Monday 28 May 2012

Naalala ko pa mula sa aking ina

Naalala ko pa mula sa aking ina
Naalala ko ang mga damit na yong tinahi
May isang gustong gusto kong isuot
Dilaw na damit sleeveless kung tawagin
Binurdahan mo ng dalawang aso
Kulay kape at mayroon pang nakakabit
Na laso.

Sa aking unang kommunyon
Ginatsilyong bonnet na kulay puti
Ang pinasuot mo sa akin.
Ang aking tanong, bakit ako walang belo
Tulad nang sinuot ng ate ko.

Hindi mo nakita nang ako’y
Nag-anghel sa prusisyon ng salubong
Sa Piyesta ng Pagkabuhay
Nasa bahay ka lang
Nagsilang  ng bagong anghel
Sa aming magkakapatid
At tuwangtuwang ibinalita ko
Ako ang kumuha ng belo.

Maliit pa ako ng tanungin kita
Bakit ka mahirap di tulad ng mga
Ibang kapatid mo
Ano ang kasagutan sa tanong ng
Isang musmos na hindi maunawaan
Bakit may mahirap at bakit may mayamang tao.

Natatandaan ko pa ang ‘yong mga kwento
Na narinig mo kay Lolo Linong mestiso
Tungkol sa mga spiritung gumagala
Sasabihin niya sa inyong magkapatid
Takpan ang inyong mga mata habang
Hindi nalalampasan ang malalaking puno
Habang  ang tatay ninyo’ y nagsasalita
Umalis kayo dyan
Eto’y mga bata.

Natatandaan ko pa din ang malimit mong
Ikwento sa aming magkakapatid
Sa lumang eskwelahan
Maraming dwende naglalaro sa oras ng aralan
Nililigawan ang inyong maestra, hindi naman
Niya nakikita ang dwendeng may gusto sa kaniya
Habang aliw na aliw kayong mga bata
Sa kahahabol sa mga dwendeng
tumutulay sa writing board at kisame.

Mga pamahiin, mga paniniwala
Mula sa yong mga bibig
Pinalaki mo sa amin
Huwag magtapon ng bigas o kanin
At baka magtampo ang spiritu nila
Di na bumalik sa bahay natin.

Pag ang bata ay biglang iiyak
Sasabihin mong ‘maykan, maykan’
Pababalikin ang natatakot at nawawalang
Spiritu ng bata
At kung kami naman’y may biglang sakit ng tiyan
ay dadalhin kami sa kilalang mangangaway
para tawasin at malaman kung sino ang
may kagagawan ng sakit at makahingi ng laway.

Miyembro ka ng Legion of Mary, Sacred Heart,
Catholic Women’s League, at naging katekista
At sa iyong kabataan ay artista pa sa lokal na sarsuela
Tindera, naging Blue Lady at kung ano-ano pa
Tinagurian  Mommy Tonie  
Tagapagdasal para sa mga kaluluwa.

Para sa ‘yo,  Mommy Tonie,
Maraming, maraming salamat
Di man kita napasalamatan lubos
Sa pagiging ina namin
Sa mga bagay na hindi natin pinagkaunawaan
Patawad  ang aking hiling
Alam mong mahal na mahal ka namin.

Sunday 6 May 2012

Letters from Home with Recipes: Pandisal in Diaspora


 This recipe is more than two decades kept in my folder of cuttings or recipes and other rough drafts. It was sent to me by my sister upon my request together with other recipes because I wanted to learn how to cook. I thought I might need the talent to impress my in-laws and other German friends. Todate, my sister is still sending me recipes and some tips and I am still dreaming of being able to come out with real delicious stuffs. Over the years, I have been able to befriend nice Pin@ys who could really bake and cook and since then I have forgotten my ambition. I just have to be a nice, thoughtful friend to these talented Pin@ys. I was reminded of it when I ate pandisal (Filipino buns or rolls) in one of the salo-salo (eating together) of  the Filipino Community in Bonn after the novena to the Sacred Heart and the celebration of the Holy Mass. I was also reminded that I still have some frozen pieces brought to me by my brother as pasalubong from his recent visit to Manila. I took home some of the pandisals from the salo-salo to compare them with the taste of the ones brought by my brother from one of the famous pandisal shops in Manila.

To the left are the pandisals from this famous bakery carried as  hand baggage from Manila. To the right are the pandisals I brought home after the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Notice the irregularity in their shapes as they are made out of love and devotion (according to Lourdes, the Pinay who bake them) but I know of the extra squeezing done to them as they were smuggled inside my handbag. I love eating them hot with crunchy peanut butter or with coco jam. Other Pinays said they taste great with canned sardines. I said better with Spanish or Portuguese sardines produced in Germany but never again with condensed milk. I had enough of that sweet memory of food eaten during childhood. Whatever.
 
My tip for the recipe is to have a Plan B, i.e. always have German Brötchen in your freezer as substitutes or install a Skype to get direct supervision from your sisters or brothers who could bake, and or maintain friendly relationship with other Pin@ys cooks living  in what they love to term now as Diaspora.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Tanz in den Mai, Dance, Drink and Demonstrate

 Every night on April 30, one is sure that every beer garden in Germany will be full unless it will be raining cats and dogs. It's the traditional Tanz in den Mai happening...dancing to the month of May.



Our "nice witches" group is the first to grace the dancing hall some minutes after ten in the evening. We are more than willing to work out the calories won eating pasta in the neighboring Italian restaurant.

Dance like nobody is watching you, so said Mark Twain. Yes, we are asking ourselves, where are the Tanz-in-den-Mai fanatics to
join us. Hallo Mr. DJ, could you please change your techno first and let us dance to our danceable beats?
 Then the dancing hall starts to get really full that one couldn't move anymore except raise one's hands, swaying the body to the techno music.
 There's enough space though to take photos. No chance for demonstrating our LA Walk!

   Everybody dance, huhuhuhuhu, clap your hands, clap your hands.  Where are the good old days' disco music? Aren't they playing them anymore?

While you might be forgetting yourself in your dance steps, don't forget that your cigarettes have no right to be smoked here.

The later the night, the younger the crowd gets, hehehe. They normally stay until 6 or 7 am the next morning on the 1st of May, Labour Day.

 My dinner for the evening before dancing...Linguine ai Fruitti di Mare
 The dance hall now getting so hot. Why don't they hold the dancing outside, in the garden?
The other dinner of one of the good witches...Spaghetti con le seppie...octopus or squid? 

Just a short info about Tanz in den Mai taken from wiki. 
In Germany, Walpurgisnacht, the night from 30 April to 1 May, is the night when witches are reputed to hold a large celebration on the Brocken  and await the arrival of spring.
Walpurgis Night (in German folklore) the night of 30 April (May Day's eve), when witches meet on the Brocken mountain and hold revels with their gods..."
Brocken is the highest of the Harz Mountains of north central Germany. It is noted for the phenomenon of the Brocken spectre and for witches' revels which reputedly took place there on Walpurgis night. The Brocken Spectre is a magnified shadow of an observer, typically surrounded by rainbow-like bands, thrown onto a bank of cloud in high mountain areas when the sun is low. The phenomenon was first reported on the Brocken.