A Hanukkah Miracle

Now that the “Ber” months have ended, I finally have a minute to report back on the very hectic and fun holiday season here in the Philippines. Without Thanksgiving or even Halloween holding back the holidays, Christmas time here consists of all of the “Ber” months (think, SeptemBER, OcterBER, NovemBER, DecemBER). Decorations start then, and wishing someone “Merry advance Christmas” is fair game all December. As one of my Filipina friends informed me via text: “We have the longest, and the happiest Christmas in the world…and dats a fact. ^_^”

My Christmas celebrations officially began on December 16, at the OMAS (Office of Municipal Agricultural Service) Christmas Party, which included both the fisherfolk and farmers representative council members. Like last year’s party, the celebration was held in the municipal plant nursery behind the office. Unlike last year, I had a role in the party, felt like I deserved to be there as much as everyone else, and knew most the other guests. 

  

Quite the spread. I helped make the Filipino spaghetti. The sweet sauce, slices of red hot dog, and Eden' s Cheese is what makes it Filipino style.

My old counterpart, Joe Ann (in the purple shirt), came back from Iloilo for the party. Everyone was very excited to see her.

 

Riro and I invited our friends Gelby (from PBSP) and Roy (from BFAR). Here is also Nong Ray and Mario.

SB Oca and Tita Sepeen tearing up the dance floor. After lunch, most of the fishermen and farmers went back home. But the LGU staff stuck around. Didn't take long for the music and dancing to start.

Teddy aka George and Tita Sun up next. Sir Obing got wine for the ladies. They don't drink often, but wine at a Christmas party was a special occasion. And it made everyone much more inclined to get on the dance floor.

Sir Obing getting frisky with Mario.

My sitemate, Denise, stopped by for her third Christmas celebration of the day.

 

At the night, most of the staff left, but some of the younger staff stuck around. Here are Riro and Beboy from the Engineering office.

Mario, Riro and Apple

SB Oca still down to party.

Luzel, our old coworker, also came by. Check out the Mavericks hat.

My next celebration was the LGU (local government unit) Christmas party the following week for all municipal employees. All the offices had to submit their accomplishment reports. This assignment kept me and Riro busy all week putting together the report and making the Powerpoint presentation. Most of the ATs (agricultural technologists) are more comfortable on the typewriters than they are with computers, so this was a good (and time-consuming and arduous) job for me and Riro.

The LGU Christmas Party at the plaza.

Enter King Johnny.

The OMAS staff definitely had the best costumes. We were also the only office who decided to put on a little song and dance for everyone.

Getting some shut-eye during the reading of some of the accomplishment reports. In my defense, I was hot, tired and already in my bed sheets! My office-mates told me I was going to dress up as Joseph for our reenactment. The plan got scrapped, but they still told me to wear the toga.

Mario with Lota's angel wings. Once the accomplishment reports were read, dinner and San Mig Lights were served.

Mario, Riro and Bayoto.

Me and Mayor Gaitan.

Getting ready for our "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" rendition in front of the whole LGU.

Me, Tony and the ladies of the Accounting Office.

There was a 500 peso prize for the best costume. I came in third for the males (out of 3) but still had to dance on stage nonetheless. Thankfully Riro didn't have the camera ready. Here is the competition for the ladies. Nany Legrema (in the grey suit decorated as a Christmas prize) took home the gold.

Each office had to decorate one of the tress in the plaza. Here is the Municipal Planning and Development Office tree. The clear winner.

Here's Beboy under the OMAS tree. You can't see but on the ground small plant terraces were designed.

After the Christmas party, we had the first round of the Ms. Nueva Valencia beauty contest, which will be finished during the Foundation Day celebration. Afterwards, some of us went to the food for some beers. Here's Mario, Nong Rey, Tony, and half of me (guess I didn't quite get out of the picture). Tony's a local celebrity for biting the head off a live chicken in the previous  round of Nueva Valencia's Got Talent. She was disqualified for animal cruelty.

Over the weekend, I returned to Elliott’s site in southern Iloilo, Guimbal, for the second Christmas in a row. Guimbal has a huge fiesta for Christmas, and the display at their town plaza is incredible. Since Elliott’s parents were there visiting from Georgia, celebrating Christmas in Guimbal again was a no-brainer. Although it would have been nice to be at site on Christmas, for all the build-up, Chirstmas itself isn’t a big deal here. Other than 10PM mass on Christmas Eve (which I attended last year), not too much happens on December 25. In a country where people are generally uncomfortable opening presents in front of others, don’t believe in Santa Clause, and don’t have much disposable income for presents or Christmas trees, the whole idea of waking up early Christmas morning to receive presents from Santa doesn’t really carry over.  

 

At dinner with the Lams. Tyler came back to Region VI for the first time since being site transferred to Luzon about 9 months ago. He's still got it when speaking Illongo.

With both of Elliott's families on Christmas.

The son of Elliott's host sister Barbie. He's gotten much bigger since last Christmas!

When I returned from Guimbal, it was time for my own holiday celebrations. With the annual report and Christmas out of the way, I had time to celebrate Hanukkah with my friends and family here. On Monday night, with Nanay Elsa, Pinot, Patriz, and Justene all home, I decided it was the perfect time to give out presents. We lit the menorah and played with the dreidels my mom sent me from home.

  

Justene, Patriz and Nanay Elsa lighting the menorah on the 6th night of Hanukkah.

With my host father Pinot too.

Nanay Elsa looking at (without her reading glasses) the NYC Calendar we got for the family.

I got To Kill a Mockingbird for Patriz, who loves to read. Justene got a NY Yankees watch.

Seeing who can spin the dreidel the longest.

My final celebration was Wednesday night, the last night of Hanukkah. I invited some of my friends and coworkers over for a little Hanukkah celebration. Nanay Elsa and Pinot helped set up a table and light outside for us, and we cooked up some fish and rice. I even attempted to make latkas for the first time. They came out pretty well, although didn’t quite look like the ones my Mom makes. Still the taste was good! I bought some Motts apple sauce in the city as well as some “sandwich spread,” a very sad replacement for sour cream, which is unavailable in the Philippines. The sandwich spread is basically mayo, but let me tell you, it is no Hellman's. But I knew that wouldn’t be a problem, since my friends ate the sandwich spread right up (Filipinos love mayonnaise), and I knew they would avoid the apple sauce. “Ew… it tastes like apples!” one of my friends commented. When I told her that that was exactly the point, she didn’t seem to understand.

Bringing out the second table.

Nini with the latkas.

Justene lighting the menorah. I said the prayers in Hebrew for everyone.

Eating the fish, which Nanay Elsa and Riro grilled. We put a banana leaf down on the table as a place mat for the fish.

 

After dinner, we brought the party back inside. We took up the longest, most competitive dreidel game I’ve probably every played (Filipinos also love gambling, and so I went around and loaded up on single coins and centavos earlier in the afternoon). We were enjoying the game until the lights flickered. It seemed to stabilized and then, brown out. Sitting in the pitch black nipa hut, wondering what to do next, one of my friends calls out, “Jensen, where is your candle thing.” So we grabbed for the menorah sitting on the table, replaced the candles, and finished our happy game dreidel under the menorah lights. I can’t say that the candles lasted an unusually long amount of time, but if you ask me, having a menorah handy during a brown out in the Philippines most definitely constitutes as a Hanukkah miracle.