CHRISTMAS IN CARCAR

Christmas in the Philippines has been a fabulous experience. The atmosphere here is so different to that in Australia. It is not so commercialized. People aren’t madly buying presents. Christmas trees here aren’t that popular here either. But the Parol – the Christmas star is seen everywhere. The parols are either made of a plastic coated paper or pearl like shells on a wooden or metal frame. Some are very elaborate while others are quite simple. Most have lights in them as well. Everytime I pass a parol shop, I am sooo tempted to buy one, but there is no way that I can lug one half way around the world without it breaking. Especially when the one that I want is about a metre wide!!! LOL…I have great taste!

Back in October, we filled up two jumbo boxes with clothing, toys, canned foods, coffee, biscuits, cereal and gifts and sent them to the Philippines. So by the time we arrived, they had already arrived. This meant that on the way here, we only had to bring chocolates and our clothings. A few days before Christmas, Joseph and I spent hours packing up food and gift packages for his family members. The upstairs loungeroom truly looked like a department store with packages everywhere. So the past few days, we have been visiting family members and handing out gifts and food packages

We spent Christmas Eve with the Enanorias in Carcar. The most favourite celebratory food of the Filipinos is the Lechon which is a whole roasted pig. It is stuffed with a special herb called Pasiotes, spring onions, onions, garlic and seasoned with heaps of salt. It is then spit roasted over charcoals and then cooked for hours. This in itself is a social gathering as the men will sit and drink and take turns slowly turning the pig over this bed of charcoals until the skin is brown and crunchy. So Christmas eve, we had a huge gathering of family and there was sooo much food to eat and lots of chatting and then to wait for midnight to come, we played cards.

Another thing about Philippines is that fireworks are widely available here. There are stalls selling them everywhere and Joseph and the boys have gone a bit wild buying them……and that goes for everyone here too. Every night, you can hear firecrackers and fireworks going off until late at night. But come midnight, the town was like one popcorn factory. It was pop bang pop bang pop every second. It was sooo much fun. Josph managed to get these triangular ‘bombs’ near our house and they are sooo innocent looking, but when one goes off you almost expect to see a huge crater in the ground and for people to start screaming and ambulance sirens to start wailing. Lots of those were set off that night and after about half an hour of continuous fireworks, I almost felt like I was in a war zone!!!

There are lots and lots of stalls like these ….they sell fireworks….only fireworks….so many different types!!!

This is about a 10th of the amount of fireworks that my husband bought!! He quickly took a photo just as he realised he was running out of them!! See those cute little innocent triangles???? They are deafening!!

Christmas day was spent with the Manlise family who also organized another Lechon! We had so much beautiful food that day and there were lots of kids around for Jeromel to play with and they have a tv….so the boys got to watch Spymate and Airbuddies which were hilarious. We got back late in the afternoon and got to rest for a couple of hours and then we had more visitors dropping by in the evening and ended up playing cards again for a few hours.

26th December

Today, we’re on our way to the northern part of Cebu. I’m typing this up in the car on the way there. We have a lot of people coming with us, so we’ve hired a mini bus that is packed with people and kids. San Remegio is about a 4 hour drive away. I’m in Joseph’s cousin Loretil’s car, so I have a bit of room to do my typing. Joseph is in the minivan which is apparently pretty packed. I’m hoping that miraculously sometime when we pass the city, I might pick up some wifi signal….it’s Christmas right? I can hope for a miracle???

LOL….3 days later and no wifi signal was picked up and I haven’t had the time to go to the cybernet café, so I’ll just keep updating. San Remegio was fabulous…..when we arrived we did the head count and 28 of us made the trip. Tee hee….heaps of us!!! The beach house was fabulous. It was huge and open and right up on the beach. The beach house has a huge open plan living area with huge doors which open up onto the beach. Then a big verandah with a big cane chaise and one of the huge round rattan chairs with a big fluffy cushion. It has 3 large bedrooms….bedrooms large enough for a huge king bed and a double bed. We also borrowed a big queen mattress. When we got there it was low tide which was a bit disappointing, but that didn’t stop the kids from all piling up on the beach and playing with the sand. In no time, the bbq got going and the food didn’t stop till midnight. There was sooo much food and so much fun. We had two guitarists, one violinists and lots of singers, so it was really merry. At around 10pm the tide started coming up and everyone got pretty excited at the prospect of a night swim. By 11pm, about half the people decided to go in for a dip….including Jeromel who was 2^nd in the water. He had heaps of fun!!  Thank you so much to Eloise, Arnie, Papa Nap, Mama Loring and Nang Nene for organising this and making all this possible!!!

Walking toward the beach house from Papa Nap & Mama Loring’s house. After we got there, we sent the drivers to bring the vans and our bags.

The beautiful beach house with well maintained gardens and our own private beach.

The inside of the beach house….walls and ceiling are covered with beautiful woven nipah leaves and we had such a huge spread on the table….jackfruit, seaweed salad, grilled fish, pork chops, chicken skewers…u name it….we had it. Gluttons!

Loungeroom of the beach house….and in the far back, you can see 3 doors leading to the bedrooms.  We had an absolutely fabulous night with lots of singing and music. 

Papa Nap serenading us with his violin.  He plays sooo beautifully and we enjoyed his little concert very much.

Big group photo taken across the road at Papa Nap and Mama Loring’s house.

Totally love this photo of Jeromel and his cousins.

Joseph and his cousin Ivanhoe

On the way back, we stopped by to check out a Golf and Dive resort called Casa Del Mar.

 

When it came time to sleep, there were bodies and beds everywhere. There were 12 people just in our room!! But everyone was comfortable or maybe tooo tired to care where they slept. The following day, we all rose early and cleaned up and packed up and were on our way home before lunchtime. By 4pm, Joseph, Jordan and I had our last checkup with the optometrist and all’s well with our eyes which is great.

Yesterday, we spent the day resting and sleeping lots. Joseph and I went out to the internet café to check emails very quickly and I didn’t have the laptop with me so I couldn’t update the blog….but I managed a mini entry into my blessed to be stressed blog. Then in the afternoon, I ventured out with the boys without Joseph as he was busy with something else. We took a chappycab to the local department store and bought some groceries. What is a chappycab? It’s an amazing contraption!! It’s basically a motorbike with a sidecar….a covered side car. And it’s amazing how many people can fit in a chappycab. For short trips….we’ve managed to fit five of us on it. Yah….Joseph, Jordan, Jarryd, Jeromel and myself on it. Two people can ride behind the motorbike driver and then 3 in the side car. That’s like the local mini taxi here. It costs about 6 or 7 pesos per person per little trip which is very very affordable and they are everywhere!!

28th December – Today, we only have 3 more sleeps in the Philippines before we leave and still lots which we want to do. Today we’re headed again into the city (typing in the car again)….to meet up with Joseph’s half sister….going to have lunch with her family and then after that we’re going to do some shopping. I bought a sheet set last week as we were desperate for some cotton comfort and I bought a king size sheet set for 1250 pesos (roughly A$40). We’ve had it laundered and used it and I’m impressed with the quality so will pick up another couple of sets (wish I could get more but they’re quite heavy). A$40 for a flat, fitted and two pillow cases!