Everyone loves a parade ......... of santos

The Philippines is a Catholic country and for whatever occasion they love to bring out their statues or santos. Yesterday was no exception. It was the feast of the Santo Niño and more than 100 santos joined the four-hour long parade in front of our condo, stretching from the Cultural Center of the Philippines to Luneta Park. Each santo seemed to have its own band, or at least group of drummer boys, alongside. At first the rhythmic beating of the drums was nice but after four hours ...?? Meanwhile Roxas Blvd was lined with people, many who brought along their own santos for the occasion.

....and when the saints come ..........

Certified Diver

The Philippines is blessed with hundreds, probably thousands, of excellent dive sites. I frequently heard my friends talking about these places and, while snorkeling is nice, it's just not the same as going down there to take a close-up look.

Luckily, several of my friends are either dive masters or dive instructors so I decided to sign up to find out for myself. The basic PADI course was for three nights in nearby Makati and the certification dive(s) were in Anilao, Batangas, roughly a three-hour drive from Manila. I passed the "practical" with flying colors but then had to go back to take the written test ... a real pain in the ...!

It was worth it. Anilao has somewhere around 45 diving sites .... really fantastic views of tropical fish, coral, and plant life. We visited only four different sites ...so there is plenty more to see there.

We stayed in a very nice resort with only four guest rooms different rooms .. and a pool. Incidentally, the sunsets in Anilao also were quite spectacular.

For those of you into diving, this is the spot. Everything is arranged for you. The boatmen carry the tanks and equipment to the boat, help you out of the water, carry your stuff back to the resort.. What a life.

Noel was to have joined me in the course but he opted out at the last minute. Hopefully, he will take it in the near future as diving is supposed to be done on the basis of a 'buddy' system and not solo.

Vegetable farming in Silang

The development where we will build our house is called "Ponderosa Leisure Farms" and Noel has taken them up on the idea. The house is not yet there but he is busy planting garden plants and veggies. We've harvested our first crop of "pechay," a leafy plant commonly used in soups and such dishes as "kari kari. We had more than we could use and had to give away part of the harvest -- guess we have to learn how much to plant ..and when .. so we can continually harvest.

We usually germinate the seeds at the condo in Manila, then transplant them to small pots and, when big enough, bring them to Silang for planting in the ground.

Once we get the hang of it, we'll have to start better record keeping -- when we planted the seeds, when we did the transplanting, when we were able to harvest, etc.

Rome was not built in a day ...... but our new house was

Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon

Tomorrow it will be Christmas eve again … and it won’t be a white one so we will just have to dream about such an event.

It’s been a year full of major events. We sold our house in New Jersey and are now going through the approval process for our new home in Silang Cavite. If all goes well, it should be finished by August. We had planned or hoped to start construction in October but things can move a bit slowly … and so the completion date is somewhat up in the air.

Obviously, it was a major decision to make this move and change in our lives but so far no regrets at all. We are enjoying life here and are both in relatively good health. Can’t say the same about Nikko, who will be 16 in January and shows his age; he’s gone blind and does not hear very much anymore … though he still eats well.

Some of our activities have been documented on our blog and we hope you will visit the site from time to time to look at what we are up to.

We had planned to go to Boracay, an island resort, for a few days, right after Xmas. However, when we tried to make our plane reservations, we found out that there was no space available. C’est la vie. Instead we may go to Calatagan where friends of our have a nice beach house [and they are still in New York].

In January, we have scheduled scuba classes … that should be nice, given all the great diving places here in the Philippines.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress of our house.

Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon.

Hans & Noel … and Nikko

East meets West ..... in a seed company

East meets West

At Ponderosa Leisure Farms in Silang, Cavite, where we are building our new home, there is a store in the development that sells various items, including vegetable seeds. As I looked over the selection of available seeds, I noticed their origin, the East West Seed Company. What an amazing coincidence, as that firm is owned by one of my cousins from Holland [our fathers were partners in a family-owned seed company].

Early in November, I decided to contact the firm, intending to pay them a visit in Bulacan, just north of Manila. Another fortunate coincidence – the firm was about to celebrate its 25^th anniversary a few days later and, of course, we were invited to this landmark event.

East-West was set up by my cousin to develop hybrid vegetables that would be particularly well suited for growing in Southeast Asia – the firm now has branches in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India.

An overflow of farmers from throughout the Philippines attended the 25^th anniversary event that included tours of the farm, laboratories, and processing facilities and, almost needless to say, the firm is making a major contribution to the agricultural development of this part of the world.

THE PICTURES. Siem or Simon, my cousin, is shown in one of the pictures addressing the crowd at the firm’s base in the Philippines. We bought seeds that day and planted some at our condo in Malate; the picture at the top right shows the development of our vegetable patch in Silang.

Philippine Holiday Season

Christmas in the Philippines would be incomplete without the PAROLE or Christmas lanterns. they come in all sizes, shapes and colors. December 15 we drove up to San Fernando, Pampanga, for its annual Parole Festival, reputed to be one of the best in the country. Eight barangay took part in the contest of giant paroles, each about 15 ft in diameter and within each a network of wires and computer to provide a fascinating show of music and lights. These pictures do not really do justice to the show of constantly moving lights of so many colors and patterns.