Sorry for not posting anything for a while..... enjoy! ;-)-
Being here has taught me to never take things for granted. I am definitely not deprived here but there are many little things that aren't here. This blog post has a list of things that I used to take for granted while I was is Canada.
1. Easy Access to Food: Think of what you have for dinner. What are some common meals? For me these are: frozen marinaded chicken breasts, fresh french bread, fresh baby carrots, broccoli, (who thought I would miss this ;-D) grapes, and corn on the cob (in the summer). This is a very common meal in the Gault family. You would need an oven, a good grocery store, and clean fruits and veggies. We don't have these things here. We have no oven to cook the chicken, we have grocery stores but their stock is limited, and as far as the privilege of lots of well washed fruits and vegetables...... ;-)
2. Library: I am not sure about other families, but our family has a special thing where every Friday we bike over to the library and get our books and movies. It is a fun special thing we do. Here in Boracay, we have discovered a book store where you can buy a book and if you return it you can get some store credit to buy more books. This works, but the public library system is much more convenient.
3. Baking: We always bake! Tesha makes bread and muffins, I make granola, and Siann makes cookies, brownies, and cakes. (notice, I am the youngest so I know one recipe, Tesha is next in line knowing two, and then Siann.) With no oven or bread maker, no doing that!
4. Communication: I have realized that I have always taking for granted communication. There is a great wall that we have been trying to break while we’ve been here. We never know if they really understand. There are many reasons, but the biggest wall is language. For the Filipinos friends here, talking to us is like always speaking to someone in French or Spanish. We have helped the situation by learning bits and pieces of Tagalog and of course, learning the culture. In Canada you never have to worry about this. Here this has been challenging.
5. Water: You come home from a long day of work (or school). You are tired and thirsty so you go to the tap and pour yourself a cold glass of water. Here we don't have that luxury. The cleaning system is not the greatest so we always have to ask at restaurants "Is the water purified?" and order water from a water store. It was kind of funny. A couple of months ago I had a dream that we were back in Canada. We were in my house and I was so excited to get to drink water from the tap! It will probably be what I dreamt when I go home! Another funny story is we were watching iCarly (an American TV. show) and a kid on the show just had something really gross. He ran to the tap to go wash his mouth of the taste. We all were like "That is so dangerous!" and "He really shouldn't be doing that!". Then we remembered that he was in North America so it was okay. We found that so funny. So make sure you are grateful for the water from the tap!
Here are the blessings that I will miss terribly when I go home:
1. Beaches and Sand: Walking around in no other shoes but my slippers (flip-flops) and a beautiful view right beside me. It is so gorgeous! This must be one of the most beautiful place in the world. I wish I could just live near a beach forever!
2. Friendliness of the Filipinos and Kids: Filipinos are one of the most friendliest people you can meet. They always have a smile on their face, greet you, and laugh with me when I say “Commos ta ka?” as I pass by. I have met many friends that will be close to my heart forever. I will miss them terribly when I leave and I will probably cry my eyes out. Of course, good old Dr. Seuss said: “Don’t cry because it’s over but smile because it happened."
3. Exercise!!!!!!!: Because we don’t own a car we walk almost everywhere. We are now getting lots of walking and exercise keeping us healthy and fit! :-)
4. The Style of Life: Sometimes we just get up in the morning and go to the beach. We don’t really plan a lot of things in advance and it actually really nice. In Canada, our family always knows everything that we are going to do the following week. Sometimes we get up and do something but most of the time we plan stuff at least 1 day in advance. A reason that we can't plan in advance is because the weather is not predictable. The weather forecast is almost never right. One moment is sunny w/o a cloud in the sky then suddenly a huge rain storm. So it is also hard to plan because of that. I kind of like getting to plan things day-by-day but it is also nice to know things in advance.
5. Mangoes and Shakes: The mangoes here are delicious! I usually don’t like mangoes in Canada but the ones here are amazing! Siann and Cati both when they got here didn't like them and then they started loving them. Also here, it is just a given that a place will have a shake. It is very rare that a place doesn’t have at least a mango shake. There is a great place to get shakes here. There is like a bunch of flavours and you can mix them! I would like to take claim to something. Out of about 50 shake flavours our family has had every flavour except melon and milk. I will definitely miss these yummy shakes!
Those are blessings and disadvantages of living here. I hope you will take these things to heart and remember to be grateful for what you have. Thank you for taking the time to read this! :-)
Kylee :-D
Being here has taught me to never take things for granted. I am definitely not deprived here but there are many little things that aren't here. This blog post has a list of things that I used to take for granted while I was is Canada.
1. Easy Access to Food: Think of what you have for dinner. What are some common meals? For me these are: frozen marinaded chicken breasts, fresh french bread, fresh baby carrots, broccoli, (who thought I would miss this ;-D) grapes, and corn on the cob (in the summer). This is a very common meal in the Gault family. You would need an oven, a good grocery store, and clean fruits and veggies. We don't have these things here. We have no oven to cook the chicken, we have grocery stores but their stock is limited, and as far as the privilege of lots of well washed fruits and vegetables...... ;-) 2. Library: I am not sure about other families, but our family has a special thing where every Friday we bike over to the library and get our books and movies. It is a fun special thing we do. Here in Boracay, we have discovered a book store where you can buy a book and if you return it you can get some store credit to buy more books. This works, but the public library system is much more convenient.
3. Baking: We always bake! Tesha makes bread and muffins, I make granola, and Siann makes cookies, brownies, and cakes. (notice, I am the youngest so I know one recipe, Tesha is next in line knowing two, and then Siann.) With no oven or bread maker, no doing that!4. Communication: I have realized that I have always taking for granted communication. There is a great wall that we have been trying to break while we’ve been here. We never know if they really understand. There are many reasons, but the biggest wall is language. For the Filipinos friends here, talking to us is like always speaking to someone in French or Spanish. We have helped the situation by learning bits and pieces of Tagalog and of course, learning the culture. In Canada you never have to worry about this. Here this has been challenging.
5. Water: You come home from a long day of work (or school). You are tired and thirsty so you go to the tap and pour yourself a cold glass of water. Here we don't have that luxury. The cleaning system is not the greatest so we always have to ask at restaurants "Is the water purified?" and order water from a water store. It was kind of funny. A couple of months ago I had a dream that we were back in Canada. We were in my house and I was so excited to get to drink water from the tap! It will probably be what I dreamt when I go home! Another funny story is we were watching iCarly (an American TV. show) and a kid on the show just had something really gross. He ran to the tap to go wash his mouth of the taste. We all were like "That is so dangerous!" and "He really shouldn't be doing that!". Then we remembered that he was in North America so it was okay. We found that so funny. So make sure you are grateful for the water from the tap!Here are the blessings that I will miss terribly when I go home:
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| Picture of me on the Puka beach. |
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| Beautiful Ati children at a feeding |
3. Exercise!!!!!!!: Because we don’t own a car we walk almost everywhere. We are now getting lots of walking and exercise keeping us healthy and fit! :-)
4. The Style of Life: Sometimes we just get up in the morning and go to the beach. We don’t really plan a lot of things in advance and it actually really nice. In Canada, our family always knows everything that we are going to do the following week. Sometimes we get up and do something but most of the time we plan stuff at least 1 day in advance. A reason that we can't plan in advance is because the weather is not predictable. The weather forecast is almost never right. One moment is sunny w/o a cloud in the sky then suddenly a huge rain storm. So it is also hard to plan because of that. I kind of like getting to plan things day-by-day but it is also nice to know things in advance.
 |
| The best shake in the world. Banana Mocha Peanut. |
5. Mangoes and Shakes: The mangoes here are delicious! I usually don’t like mangoes in Canada but the ones here are amazing! Siann and Cati both when they got here didn't like them and then they started loving them. Also here, it is just a given that a place will have a shake. It is very rare that a place doesn’t have at least a mango shake. There is a great place to get shakes here. There is like a bunch of flavours and you can mix them! I would like to take claim to something. Out of about 50 shake flavours our family has had every flavour except melon and milk. I will definitely miss these yummy shakes!
Those are blessings and disadvantages of living here. I hope you will take these things to heart and remember to be grateful for what you have. Thank you for taking the time to read this! :-)
Kylee :-D
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