Florencemar

We’ve been here in Baliti with Len-Len now since Donna got here from the States. Len is one of Ate Tess’ daughters. We’re staying in a house owned by her older sister Paulet who’s in the Middle East with her family. Don’t ask me how but Len is short for Florencemar. She’s married to Edward who left for Canada last February. They have two beautiful daughters, Erika who’s one and a half and Ems (short for Elaine Rose – again don’t ask me how! Check out her picture during our wedding last April) who’s 7 and since we don’t have any grand kids of our own as of yet, Donna and I have become surrogate grand parents of sort to these two. I usually get up earlier in the mornings, pick up Erika and have her wake Donna up by tapping on her. The baby in the other picture is Erika on Len's lap. We get a kiss goodbye every morning we leave and we ‘bless’ every night we go home. ‘Bless’ is an old Filipino custom where the young kiss the hand of the old folks. We take them to SM at least once a week for groceries. They usually go to KFC or Jollibee for a chicken dinner while Donna and I go to Sushi Ya, my favorite Japanese restaurant in the mall. We try to give them a ride on these trips because we imagine Len carrying Erika and a diaper bag, with Ems in tow, riding in a tricycle, and a jeepney twice before they get to the mall and that’s just one way. On the way back they have groceries to carry with them.

Before this, they were by themselves and as you can imagine, it can be such a boring a dreary life for Len. I think she’s in her early thirties and has a degree in nutrition. I told her how a lot of housewives either get so bored or burned out from staying home all the time in the States that it can sometimes be a cause for divorce. I’ve had a talk with her the other day and she said she likes being home with the kids. We can see she doesn’t mind it, she never complains and is so thankful of the fact that Edward had a chance to go to Canada to be one of the millions of Filipino OFW’s to earn a living and experience the sacrifice of being apart from his family just like his Mom (in the Middle East and now in New Zealand) and his in-laws (both in the US) before him. A lot of people who visit the house notice how much of a loving mother she is. She’s so sweet with her daughters and I have yet to see her lose her temper with them. It’s even endearing when she ‘raises’ her voice to them especially the little one. I pointed it out to her how important a role of a housewife is, such as being a financial manager, a teacher, a nurse, etc. A heart surgeon may operate on a patient but once he’s done, he goes home and that’s it, whereas a housewife is a housewife 24/7. She buys shoes and clothes for the kids but I haven’t seen her get anything for herself. I really admire her attitude of being a stay-at-home wife and Mom.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Today Leda came with Daddy and her two kids. She had a kwaho session with Donna, Sister Gay and Apung Beth (she's Donna's old kwaho buddy from Norwalk).

Leda also had some family issues to discuss with me and Donna. Come to think of it, I put on my counselor/adviser/therapist hat in California once in a while and I guess I haven't really 'retired' from that role yet. I don't mind it, really. It's just that things are a bit intense over here somehow.

I got a text message from Mon's wife Ann and she said he has a 2nd show with Kuh Ledesma this coming Friday. The first one was last Friday and it "was a great success!"