Worship and Dance: Filipino Style, Korean Style

     
     From where I stood by a friend's home in her village last Saturday, the "Caracol" or procession in honor of St. John Bosco appeared bright, colorful, but lacking in participation.  Maybe the rain shower a few minutes before kept people away, but really, even earlier in the day it was clear that residents were not home.  The feast of St. John Bosco was on January 31, and the parish church, Don Bosco, held various activities over the weekend.  Although the ladies who danced through the street looked marvelous in their bright satins gowns, with hats and hair accessories to match, I found it sad that there were very few youth in attendance.  While in my opinion taking out a loan to participate in the usually lavish Filipino fiesta is outdated, I feel we need to honor our traditions and continue to celebrate them.  Gone are the rondallas, the folk dance classes and Balagtasan from our private schools.  I'm sad for our children, who are losing this aspect of our 'culture' to modern interpretations.

     It was at least interesting to note that the statues of the saint held up by the participants were simple wooden sculptures.

      This procession was to meet one at the next village.  Sorry to say we did not attend it and thus do not know what it was like.

The 3rd Sta. Rosa Korean-Philippine Concert
     There was an interesting poster in South Supermarket the past month, inviting the public to a Korean-Philippine Concert. The photo featured a string quartet composed of lovely Korean ladies.  Such a concert was certainly something we wanted to attend.  It was held also last Saturday, at the Laguna Bel-air School auditorium.  The concert had free admission, and it was organized by the Church of Dreams.  To be honest, I had more of a sense of my faith and worship during this show.  I suppose it's the novelty of a different culture and manner of presentation. I'm pretty certain it was also because the strings were really good.

     Translation of the pastor's sermon was also entertaining.  We arrived on time to find that they were on the so-called Filipino time and the show did not begin until nearly an hour later.  There were so many chairs set up, yet few people, that I wondered how many would come.  Later, Koreans and Filipinos nearly filled the auditorium.  The Filipinos who came were mostly friends of the community, headed by the Laguna Bel-air tennis club.  We ourselves saw one family who lives near us, and whose young son has always been so friendly with us.  Clearly, as with us, there are also different types of Korean families and groups in the country. I say this because I don't like it when I hear people categorizing others and generalizing about particular cultures and their characteristics.   Just recently another kind of foreigner candidly complained to me about another race. While his comments were based on his own experiences, it also wasn't fair for him to generalize.  

      If you have been living here the past fifteen years but haven't noticed how the South Koreans have been 'invading' the Philippines then I don't know where you have been.  When I was growing up, in Pasay City we had Indian neighbors.  Our parents' generation had the Japanese gardeners (who were later said to allegedly be 'spies' sent as advance parties prior to WWII).  IN Makati my husband and I lived in a place where candles would be decorating the garages in the evening of Diwali. Now my child wears Korean hair accessories and a few clothes, eats Korean food and regularly greets playmates with the shortcut "anyeong".
        Many Koreans, I know, excel in string instruments.  So we had high expectations for the quartet and they delighted in every way.  For one thing, they played music that the audience appreciated, not the complicated pieces meant for serious concertos.  There were folk songs and Children's songs, Tangos, and the encore, B Rosette which the violinist said is from a popular Korean drama series.  The song certainly sounded familiar even if I hardly ever watched any of those.    

     The Kairos Mission Dancing Team were a joy to watch.  The ladies are lovely, graceful, and the costumes so pretty. The silky skirts swirl, and the numerous twirls of the traditional dances reminded me of whirling dervishes.  Indeed, the connection is both are spiritual, religious expressions.

     The youth modern dance number was typical of our local Christian groups', complete with a rap in the middle, in English, by a teenage boy. This part made me think of Gary V's son. The "play" depicting Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, while simple, was was quite powerful as the dancers used their bodies and facial expressions well. Like I said, I experienced a renewal of my faith with this show.

      Finally, I wonder if it is a Korean thing, but hard candies were tossed from  kaings onto our heads at the end of the show. It was good fun but of course we had to bow lest our faces get hit.

      Before the show started, my husband commented that he felt we were in a small town somewhere in rural Japan, or just some small community in another country. Certainly, the fresh air of the open auditorium, the simple stage, warm hosts and different kind of dances all contributed to the small-town atmosphere.  

         I will load videos of some dances next post.

Quartet Su

Fan Dance

Taepyoung Mu
The Empress danced this for peace and prosperity in the country.

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Coconut Water

   People walk by and look up. They stare at these. I cannot understand what they say to each other in their languages. The man I handed one to early this year (after he stood there with his kid, staring), has been passing by and looking again. Well, they CAN buy it at the market, but somehow, sharing with neighbors is more fun.






  The sound can tickle your bladder.  Just as drinking this will.  It hydrates so refreshingly and clears the urinary tract.  We are lucky to have it fresh.  I know it's convenient, but honestly, coconut water preserved in tetra packs doesn't cut it for me. I suspect many feel the same and that's why I often see the shelf full.  I mean, we're in Laguna! How are you doing, beverage bottling company?

Cool Sunday evening, Warm Bulalo

Santa Rosa-Tagaytay highway, 6 pm, approximately 21 degrees celsius.

We hardly cook or eat beef and pork.  We can, and do, however, enjoy it once in a while.  We can, and did, walk from home and back.  In the current weather walking around these parts is...a breeze. (pardon that!)

Hiring a housekeeper

     I shouldn't tease. After all, this is one of the most difficult things to do and I don't even have the right solution.  I will just speak from my experiences in this area.

   Lately I have been meeting more and more locals, mothers like myself who have chosen to live without a live-in helper.  We thus hire 'part-timers'.  The woman who offered her services to me, for example,  struck a deal with her solo businessman employer for her to get 'sideline' jobs.  He didn't require her to hang around the house anyway, and he encouraged her to get the other jobs in order to earn more and keep sane. 

   So there is a category of helpers here who are hired by companies to keep house on a live-out basis for their expat staff.  A helper can be minding up to 5 houses in one village per contract.   Of course that also depends on how many men actually live in one house.  It is also her choice how many houses to take on. Mostly the tasks are just cleaning, laundry and ironing.  There is a little bit of cooking.  There are two sub-categories.  There is the helper who lives in one of the staff houses and takes care of around three. There is the helper who lives in the barangay and thus gets to be with her children.  In most of my friends'opinions this seems a good situation for many of the women as they do not have to leave their children.  They can go to school while she works nearby.  Sadly, most of those I've met have 3 to 5 children just one year apart.  Most of them also claim their husbands either do not earn much or are not employed.

   I've also just recently learned that the tricycle fare from say, the Caltex gas station at the corner of the highway and Laguna blvd, to the barangay Inchican in Silang (towards Westgrove) costs Php 70 per head, in a shared tricycle.   So most of the workers walk home.   This is not a far distance, and we wonder if it has to do with the fact that the road traversed is within the Laguna Technopark's jurisdiction.

Pics from Months Past for Moments Present

  Simple things to enjoy here while it's still slightly suburban. It isn't, but versus Muntinlupa...you get it.

     Enter Malitlit, Santa Rosa, through the empty Eton toll exit in the golden hour just before the sun sets.

      Have sushi and ramen at Ippon Yari.

     With your favorite beer or even sake of course.

Back to the Bad Men--A HOAX!

  Okay so the next day I learned from the helper next door that this helper is gone. She talked too much, she said. I pressed and let on about what I thought I knew based on what she said, and she brushed it off...the helper was indeed nutty and made up that camera story.  This neighbor's helper said although she didn't want to, entered the bathroom upon the nutty one's pleading.  So she inspected the hole.  She says it is nothing more than a hole through which a hook or screw must have been inserted, and there was nothing inside. Besides, she said, it would be too difficult to install something with wiring just through that hole. There was no other opening in the ceiling.

  I'll just post something about hiring help around these parts.


  Unbelievable. Am I really going to, in the new year, go back to one of my earlier posts about the indiscretions of expatriate Asian men around my area? I have turned a blind eye to the quality of many women around--to the depths they've sunk (with regard to what they are really after and how they get it).  I have avoided any eye contact with the men living in company staff houses, having known my neighbor to be indecent. I have been opening myself only to the decent mothers and  young people, ignoring frequent sightings of the obviously skanky.  And now this. Well, maybe it's actually a candle--a signal that morality and decency still are alive where you do not expect them.

    A helper nearby--I'll call her Gracia--feels comfy enough to converse with me after having purchased something from my garage sale once a couple months ago.  Well, it's she who mostly does the talking. She often mentioned her singing at the church choir.  Once, my helper muttered to me that this helper has a screw loose (may sayad daw).  After hearing that, my perception of her did change--although a seemingly decent and very nice person, I did notice an other-worldliness.  Her moods for example, were a bit unpredictable. Sweet smile one day, ignoring me the next.  Ah but then aren't most women this way...   However she would talk again and again about her being in the church choir. 

    Anyway I often see her strolling in the evening.  On the morning of one such night, she was seated on the same park bench she was on the night before, wearing the same outfit, which was not a uniform.  Of all the people to hear what she had to say again, it had to be me. As I walked past, she asked me seriously if I knew about "videos...small, tiny video cameras".  As in cctv, webcams, that sort of thing.  She then showed me a photo on her phone of a hole roughly bored through her bathroom's ceiling.  Her employers had installed a "Christmas-light-like" object with a wire in there, she claimed. I instantly pitied her, but also challenged her with some skepticism.  Just to put things in perspective---did she actually see the gadget? Does it light up? Is there a room where they can view what that 'camera' captures?  Do they view porn? Do they get drunk?

     To all these, she answered, yes. She said there IS a room which remains locked, which they never let her clean.  She says there is a computer in there. She said she has seen their dirty magazines where women are so extremely exposed.  She said they often bring home prostitutes. She said they drink, try to convince her to drink, and get drunk. She also said they have offered her money should she need it (implying that there is extra work). 

     She then launched into a tirade of rhetorical questions:  Did they really think all women are easy? Aren't they satisfied with all the women they bring home and pay? Did they think just throwing money at her will make her succumb?  She also said her other employer, from another Asian country, once tried to kiss her.  So this is where it gets a little wild.

     Not that it's too wild an idea for these men, who live with other male colleagues in one home, to engage in all their perversions.  But for this one helper to accuse two different employers in two different homes in the area just makes her credibility suspect.  And while I know face and physical form usually do not have much to do with being a target for this kind of harrassment, I have to say this helper does not have the figure nor face for it.
Anyway, I was ready to offer her some duct tape to cover the hole. And maybe paint for the 'camera'.

    So she called the cops on her employers but the police say they can do nothing until they find an actual video of her being circulated.  She called the security on them, along with the company's coordinator, who hired her in the first place.  The men have of course denied the allegations.  They have ordered her to clean the 'locked' room, to prove there is nothing related to any 'spy cam' as she called it.  And, they have denied her request to resign before they find a replacement.  They are also apparently concerned about being unable to find another house to rent, after being accused. 

    Of course I'm still not 100% sure about what's going on. After all, I've only heard from her.  Was there really a camera anyway?  I'm not sure I want to know any more.  I'm curious to know about who owns the house.  

    So, does she have a screw loose? Maybe. What would she gain by making up something like this? Nothing.  So I am believing her story, it's safer to help her out with advice than to just shrug it off as her being nuts.  I hope she does get to leave very soon. It's not a very safe position to be in.  I know past helpers of other drunk bastards in the neighborhood would either lock themselves in their rooms to keep safe; behave like mothers and scold their employers; or just quit.

    Well, hello 2013, and sorry. The aim was to blog again (obviously been scarce) about developing life in this City of Santa Rosa and not gossip about its social ills.  I guess, like in most cities and in one of its many villages, there is this dark side despite manicured lawns, flowering trees and screaming children.   It's the real world after all.  As I said, maybe this helper, with all her talk of the church choir, and with a reputation for being crazy (which good people are often branded as), is actually a candle.  And it's just another day in "Wisteria Lane".

Beacon Academy

 

 

 

    Ahh! So conducive to learning!  Set against a mountain, this high school is.  And as with many of the new, good schools adding a ''branch" or relocating South (of Metro Manila), this one is never really far from where people live. In this area of Santa Rosa, that is.  When I say "not far" I actually mean the drives are pleasant.  No traffic jams, no smog, greens along the road...various bird species on the trees (and well, okay, the wires). 

 

    I hope these children know how fortunate they are.  When I hear of others trapped in EDSA or C5 or wherever, going from school in Makati to home in Quezon City or vice versa,  I feel sorry. Even sitting as passengers in private cars, their daily travel to and from school can be a stressor.  And then the kids and teens focus on tablets sitting in traffic in the car...

 

   That is another story, maybe for the Mother blog where I talk about how now the kid dislikes flavored milk "because it's too sweet for my tongue". Among other things natural, unrefined, pure and maybe organic...