Yesterday was the big feeding event for the Aeta village in Alibang. One hundred and fifty families left with more than they came with. Perhaps gifting food doesn’t change any lives for the better in the long term, but it helps fill some stomachs and makes life easier, if only for a day or two. Our help was sincerely appreciated by those on the receiving end of the gifts made possible by participating Hash members and others who contributed to this outreach effort’s success. The happy faces of the recipients made my share of the investment worth every peso. There is truth to the saying that it is more blessed to give than receive. I guess even the Bible accepts that my kind of selfish generosity is still worthy. Now I can proceed with living rich in a poor country almost guilt-free!
The barangay rep sent us this short video capturing some of the highlights of the event. I can’t embed it here, but hopefully you can watch it at the link above if you so desire.
UPDATE: A shout out to Kevin Kim for the tutorial on how to make my own YouTube link:
The hike portion of the morning was also enjoyable. We did a riverside trail as far as we could take it toward the Tibag community, then crossed the river and walked the road the rest of the way there. The roundtrip back to Alibang was almost 8K total. Here are some highlights:
There was supposed to be a nipa hut available for our after-hike use, but somehow, that didn’t happen. Instead, we were directed to the riverside under “the bridge to nowhere” for our picnic. The boys enjoyed grilled sausages and beer; the gals had Filipino-style spaghetti with wine and soju. It was rugged and had a camping-out vibe, but we made the best of it.
When the picnic was over, and it was time to depart, my fellow hikers declared that we would conclude the day’s celebration with a final stop at It Doesn’t Matter. Who am I to argue with the majority? Even Swan was on their side. So, we sent my driver and helper, Teri, back to my house to drop off the ice chests, and the rest of us rode with the barangay vehicle to our destination in Barretto. People kept buying rounds of beer, and on top of the ones I had enjoyed at the picnic, I was close to being over my limit. I finally told Swan we needed to go, and she concurred. We took an overdue nap upon arrival, and I awoke a little after 6 pm and got to work on yesterday’s belated blog post. Being home was a nice way to end the day.
It’s been a bad week for goal attainment. IDM invited us to their staff party on Baloy Beach this afternoon, so God only knows what’s in store for me there.
A couple of memories to share today:
And here is a timely reminder:
Today’s YouTube video is a clip I first posted on Facebook twelve years ago. It still seems funny to me.
To the humor we must go:
Alright, time to get ready for the party. As usual, I’ll bring some brownies as my contribution. And we’ll have something for the girls to suck on, too. Maybe things will be back to normal around here tomorrow. Time will tell.
sincerely appreciated by those on the receiving end of the girfts made possible
“Gifts”? “Grifts”? Ooh, I sense a Freudian slip!
I kid, I kid…
Serious question: these charity recipients are mostly just poor, right? In US big cities, you get all sorts: the poor, the recently jobless, the mentally ill, the addicted… What would you say are the main differences between PI charity recipients and US charity recipients? That might not be a fair question if you’ve never worked with the US homeless population (I did, years ago) and thus have no basis for comparison.
high velocity powerlines
High-voltage? High-tension? How fast were these power lines going?
No idea how this glove wound up way out here in the middle of nowhere.
Careful. Once you start photographing gloves, you’ll find you can’t stop. It’ll become an obsession. An addiction. And then you’ll be getting the handouts!
It looks to have been a great day of gift-giving for a community. You walk through some of those communities throughout the year, too, don’t you? Good to stay in touch.
I am curious what your voice sounds like, John. Any chance of you reading poetry and recording it and posting it up on your blog? Sorry if the request seems out there but us readers would appreciate it Iām sure.
The happy hand off
Although I don’t critique this sort of thing so much these days, it’s right there in the title: the phrasal verb hand off, when written as a noun, usually takes a hyphen: a hand-off.
This isn’t true of all phrasal verbs. Examples:
break down (verb); breakdown (noun)
hand off (verb); hand-off (noun)
break up (verb); breakup (noun)
cut off (verb); cutoff (noun)
etc., etc.
Ginger Joe,
John could’ve had a career in radio. He’s got an awesome radio voice. And you know the old joke: “He’s got a face for radio!”
Kev, yep, video killed the radio star…
Kev, oops! I’ve got to hand it to you. Sometimes I feel like a blind man missing the obvious. I’m tempted to turn my Grammarly app back on just to catch some of the dumb shit I miss. It’s fixed now.
Ginger, I am a lover of poetry, and to be fully appreciated, a poem should be read out loud. Some of my earliest memories are of my father sitting in his easy chair after work and reading his favorites to us kids.
I’ve been complimented on my deep voice over the years, but alas, I don’t have a clue how to record myself and post it here. I couldn’t even figure out how to post the video from the charity event on the blog, hence the link to Facebook. If I figure something out, I’ll post one just for you! š
If you can record your voice on your phone via a voice-recorder app, there should be a way to upload the .mp3 or .wav file to your WordPress blog. Googling “upload sound files to WordPress blog” produces the following results.
If you don’t want to upload a sound file directly from your phone, you can email the file to yourself from your phone, open up email on your desktop/laptop computer, download the file from your email to your computer’s desktop,* then upload the file from your desktop. That process adds a few steps, but if you hate uploading from your phone that much, then this is the way to go.
Whenever you don’t know the procedure for doing something, just Google it. There’s never a reason to say “I don’t know” about anything anymore.
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*”Computer’s desktop” is not the same as a “desktop computer.”
Kev, I swear I’m getting sloppier and sloppier in my writing. I’m not just talking about the long-standing grammatical issues; now I’m fraught with typos and using the wrong word (i.e., velocity instead of voltage). The scary thing is that even when I proofread (I swear I re-read before posting), I still miss this type of shit. I fear I’m well on my way to dementia.
Yes, there are neighborhoods around that have a reputation for drug-addicted residents, but nothing like what you see in the USA. However, these rural villages where native Aetas reside are just poor communities where the people do their best to get by and keep food on the table. That’s why it feels so good to help them out with an event like this one. I really don’t have a basis for comparison with stateside poor folks. I’m not aware of blatant discrimination against Aeta people, but I also don’t see them integrated into Filipino society. They tend to stick to themselves in their own spaces. I think the primary cause of poverty for them is a lack of opportunity to better themselves.
Regarding the lost glove, I don’t think I’ll share your addiction to spotting them. I have so many other interesting litter options to choose from here. I’ll share a photo of what I mean in today’s post.
We don’t often hike through villages like Alibang and Iram, but we are usually remembered when we do. The people we encounter are naturally friendly and grateful for our kindness to them.