will she be looking out to your great-grandkids in another twenty years?

Continued from last post…
———-

Are you still with me? I hope Mom has a firm hold on you. Be aware of where you have your wallet. I know you are eager to take in all the sights but do not get TOO distracted.

There is shopping everywhere— storefronts, sidewalk vendors… Around the school opening and Christmas, there would be a lot more vendors selling their wares even right onto the streets!

What would you like? Tsinelas! Slippers, flip-flops, sandals…

There’s a couple of stalls I want to check out over at 168 Mall, one of the newer buldings in this shopping district that house a LOT of micro vendors, mostly, “fake” bags/purses, cell phone accessories, women’s clothes, shoes, small gift items. On a previous visit, I stumbled onto a stall that sells factory overruns— Nike, Gap, No Boundaries, to name a few, subcontracts their clothes to Philippine factories who produce more than the ordered quantities, whatever was not shipped to storesin the US would be sold locally at bargain prices. I want to see if they have any more of the Php 100 “Gap” shorts that has become one of my favorites to wear. And I also want to pick up some surprises for Mary.

Doing your shopping inside this mall is certainly more comfortable- building is air-conditioned.

Success! Got a couple more of those shorts and found coloring books and scented pens for Mary. Let’s head on back to the other side.

Sun has come out. I forgot to ask you to bring along an umbrella. In this part of the world, the umbrella is a parasol (for sun) as much as paraguas (for rain).

Whenever Mom goes out to the mall or have a snack outside of the house, she would go for some kind of hot soup. I have yet to try the Noodle bowls at Chow King. Let’s have some.

Too bad they look so good in the photo but not so good while we were having them. They were just so-so, broth was nice and hot but the noodles were chewy and the “sahog” was sparse— there was one leaf of bok choy and two wontons on my wonton bowl.

Time to head home, let’s walk over to where we can pick up a jeepney.

Hey! Look at those umbrella hats on those security guards!

Its gotten a lot busier since we got here and a lot of people are also heading home. The jeepneys are fuller but it was still easy to get onto one.

One sight along the way that always intrigues me, the houses by the railroad track…

We made it back— did you enjoy the trip?

I have barely a week left on our vacation in the Philippines and I want to do some more shopping.

Would you like to come with me and my Mom to Divisoria?

We’re commuting, just a minimum-fare jeepney ride from my parents’ house.

First we have to walk over to where we can get a jeepney.

Watch out for those trucks. Let’s walk around them. We have to cross the street. Let’s get to the crosswalk as that’s the only place where there is a break on the island. We can’t jump over that 3-foot wall, otherwise we would just have crossed the road right in front of the house.

RUN! Don’t walk— these vehicles are not going to slow down just because we happen to be crossing in the designated crosswalk! And look, let’s flag down that jeep- it is plying MCU-Divisoria and it looks like it is almost empty.

Yes, not too many commuters this time of day, we can get comfortable.

Bayad ho! When do we pay our fare? Some do it as soon as they get on, some wait till they are close to their destination, making sure that the driver is not reckless which sometimes precipitates getting off one jeepney in favor of another and some hands over their fare as they are getting off. Let’s pay now… paki-about, po- if you please, hand our fare to the driver.

The jeepney has two benches running along the two sides of the vehicle where commuters ride sideways, usually tightly packed when full. A comfortable six-seater turns into a seven-seater. If passengers happen to be a little wide on the backside, an unlucky one would be left with no choice but to scootch forward with barely a butt on the seat, thigh muscles flexed to keep from sliding off. However you are sitting, it is prudent to hold on to the overhead handrail. A less-than-full jeepney stops for every potential passenger out on the street, speeds up to go to the next and screeches to a stop when a passenger yells to be let off. Hang on tight!

Along its posted route, a jeepney can stop anywhere along the route. Though not legally, a jeepney will stop in the middle of the road, sideways covering two lanes, middle of an intersection, pay no heed to traffic he is causing by blocking other vehicles. Through the years, there were sporadic efforts to post designated jeepney stops— that both passenger and jeepney driver ignored.

Then there are all the other types of vehicles along the road that a jeepney drive have to contend with— slow-moving tricycles, much-slower moving pedicabs…

Calesas - horse-drawn carriages

Would have slowed down our travel but since traffic is light…

We’re getting close, get ready to get off. Flip up the fingers that you’ve got wrapped around the handrail to make a loud thump against the wooden roof, that should get the driver’s attention then I’d say, “Para ho! Sa tabi lang ho! Sandali lang, may matanda!” Stop, by the sidewalk please, wait, we have an elderly person with us… We have to tell all these to the driver even if it is obvious that Mom cannot jump off while the jeepney is moving— you and I can handle that, but not Mom.

Divisoria!

Where are all the jeepneys, vendors and shoppers that usually clog this road? We are lucky to have come at a slow time- it is Wednesday (Baclaran day- devotees flock to the church in Baclaran to hear mass and say their novenas and would also do their shopping at the many stalls and stores along the road to Baclaran), it is just past 10 am and it is a few days before the end of the month when people usually get their salaries.

Let’s do some shopping!!!!
—-
Next post - Divisoria II - slippers galore, noodles and squatters by the railroad tracks.

No Pedestrian Crossing - Deadly….