The Christian From Bicol

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Christine Lailani

(This is an excerpt from this post I wrote back in November 2013 during Typhoon Yolanda. I thought this particular content deserves to have its own separate article with a different title this time.)

Wherever God would take me, whatever God would give me, I will bring with me two identities: first, I am a Christian, and second, I am a Bicolana.

I can never be prouder of anything I have and whoever I have become other than those two I have mentioned above.

Why a Christian? I am nothing and nobody without my God, first and foremost. My identity is in Him, and I believe I need not say more as it is what it already is. 🙂

Why a Bicolana then? Ahh, this is most likely where I’ll be explaining more.

I grew up in the province. I spent more than half of my life there. As of writing, that is. There’s no other place that I could ever call ‘home’ except Bulan. Yes, that is my hometown, a small town in the province of Sorsogon somewhere in the southernmost part of Luzon.

Sorsogon consists mostly of coastal areas surrounded by beaches of all sand colors from white, pink, to black – you name it, we have it. Rich in natural resources, fishing and farming have been the sources of livelihood with almost all the Bulanons (that’s how we generally call ourselves).

Fishing

If there is one value that being a Bicolana has taught me, it would be this – knowing your roots. In other words, learn to look back from your humble beginnings. Bulan is the one thing that has taught me how it is to be humble and to be grateful. Humility bespeaks when the heart is in awe of the mediocre. I know you are going to agree with me right there.

I came from a family of farmers. My parents, my grandparents, and the parents before them all came from humble beginnings. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them. Gratitude is what I could offer to my ancestors for the sacrifices and hard work that they have invested in providing the best for their families.

I came from a generation wherein I didn’t have to go to the fields and do the farming myself, and go home with sweaty clothes covered in mud just to pay for all of my expenses and supply my needs. An experience I never had to go through, and yet something that I would want to go through.

CIRCA 1980s: My mom, aunts, uncles along with my grandparents.

CIRCA 1980s: My mom, aunts, uncles, and my grandparents.

They say that for someone to appreciate the value of something less than its market value and more of its sentimental value, you have to work hard for it and have it like how it is usually done and achieved. You have to sweat it out, so to speak.

I was listening to the podcast of Pastor Christian Flores regarding Victory’s new series entitled “It’s Not About The Money” two Sundays ago, and he mentioned the story of a farmer and how this farmer had invested his earnings in acquiring an even bigger barn where he could store more, which actually resulted in his own destruction.

That made me think about our farm, our farmers, and what we really get from it. For starters, our farmhouse did not change, though many years and decades have passed. We are earning just enough, and we are still living frugal lives, though we have acquired some possessions through time – still, I think it is not about the money. Money, for us, is something that has to do with survival, but never to accumulate great wealth and live grandiose, rich lives.

I might be speaking out of righteousness here, but if you will personally ask me, that is how I think it should be. I do not wish to dwell on this matter then and will just leave all the explaining to our Pastors as they lead us on with the series – a reason for you to stay tuned for our upcoming podcasts or better yet visit a nearby Victory church: http://victory.org.ph/. (Sorry for the shameless plugging, but I felt you would understand it better if the explaining would come from our church leaders).

victoryqc.org

This is the season of harvesting, and when I went home during the holidays last November 1 and 2, I chanced upon the last harvest in our farm. I have skin asthma, and as much as I should be staying away from hay, I know it would not stop me from going along with my Dad. I suffered the consequences later on – my cough got worse, and itchy rashes came out that lasted for about a week, leaving black spots on my skin, which then stayed on for about how many months.

The last time I was with my Dad during harvesting was when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I could still remember how our parents would ask us (not really me, as I was way too young, but my sisters and brother) to help in drying the “palay” we had harvested so they could be sold to the millers for a good price before they then sell it to the market.

Yes, how could I really forget all the scurrying here and there, to and fro, when dark clouds come, and heavy rains start to pour. It only means sweeping the grains, piling and covering them up as FAST as you can to prevent them from getting wet, thus lowering the chances of getting a low price as “palay” buyers measure the moisture content of the rice grains. The drier the grain is, the higher its market value.

Threshing of palay.

My Dad is not a farmer per se. He is a civil engineer who juggled two occupations at the same time – that of a farmer and a superintendent at the National Irrigation Administration in the Bicol region (officially at San Ramon, OIC in Masbate and Sorsogon City). He is now 74 years old, retired from his engineering career, and yet a continuing farmer. I have always admired my Dad, who, at his age, still manages to do what he would always do at the farm despite his arthritis, gout attacks, hypertension, cataract, and other illnesses of the aged. Although we don’t dry the harvested rice grains anymore to lessen the stress level of all the scurrying and hurrying, tending the farm is still a lot of busy work to do.

I went to the farm with my Dad not to harvest the grains myself and have them threshed out but witness how it is usually done. I have to get into the particulars as to how to do this and that. Well, I might consider farming as my job someday. Yes, “Tin” the farm girl. *wink* I think I heard my Kuya’s sarcastic chuckle back there again. Haha Yeah, right. And yes, I wanted to observe how our farmers do it – our trusted and loyal workers. I admired them more than I have admired an office employee (no offense to office-based workers). But hard labor is no easy job. Exposed in the heat of the sun, bending over for hours either planting rice seedlings or harvesting them, soaked in mud or inhaling the itchy hay dust when threshing are, for me, among the most challenging tasks.

I closely looked at all of them. I saw Tio Digoy and Tio Kadog – they are the oldest among all of them. They have been working for my Dad since I was a kid. Now, their sons are working for us as well. I have learned to love them for all that they have put up for me and my family. I am praying that through us, their sons, daughters and grandchildren will one day have a better future because of their parents and grandparents’ hard work. Though that means we might lose workers in our farms, it would also be equivalent to giving everyone the chance to have better lives than what they have now.

I am praying too that someday there will no longer be a need for manual labor and everything will be run by machines operated in a clean office from planting to harvesting rice. That goes as well for harvesting coconuts and converting them into copra. The team of Tio Digoy also does them for us. Skilled, they really are. My family and I will always be grateful to them. We will always be grateful to Him for any blessing that He has bestowed as well as for His guidance and protection not just to me and my family but to our skilled workers and their families as well.

Coconuts being made into copra.

So if most think this is what I do in Bicol:

http://us.123rf.com

Nope, that’s not it because this is what I usually do:

“Tin, The Farm Girl”

Quite the opposite, right? Well, aside from washing the dishes, cleaning the house, feeding the pets, etc. and having a little vacation time actually. We have no helpers or house maids back home and here in Manila, by the way. As it is written in the bible:

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” – Matthew 10:45

Let’s all live a life of servitude, shall we my dear brothers and sisters? 🙂

A More Appreciative 2016

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Christine Lailani

Ahhh, yes. FINALLY. 🙂

It feels good to be back posting my thoughts in this special place I call “blog.” It’s been a month since I last posted as I’ve promised myself to keep the holidays as solemn as possible – an opportunity to spend quality time with me and my husband’s families and loved ones which equates to less social media interaction and doing the actual interaction with people. Yes, I still believe forging stronger relationships can only be done through meaningful conversations, moments of laughter, of just sitting there, reminiscing and just being with people you love.

Honestly and personally, the beginning of this year didn’t start well for me and my family. An incident during the New Year’s eve wherein my niece had a bad fall while we were using sparklers and a disagreement with my hubby made me tell him that this was the first New Year’s eve that didn’t go right and as happy or perfect. I thought of it as a sign or a meaning that is not just what the circumstances obviously portray.

I was too fearful back then and it was this fear that held back my freedom to try enjoyable and good things. But since I got saved, I channeled these fears of mine through prayers and relied on to God for courage. And what I will share are more like God’s answers in a visible way – a way in which we, humans, can relate. Although faith is the assurance of something that we do not see, and yet God also makes us feel His presence in ways that we can relate.

The first of these was a very visible sign – a rainbow. I know as a kid what rainbows meant, they appear after a storm. When I was in high school, Science have taught me how rainbows were created, it’s called prism. But it is God who taught me now what they really are for – to give hope. When my husband and I went to my hometown in Bicol which was struck by the typhoon Nona, the worst that was listed in the history of the town, we saw the devastation it brought upon my townspeople.

As our bus was getting nearer our hometown, I struggled to hold back the tears as I felt a piercing in my heart from what I saw – every house that we passed by was destroyed, completely roofless or blown away, electricity lines were all down, and the once luscious greenery was now leafless, brown and lifeless. I so felt the heaviness inside my heart that if given a private moment at that time, I want to drop down on my knees and weep. I know I have every right to ask God “why?” but I know God has a good reason for everything and I just have to continue seeing the good in every situation. Thus, I prayed silently in my heart – that God would give us hope.

We arrived home and was glad that my parents and my sister were safe and was extremely grateful that not one of our properties near our home was destroyed – not even our tree house! Which really was, for me, a miracle. It also survived super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

Though it lifted my spirits up, I cannot stop thinking about those who will celebrate the holidays without shelter, without clean clothes, without electricity, food and jobs.

It was still early in the morning so my husband and I took the opportunity to go out the balcony at the second floor of our house which faces the rice fields and some houses. Lo and behold, our arrival was greeted by a rainbow in its full spectrum – colors as complete and as bold as they are from one end to the other. This was the first rainbow appearance that I have gazed in my entire life that is so complete. Both my husband and I were amazed, so he decided to capture the moment.

Since that day, we often see rainbows, sometimes two rainbows at the same time even. And my husband and I would just gaze up with a smile. Until came the day for us to leave my hometown. It was my sister’s birthday and to our surprise, an electrician came up to our house and informed us that they are now reinstalling electricity. Wow! We weren’t expecting it to be that soon as reports said it will take about 4-6 months to put up electric posts and lines. We teased my sister that she got the best birthday gift ever from God – electricity. 😀

And on that same day, as my husband and I boarded the bus and we were slowly leaving the town, I saw yet another rainbow in its full spectrum. As close as before even though we were in a moving vehicle. I tugged my husband’s arm and pointed the rainbow to him, that’s when I realized what God meant by rainbows. The power lines and electricity being restored were just a few of the many promises that God will fulfill and the rainbow was His sign of that promise. 🙂

PhotoGrid_1452562108095

The second was during the Prayer and Fasting. My hubby and I were having disagreements about future goals that it came to the point wherein emotions were escalating. I went ahead and grabbed a stick note that belonged to my sister to better illustrate my point and started flipping its pages to find a new one when out fell a very old piece of paper. I could tell by the corners of it turned yellow by old age. I was still explaining while picking up this paper until something caught my eyes. The paper was a very old calling card and the most interesting thing about it was the name printed on that calling card, the name of a clinic – God’s Way Diagnostic Center. It looked too old that I was not even sure if the clinic still exists. 🙂

I have long given up the notion that everything happens coincidentally. Nothing happens by chance, perhaps by choice and yet there is this idea of the Grand Plan – God’s will. So I stopped talking, my husband also followed suit. I looked closely at the calling card and scrutinized every detail in it. I laughed. I smiled. My mood changed and here I was just savoring everything that was there in the calling card. Take note of what I have discovered: “God’s Way,” “man,” “United Nations,” Noe Lordan,” and “Sure ka dito.”

PhotoGrid_1452562556835

I interpreted God’s message as this, if my husband and I continue to insist what we both wanted which is different from one another, we will be disappointed, we will be furious, we will have a fight and there will be no peace. BUT if we choose God’s way, then man will be united through the Lord and we will be sure of it.

I shared this to my husband, and we both agreed – God will give us the wisdom and will guide us in making the right decision in His time and at the right place. We have decided then to just include what we were disagreeing about in our Prayer and Fasting, which are now among our faith goals and settled the matter in peace. 🙂

Last but not the least is the color “orange.” Yes, I am supposed to write this article 2nd week of January but I haven’t felt the urge to do so. And now I realized why. My sharing of testimony/revelations won’t be complete as some of them will take place just the 2nd week of January. Yes, everything in God’s time indeed. 🙂

So what about orange? Well, during the holidays I have received gifts from my loved ones and not that I am materialistic but because I am a keen observer, I was able to piece everything together. Or maybe God intended I find it out. I used to own a pen from my brother’s wedding, a green one. Somebody borrowed it and forgot to return it. I loved the pen so I asked my brother if he has spare ones. He said yes and circumstances aligned in a way that the only free time he can give it to me was over the holidays. So I got hold of the pen during the holidays and he asked me to choose from 3 colors – orange, green and blue. Blue is my favorite color, but this time, the orange pen attracted me in such a way that I chose it over the blue one. There were only two left of that color.

Then, when I opened my brother and sister-in-law’s gift to me, it was my favorite Paulo Coelho planner. Now this planner also has a very meaningful part in my spiritual journey as a Christian. And maybe that is the reason why for 3 consecutive Christmases now, I have been receiving this planner from my brother. To which I am very grateful. Nothing is ever meaningful than to write over something that God has meant for you to write on. And guess what the dominant color is in the abstract design of the cover? It is orange. 🙂

I still wasn’t amazed by the orange thing until I remembered our Prayer and Fasting manuals, the dominant color is orange amid the black and yellow. So now…..I am beginning to wonder. There is no coincidence with God, right? 🙂

I thought, there is something that God wanted me to find out with this orange thing. I shared this to my husband and told him, I still can’t decipher what this orange means but I know God wanted to tell me something or He wanted me to know something. This was 1st week of January. We finished the Prayer and Fasting already and yet no clear answers.

Then 2nd week of January came. My sister from Norway arrived and she brought with her gifts from her travel to Prague in Czech Republic. She made my husband and I choose between gold and bronze key chains with the engraved names of Praha and Ceska Republika. My husband chose the gold one and I happily settled with the bronze key chain. And while I was taking a macro shot of it, I noticed that bronze has a similar color to orange like tangerine. Except that it is darker. SO the orange thing was there again even from far, far away like Prague. 😉

2016-01-09 10.06.22

Now I believe God has intended I come to the conclusion of my findings. Something within me spurred the thought that I forgot to read all my devotion in Our Daily Bread since December 20 until December 31 so I did my backlogs. And voila, here’s the finding. In the December 25 devotion, the title is “Christingle.” It’s just like my name Christine, without the “g” and the “l.” Well, the reason why my Mom named me Christine was because I was born on December 22, Christmas time. 😉

Christingle

AND here’s what I found out about Christingle. Do read along the devotion in the picture and be amazed. 🙂

Here’s a definition of the color orange as well:

Orange is the colour between red and yellow on the spectrum of light, and in the traditional colour wheel used by painters. Its name is derived from the fruit orange.

In Europe and America orange is commonly associated with amusement, the unconventional, extroverts, warmth, fire, energy, activity, danger, taste and aroma, the autumn season, and Protestantism. In Asia it is an important symbolic colour of Buddhism andHinduism.^{[1] – Wikipedia}

In other sources, orange also means joy and creativity. I was just fascinated to find out one of the meanings of “orange” in the Wikipedia definition which is Protestantism – the religion I grew up with as a child through my grandmother, the daughter of one of the pioneers of the Protestant church in our hometown.

My grandmother is for me the epitome of a woman of faith. No other woman have I encountered who has as much devotion in faith as she has through the 91 years of her life. We were able to visit her during the holidays and when I saw her, tears came running down my cheeks as I hugged her. She was bedridden from a bad fall and yet we can feel that her spirit is strong. There came a moment when she told us that she is already tired and she does not want us to live as long as she did. But my eldest sister assured her that God still has a purpose why she has to live that long. My only prayer to God for my grandmother is that she will have the peace in her heart that her family will always be guided by God and that her prayers were never unanswered. 🙂

So now I would like to end this article with the question from the theme of our Prayer and Fasting this year:

“Would you dare to believe?” 🙂

And also with this official soundtrack from the movie Prince of Egypt which I know has something to do with me planning to name our first baby boy with Zaphen, from Joseph’s Egyptian name Zaphenath Paneah. 😉

Though Whitney Houston died a tragic death, this song will always remind me of my memory of her and what this song aims to instill in our hearts – how to believe and have faith even with the impossible.

And it has now become my tradition to include a prayer in the very first article that I will write for the new year here in my blog. Please pray this prayer with me my dear brothers and sisters:

“Dear Father,

Though we do not see the future and though fear may start to creep in our hearts for the many trials and challenges, the “giants” that will come our way, we pray that You give us the courage and the strength to overcome them all. Please guide and protect us as we continue to tread along the journey that you have set out for us to accomplish.

We are rest assured that You are and will be with us in all that we will go through. We claim that in the name of Your Son, Jesus, we will will not just be conquerors but we will be game-changers and leaders in spreading Your Word and Your Love.

Thank you for the many things and the many ways that You have assured us of the Grace, the Love and the Hope. We will continue to seek for Your Name and we will give You all the glory and honor that You deserve.

Please teach us how to be more appreciative of the things that we have through what You have given, to be joyful despite the storms and may You continue to be our source of Light despite the darkness around us.

We send this prayer from our hearts with all our love and through the mighty name of Your Son, Jesus,

Amen.”

Let’s have a more appreciative 2016, everyone! 🙂 ❤

I Love BICOL (Part 2): Siama Hotel

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Christine Lailani

(Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post.)

My family and I visited the city of Sorsogon due to an urgent matter last June 2, 2015. Having read about Siama Hotel in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, my sister, my Dad and I thought it best if we could drop by the hotel and check it out since we will pass it by going home.

When we’re done, we headed off towards Brgy. Bibincahan which is just a few miles away from the city proper along the diversion road. Thank God for Google maps, we need not ask around for specific directions, and we found ourselves looking at the gates of the Siama Hotel.

If you are in need of a breather away from city life and looking into enjoying the bounty that nature has to offer, this might just be the best escape you’ve been needing. The hotel is situated in a secluded estate, which is also being cultivated as a coconut plantation. We already had an idea how the place looks like seeing the pictures in the local newspaper, but as they say, to see is to believe.

We arrived after lunch time, and my first impression when I saw the minimalist exteriors of the hotel lobby is that they wanted to enhance the interior decorations and furniture which were designed by one of the owners, Mr. Milo Naval, a well-acclaimed interior designer.

Indeed, the interiors of the hotel lobby from the chairs, tables, lamps, to the cabinets are all an exquisite display of creative art and truly a masterpiece. What is interesting about it is that Mr. Naval came up with the idea of using indigenous raw materials, such as rattan, bamboos, native coconut products as well as wood from local trees representing Bicol region’s indigenous products.

Their very modern pool is the highlight of the hotel. It is a striking fusion of this beautiful modern pool nestled at the center and surrounded by giant ferns and tall coconut trees in contrast to the minimalist, native design of the hotel’s exteriors.

They also have a hall for events, which is the perfect venue for wedding receptions, conferences, birthdays, and other special occasions. Once again, the interiors, as well as the exteriors of the hall, did not fall short in evoking that subtle and yet sophisticated style – definitely no grandeur, shining, and shimmering designs everywhere. But if you will ask me about elegance, Siama Hotel nailed it.

They are currently constructing an outdoor spa which is one of the things I am looking forward to when they are done with it. I must say it is going to be a one-of-a-kind outdoor spa uniquely designed using local materials such as bamboo.

The outdoor massage cabanas are the cluster of bamboos behind the coconut trees, and there are 3 of them being constructed as of writing.

This is going to be one of the best and state-of-the-art hotels in Bicol, especially if you are in the city of Sorsogon. Don’t forget to include this in your itinerary if you plan to spend your vacation in the province in class and in style. At Siama Hotel, you can be sure that your vacation not only brings you closer to nature, but even closer to the heart of Sorsoganons. 🙂

If you want to know more about the place, you can check out their website at http://www.siamahotel.com/.

P.S.

Don’t forget to take a photo of this “eco-padyak” where you’ll see ingenuity and creativity combined to create an extraordinary form of art.

Enter a caption

I Love BICOL (Part 1): Masacrot Spring

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Christine Lailani

I was born in Bicol, a region located in Southern Luzon, and I’m a Bicolana, which is the term commonly used to refer to local women. For local men and locals in general, we use the term Bicolano. I only transferred to the metro when I took my bachelor’s degree in UP Diliman, but I guess I will always be a nature lover wherever life takes me. I grew up loving nature so much because of this – Bicol offers a vast expanse of luscious flora and fauna, and its rich local biodiversity makes it one of the famous places to visit here in the Philippines for ecotourism.

You can also find the majestic Mt. Mayon volcano in Bicol, which is known all over the world for its perfect cone. Though we are located in the ring of fire housing two active volcanoes, they are actually the few things that made our region a tourist spot. Other must-visit places in our region are the hot and cold springs, which can be found at the foot of the volcanoes such as the ones found near Mt. Bulusan volcano.

Mt. Mayon Volcano in Albay

Hot springs are very common, but I am not sure if you have heard of cold springs in a tropical country – and I mean, ice cold spring.

In this article, I will be featuring one of the cold springs in the province of Sorsogon in Bicol that my family and I visited last May 31, 2015 – the Masacrot Spring.

So, why the name? “Masacrot” is a Bicol term which means “astringent.”

Astringency

Some foods, such as unripe fruits, contain tannins or calcium oxalate that cause an astringent or puckering sensation of the mucous membrane of the mouth. Examples include tea, red wine, rhubarb, and unripe persimmons and bananas.

Less exact terms for the astringent sensation are “dry”, “rough”, “harsh” (especially for wine), “tart” (normally referring to sourness), “rubbery”, “hard” or “styptic”.^[73]

When referring to wine, dry is the opposite of sweet, and does not refer to astringency. Wines that contain tannins and so cause an astringent sensation are not necessarily classified as “dry,” and “dry” wines are not necessarily astringent.

In the Indian Ayurvedic tradition, one of the six tastes is astringency (kasaaya).^[74]

– WIKIPEDIA

They say that the water in Masacrot Spring contains some minerals, which make the water astringent. But it is potable and considered as safe to drink.

Masacrot Spring

The blue-green waters of the pool will captivate you enough to make you want to dive right away regardless if you’re a pro swimmer or not. The pool was hand-carved, and the natural environment surrounding it offers an ambiance perfect for communing with nature. This was the second time we visited Masacrot Spring. I could barely remember anything during our first visit because I was only 5 years old back then. All I could remember was that there’s a very cold pool that exists in this world. 😉

Pristine, crystal blue-green waters.

Hand-carved pool.

Taking a plunge in this cold spring can only be described in one perfect word – invigorating. YES, that is a definite. You literally will get the chill the moment the cold water touches your skin. Though I wouldn’t advise taking a dip in the pool without moving for a long time because it is REALLY that freezing cold.

Locals visit the place during the peak of the summer season when weather temperature rises to as high as 39 degrees Celsius. But let me assure you that nothing is as refreshing as a cold spring dip during the hottest months here in the Philippines.

Masacrot Spring pool.

The bottom of the pool isn’t cemented, and the clay–like soil tends to get slippery so take extra caution when walking around the resort. Some parts of the pool go as deep as 6 feet. So if you are not a swimmer, better rent or bring your own floaters just to be safe.

Don’t forget your swimming floaters. 😉

The cold water is free-flowing too so the water stays clean even if the place is jampacked with visitors during the peak season. They also have a lot of cottages where you and your family can relax, and there are grill stations for cooking barbecues and fish. Now, that makes me hungry. 😀

The perfect summer snack: unripe, sour mangoes with shrimp paste.

Masacrot Spring is located in Bulusan, Sorsogon and if you will be coming from the airport in Legazpi, Albay, it will be a 2-hour drive. There are a lot of options when commuting via public transportation going to the resort, but I suggest renting a van or a jeepney that will take you there and pick you up for a hassle-free vacay for you, your family, and your friends. 🙂

Loving LOCAL LOVE Philippines

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Christine Lailani

(cup with stirrer and saucer made from anahaw wood and coconut hull from Sorsogon City)

Well, it is all about love. Not the typical kind of love. But an extraordinary love. That kind of love you have for your country and your countrymen – patronizing local products.

My heart is just close to anything native. Why? Because I grew up in a small town from the province of Sorsogon called Bulan. I am just glad and proud of my local roots and folk culture. Because that is my identity, that is who I am and that is who I will be. 🙂

Do check out the article to find out what the Philippine products have to offer. And have that Filipino pride as well, Filipino or not. 😉

“Local Love Philippines: Go Loco with True Filipino Pride”

MAY the Flowers Be with You

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Christine Lailani

Yes, it is “Flores de Mayo” or Flowers of May. 🙂

It is a yearly tradition celebrated during the month of May here in the Philippines. If you want to know more about this tradition, you can check Wikipedia’s article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flores_de_Mayo.

But this blog post is not going to be about the tradition per se but the flora and fauna photos I took one summer in my hometown in Bicol. That is because I love communing with nature THAT MUCH. Anywhere that has luscious greens, colorful flowers and a beautiful scenery – you will see me scrutinizing everything with the lens. But Mom’s garden is my usual favorite “playground.” 🙂

The tiniest ground orchid I have seen.

Cymbidium Orchid

Forgot to ask Mom what is this called. 😀

Cattleya Orchid

Dendrodium Orchid

But this last photo fascinated me the most in this collection. Not because it is an extraordinary specie but the concept of the subjects proved to be quite interesting for me. Although that is me – I just have a knack for making the simple to complicated and the mundane to absurd. 😀

Hydrangea

I was just reminded by the obvious contrast between these two subjects: a fresh flower and a wilted one. I only remembered one verse while staring at the two:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

2 Corinthians 5:17

And with that, I end my article. 😉

Typhoon Yolanda Reminder: As A Filipino, I Will Always Be A Christian Bicolana

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Christine Lailani

In light of the recent calamity that killed thousands of people in the Visayas and Mindanao regions affecting several neighboring provinces including my hometown in Bicol here in the Philippines and as a Filipino, I would like to ask for your support, in any way that you possibly can, for the victims of the super typhoon Yolanda.

Please visit this link for a list of legitimate organizations/relief centers where you could send in your donations: http://www.wheninmanila.com/verified-legit-ways-to-help-super-typhoon-haiyan-yolanda-victims-how-to-donate-or-volunteer-with-legitimate-organizations/.

Or if you cannot, please join us in praying for our fellow countrymen. We, the Filipinos, will be extremely grateful for any help and support that you could offer.

To my dear fellow Filipinos, though we may have severely suffered, rest in the fact that we are never alone in this. We will rise and rise we will with the help of our fellow brothers and sisters from all around this world. Despite the adversities that have brought us down to our knees, our kindred spirits will remain to be strong and steadfast. Our cries for plea, our tears for our losses, our battered and tired bodies – it is our strong spirits that will never falter.

I pray that through these all, may the Lord God Almighty continue to shower us with His love, protection, guidance and provisions.

Continue to hope, continue to pray, continue to strive in finding the good in what was left – again, we are never alone.

May God bless us all!

———————————————————————————————————————————————-

Wherever God would take me, whatever God would give me, I will bring with me two identities: first, I am a Christian and second, I am a Bicolana.

The majestic Mt. Mayon and I.

I can never be more proud of anything I have and whoever I have become other than those two I have mentioned.

Why a Christian? I am nothing and nobody without my God, first and foremost. My identity is in Him. I need not say more as it is what it already is.

Why a Bicolana then? Ahh, this is most likely where I’ll be explaining more.

I grew up in the province. I spent more than half of my life there. As of writing, that is. There’s no other place that I could ever call ‘home’ except Bulan. Yes, that is my hometown, specifically located in the south of Luzon island, Sorsogon City, Philippines.

Bulan, Sorsogon

It has a distance of 667 kilometres (414 mi) from Manila, 63 kilometres (39 mi) from the province’s capital Sorsogon City, 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the town of Irosin and 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the town of Matnog. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulan,_Sorsogon)

Sorsogon City is a coastal area, surrounded by beaches of all sand color. From white, to pink, to black – you name it, we have it. Rich of natural resources, fishing and farming have been the sources of livelihood of almost all the Bulanons (that’s how we generally call ourselves).

Fishing

I came from a family of farmers. My parents, my grandparents and the parents before them all came from humble beginnings. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them. Gratitude is what I could offer to my ancestors, for the sacrifices and hard work that they have invested in providing the best for their families.

I came from a generation wherein I don’t have to go to the fields and do the farming myself and go home with sweaty clothes covered in mud just to pay for all of my expenses and supply my needs. An experience I never had to go through and yet something that I would want to go through.

CIRCA 1980s: My mom, aunts, uncles along with my grandparents.

They say that for someone to appreciate the value of something less than its market value and more of its sentimental value, you have to work for it and have it like how it is usually done and achieved. You have to sweat it out, so to speak.

I was listening to the podcast of Pastor Christian Flores regarding Victory’s new series entitled “It’s Not About The Money” two Sundays ago and he mentioned about the story of a farmer and how this farmer has invested his earnings in acquiring an even bigger barn where he could store more which actually resulted to his own destruction.

That made me thought about our farm, our farmers and what do we really get from it. For starters, our farm house did not change though how many years and decades have passed, we are earning just enough, we are still living frugal lives though we have acquired some possessions through time – still, I think it is not about the money. Money, for us, is something that has to do with survival but never to accumulate great wealth and live grandiose, rich lives.

I might be speaking out of righteousness here but if you will personally ask me, that is how I think it should be. I do not wish to dwell on this matter then and will just leave all the explaining to our Pastors as they lead us on with the series – a reason for you to stay tuned for our upcoming podcasts or better yet visit a nearby Victory church: http://victory.org.ph/. (Sorry for the shameless plugging, but I felt you would understand it better if the explaining would come from our church leaders).

victoryqc.org

This is the season of harvesting and when I went home during the holidays last November 1 and 2, I chanced upon the last harvest in our farm. I have skin asthma and as much as I should be staying away from hay, I know it would not stop me from going along with my Dad. I suffered the consequences later on – cough got worse and itchy rashes came out that last for usually a week leaving black spots on your skin that last for about how many months.

Anyway, the last time I have been with my Dad during harvesting was when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I could still remember how our parents would ask us (not really me as I was way too young, but my sisters and brother) to help in drying the “palay” we have harvested so they would be sold to the millers for a good price before they sell it to the market.

And yes, how could I forget all the scurrying here and there, to and fro when dark clouds come and heavy rains start to pour. It only means sweeping the grains, piling and covering them up as FAST as you can to prevent them from getting wet, thus lowering the chances of getting a low price as “palay” buyers measure the moisture content of the rice grains. The drier the grain is, the higher its market value.

Harvesting and threshing of palay.

My Dad is not a farmer per se. He is a civil engineer who juggled two occupations at the same time – that of a farmer and a superintendent at the National Irrigation Administration in the Bicol region (officially at San Ramon, OIC in Masbate and Sorsogon City). He is now 74 years old, retired from his engineering career and yet a continuing farmer. I have always admired my Dad, how at his age, still manages to do what he would always do at the farm despite his arthritis, gout attacks, hypertension, cataract and other illnesses of the aged. Although we don’t dry the harvested rice grains anymore to lessen the stress level of all the scurrying and hurrying, tending the farm is still a busy work to do.

I went to the farm with my Dad not to harvest the grains myself and have them threshed out but witness how it is usually done. I have to get into the particulars as to how to do this and that. Well, I might consider farming as my job someday. Yes, “Tin” the farm girl. *wink* I think I heard my Kuya’s sarcastic chuckle back there again. Haha Yeah, right. And yes, I wanted to observe how our farmers do it – our trusted and loyal workers. I admired them more than I have admired an office employee (no offense to office workers). But hard labor is no easy job. Exposed in the heat of the sun, bending over for hours either planting rice seedlings or harvesting them, soaked in mud or inhaling the itchy hay dust when threshing are, for me, among the most challenging tasks.

I closely looked at all of them. I saw Tio Digoy and Tio Kadog – they are the oldest among all of them. They have been working for my Dad since I was a kid. Now, their sons are working for us as well. I have learned to love them for all that they have put up for me and my family. I am praying that someday, through us, their sons, daughters and grandchildren will have a better future because of their parents and grandparents’ hard work. Though that means we might lose workers in our farms, it would also be equivalent to giving everyone the chance to have better lives than what they have now.

I am praying too that someday, there will no longer be a need for manual labor and everything will be run by machines, operated in a clean office from planting to harvesting rice. And that goes as well for harvesting coconuts and converting them into copra. The team of Tio Digoy also does them for us. Skilled, they really are. My family and I will always be grateful to them. We will always be grateful to Him for any blessing that He has bestowed as well as for His guidance and protection not just to me and my family but to our workers and their families as well.

Coconuts being made into copra.

So if you think this is what I do in Bicol:

http://us.123rf.com

Think again, because this is what I usually do:

“Tin, The Farm Girl”

Well, aside from washing the dishes, cleaning the house, feeding the pets, etc. and having a little vacation time. We have no helpers/”yayas” back home and here in Manila, by the way.

Now, that is who I really am. Look back, give back and be grateful.

I See Everything But A Blur

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Christine Lailani

“Like a bokeh!”

Yes, that is exactly what I blurted out during our 15-hour long drive from Bicol to Manila yesterday along with other November 1 and 2 holiday takers. A long trail of red tail lights was all I could see around night time and out of boredom, I removed my eyeglasses to rest my tired eyes – my first, while traveling at night.

With a 20/750 vision on both eyes (normal is 20/20) and a .25 astigmatism on my right eye, my world is a blur when I am not using my eyeglasses or my contact lenses. In other words, I am blind. Well, not really. Let’s just say I only see light and silhouettes. Exactly like a bokeh.

Just in case you are not familiar what a bokeh is, here is a definition I lifted from Wikipedia:

In photography, bokeh (Originally /ˈ b oʊ k ɛ /,^[1] /ˈ b oʊ k eɪ / boh-kay — also sometimes heard as /ˈ b oʊ k ə / boh-kə,^[2] Japanese: [boke]) is the blur,^[3]^[4] or the aesthetic quality of the blur,^[5]^[6]^[7] in out-of-focus areas of an image.

If you want to know more, you can read the entire article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh.

I have always wanted to achieve this kind of photo effect/filter with my Holga camera as lomography cameras are the best when it comes to achieving natural light leaks in your photographs. Unfortunately, I ran out of films already (expensive, they are). So I resorted to the practical ways of photography hoping to achieve the same effect of lomo cameras in dslr cameras and stumbled upon this website on doing bokeh for beginners using Nikon:

http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Learn-And-Explore/Article/h0ndz86v/bokeh-for-beginners.html.

I did exactly that with my dslr camera set to an f4 aperture, manual focus, an oil burner and some candles we have at home under a very dim light and this is what I got:

Bokeh

I told my brother that maybe the one who discovered bokeh has the same visual impairment like mine and saw the beauty in blurred lights, thus, used the concept in photography.

I am having my eye surgery in a few days to have my vision corrected and I am afraid I only have last night as my first and last experience to witness bokeh with my own eyes and without any photography paraphernalia.

Ahh, the beauty of patiently waiting during long travels and appreciating the aesthetics through low vision – no matter how weird it sounds. Well, discoveries were made because of our inquisitive minds, right? Yes, no matter how weird they may sound – at first. 😉

P.S.

I thank God for the safe travel, for the beauty of eyesight and the awesome wonders of this world, tangible or not though I see everything but a blur.

You just gotta love life. 🙂

“Thou Shall Not Wilt”

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Christine Lailani

If your imagination is running high, you would agree with me if this looks like a flower to you – the inside of the top core cover of a coconut fruit attached to a stalk. A flower that will not wilt. 🙂

	Christine Lailani on Why I Am Keeping This Blog AI-…
	Akhtar Munir on Why I Am Keeping This Blog AI-…
	Free KetoDietRecipes… on Home Cooking Made Even Better
	legendsfeedback1233 on Home Cooking Made Even Better
	Christine Lailani on Brief Encounters, Souls Intert…
	MERCY on Brief Encounters, Souls Intert…
	gold ira reviews on 1208611_4979879545525_10205000…
	company website on 8 Signs You’re A Literat…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Astringency

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: