Me

I had to go to Marikina, another city within Metro Manila, a while ago for some community service orientation (I'm required to do community service for that Filipino in a Changing World spirituality class). Now, even though it's within Metro Manila, it's a city far, far away (okay, not really). It took me about 1 1/2 hour to get there, and I took a train (of normal speed) for half the way.. I was late.. but it was okay. Well I could've chosen to do community service elsewhere, but I wanted to do it there because this one had to do with waste management and all that. I was especially interested in composting. And I really care about the environment. The center collects garbage from their own community, cleans their own -- the center's -- grounds (it's a 3000+ square meter lot with lots of plants -- many of which are medicinal -- a tiny zoo, a tiny creek, a segregation area, composting area, livelihood area, etc.), segregate the garbage, compost the biodegradable waste to create organic -- not chemical -- fertilizer that they use for planting (maybe they give some of it away too, I'm not sure). They sell a lot of the non-biodegradable waste to junk shops, but with some of it, they create baskets, hats, etc. <-- "livelihood". Problem with these things they create is hardly anyone would use them. For example, the hats -- no one wears the kinds they made these days.. it was like a hat from the 1920s or something. So doing it in a larger scale to help the garbage problem is not feasible. But, through all their efforts, they reduce the garbage by 60 - 70%! Can you imagine?? That's amazing! All the communities -- barangays -- in the Philippines are supposed to have a center like this but not many do. Imagine the amount of garbage that will be reduced if this is done.. There are huge landfills around Metro Manila now and they just keep getting huge-r and huge-r. Scavengers -- I'm talking about people here -- help the situation though; they collect different items from the garbage and sell them to junk shops. It's the way they earn a living. They get anywhere from P15 to P50 a day I heard.. Because of them, at present, Metro Manila's garbage gets reduced by 15%.. I guess it's better than nothing.

Anyway, us students had to be divided into five groups to perform the specific tasks: cleaning, segregating, composting, planting and livelihood. At first, I thought I was in the livelihood group and I was extremely disappointed, I couldn't believe it. I hate doing crafts. But I was wrong. We drew lots after a few minutes and I got COMPOSTING!!! I was so glad! Haha. Well, the orientation ended. I hadn't had lunch or a proper breakfast yet and it was 5pm so my head was aching and I was a bit irritated. Well, after a while of looking for cheap healthy food to no avail, I gave up and began my commute home. As I walking towards my house, I saw a Filipino restaurant. I remembered the halo-halo -- a Filipino dessert -- I had with Dhivya in a mall the other week.. so yeah, I went in and ordered myself some halo-halo. It was gooood. I love halo-halo. It has beans, nata de coco (coconut jelly in English, I think), pieces of jackfruit and saba banana, coconut strips, evaporated milk, lots of ice and other things. I got mine with ube (purple yam) ice cream.. haha it's a Filipino thing.

Because my mom was born and raised here, I have learned to like many Filipino foods (mostly the snacks and desserts though.. not so much the main courses). A memory I have is of my mom, dad, brother and me -- my sister was not born yet -- always having delicious halo-halo after going swimming. Hehe, well it's just a little thing, I know, but I'm glad my mom taught me to enjoy halo-halo, taho, biko, ginataan, kuchinta, banana-q, cassava cake..

I had a sudden urge to write an entry but now I should really get back to my school work. :) Ooo.. here's a picture of halo-halo: