Archive for the “Food” category
Joe Marie Ballon, an X-ray Technologist, haven’t been home for five years because his father got sick so instead of spending for a plane ticket home, he’d rather send the money for medicine.
Leonie Villanueva, a Caregiver, can’t go home for nine years no matter how much she want to because she have bills to pay every month and all her children are depending on her.
Joey Doble, a Baby Sitter, left when his son is only a year old and still haven’t seen him after 11 years.
More than 11 million Filipinos have left their families to find better opportunities abroad. This year, Coca-Cola gave them what they want most this Christmas. Watch the video below.
Coca-Cola Where Will Happiness Strike Next: The OFW Project
At least once a week, I’d treat myself with a pot-full of Doritos and a bottle of Coca-cola while re-living the last movie I watched with my daughter before I went on this journey to feed 695 camels.
No. That’s not a make-shift Kung Fu Panda 2 set. The Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides was also showing on the same day we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 and the kids wanted their photos taken, so there. The boy on the left is my daughter’s uncle. Skadoosh!
BTW, Halloween is soon approaching. Have you bought your halloween suits yet? You may want to check this very controversial Halloween costumes post I made last year. It has been so controversial the “authorities” had to ask me to delete a huge chunk of the text which I did for the betterment of mankind. The entry has been moved to my new travel and food blog.
I wonder if the kids will go trick-or-treating this year.
It must really take a lot of faith to become a “true” Muslim. Especially during the Ramadan, which almost always coincides with the peak of summer when the temperature could rise beyond the 50-degree Centigrade mark, I can’t imagine how could someone last a whole day without even drinking a single drop of water.
If you’re not aware of the Ramadan, here’s a little excerpt so you’ll have an idea of what I’m talking about.
“Observed by more than one billion Muslims around the world, Ramadan is a time for spiritual purification achieved through fasting, self-sacrifice and prayers.
Celebrated during the ninth month of Islamic calendar, the fast is observed each day from sunrise to sunset. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five Pillars of Islam. The Islamic belief that requires that Muslims perform five central duties in order to strengthen their faith. While Islam has two major sects, the Sunnis and the Shiites, all Muslims aim to realize these five pillars in their lifetime.”
Fasting is the keyword. No food, no water, not even a puff of cigarette from sunrise to sunset. FOR ONE WHOLE MONTH!
Non-Muslims, on the other hand, are not required to observe fasting during the month of Ramadan. They just had to do their un-observance in private. Consider it as a way of being considerate with our Muslim brothers who chose to observe fasting. Imagine how much burden you would be contributing to them when they see you wolfing a plateful of meat while they’re trying with all their heart and soul not to sip even a droplet of water. That means we have to cover all glass windows on the cafeteria and even the office windows so we could still enjoy our mini-snack bars during tea breaks.
Also, the regular office hours got to be shifted from the usual 7AM to 7PM to 6AM to 6PM. That means we had to wake up at 4 in the morning instead of 5 to prepare for work. But one good thing that springs from all these adjustments is that we can go home an hour earlier (therefore getting virtually reconnected an hour earlier with our homeland, read: TIME ZONES) not to mention the sudden disappearance of vehicles on the desert road from the usual heavy traffic during non-Ramadan days when your cars could almost always got stuck side-by-side a truckload of goats and sheep.
And just like the assorted mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn or Moon Cake Festival in China, samosa, more popularly known among the desert locals as sambusa, suddenly become the sales top grosser on groceries, convenience stores and street markets.
Those are samosas in assorted flavors. Most of the Filipinos here try to avoid picking the curry-flavored ones but my least favorite are the ones with goats cheese filling. A colleague said he bought a pack for SAR5 on the first day of Ramadan but, due to its popularity, a bag already costs SAR15 on the second day.
“Desert life was like a bag of samosas. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
Ramadan Kareem!
