Maupay Nga Pasko

1.6.10

We’ve just spent our first holiday season here in the Philippines and it was packed with events, new traditions, and our first mini-vacation. The Christmas season (known as Pasko) is filled with holiday parties. Our office party was supposed to have games and dancing, but turned into a campaign stop for politicians due to the upcoming elections in May. So, our coworkers, needing to celebrate in the traditional Filipino fashion, held several days of unofficial parties in the office afterwards! We ate, drank wine, danced the cha cha, and sang carols for many hours.


[yes, you can fit eight people in a broom closet office, even when four of them are doing the cha cha...]

[notice a theme? well this is how it feels. nonstop chacha-ing]


We spent Christmas with our host family and celebrated in the traditional Filipino way, with a large meal at midnight. All day on Christmas Eve we prepared foods like pansit (traditional noodle dish), gulaman (seaweed gelatin with fruit), and fruit salad (which here contains a Velveeta-like ‘cheese’). A brownout started around 5pm and went through mid-Christmas day, so we spent our second Christmas by candlelight (after the legendary Ohio ice storm).

[our first pansit - pretty successful]

['cheese' does not belong in fruit salad...]

After midnight we exchanged gifts with our small family and had a cha cha dance party. We tried to stay up until 4am, when we are told the baby Jesus was born, but only made it to about 2:30. Christmas Day was very relaxed – we opened our excellent package and felt the Christmas spirit from home and continued to eat the foods from our Christmas Eve buffet. In the end, we ate desserts for three days straight, without any other meals. We love this country.

[Christmas Eve (and three days beyond) table]

For New Year’s, we took our first trip to Northern Samar, where eight of our fellow volunteers are working. Ten of us stayed at a small beach resort to ring in the New Year. (The term ‘resort’ applies to any accommodations here – for this, think more like glorified camping on the beach in huts). We swam, snorkeled, and videoked a little, but mostly just relaxed and enjoyed the company of our friends.

[view of the resort. a cool, windy trip, but we wore pants!]

[ringing in the New Year, 13 hours ahead of you! don't worry, we celebrated US Eastern time as well:)]

[four super-comfortable treehouse-like nights]


Ten years ago, we were ringing in Y2K in a basement full of tin foil, canned food, and crazy teenagers. One year ago, we spent New Year’s Day exploring a Philippine reef exhibit in Chicago, hoping we’d have the chance to come here. And now, this is our reality and we feel so blessed to be here.

January is a big month back home – we have to give a shoutout to our parents, all of whom are having birthdays this month. And for one, it’s a very big 50th bday. We wish we could be there to celebrate these and all the other milestones you all are having. We can’t wait to hear about all the things 2010 will hold for all of you – keep in touch and if anyone is making vacation plans, try to come our way!

[Welcome 2010!]