Foot and Fire

Rembrandt's The Night Watch 1642. Your gathering screams Victory when Light intently kissed  only the three of you  while darkness embraced  the rest inside these  corners of grand scale.  Your movements chant Celebration; you frame a happy occasion. You are the Dutch Golden Age. But why? 1911. He can't cook in the ship anymore. So he slashed you  with a shoemaker's knife  when he could no longer  use his kitchen knife. 1975. He is a schoolteacher  with a supposed divine mission. He slashed you many times with a bread knife  and when he could no longer do more,   he took his own life. 1990. Donning his long hooded coat,  he was agitated.  Suddenly, he sprayed you with acid concealed in a pump bottle.  Will this be the last?  I am not sure. But please,  enlighten me. You are called the Night Watch: I thought you fix their gaze  towards...

2 cups sifted flour 2 cups oatmeal 2 cups grated carrots 4 tsp baking powder 2 tsp cinnamon powder 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar 1 cup olive oil (or use canola oil) 1/2 cup water In a bowl, put the first five ingredients in a bowl. Add olive oil and mix well. Then add water and mix well. If needs more water to wet all ingredients, add a small amount at a time. Shape into ball and press flat between palms. Arrange in a flat baking tin and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Makes 24-30 medium-sized cookies.

4 cups sifted flour 4 tsp baking powder 2 tsp cinnamon powder 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar 2 cups grated carrots 1 cup olive oil (or use canola oil) 1/2 cup water In a bowl, put the first four ingredients in a bowl. Add olive oil and mix well. Then add water and mix well. If needs more water to wet all ingredients, add a small amount at a time. Shape into ball and press flat between palms. Arrange in a flat baking tin and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Makes 24-30 medium-sized cookies.

Wet ingredients About 8 overripe bananas (500 grams), mashed 1 cup brown sugar 1 1/3 cup olive oil (or canola oil) 2 tsp cinnamon powder (or vanilla extract) Dry Ingredients 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1 cup oatmeal 2 tsp baking powder Chopped macadamia nuts (any nuts or raisins will do) Combine all wet ingredients in a deep bowl Combine all dry ingredients in another bowl Add small amount at a time the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Mix well. Add the chopped nuts. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes. Makes 16 medium-sized cupcakes

The Molo Church and the Molo Plaza need no further introduction as this is one of every visitor's favorite churches in Iloilo City. If one happens to be in Molo, one cannot stop by without gazing up to the cathedral's facade and without taking a photo of it. Same is true with the gazebo found in the Molo plaza. So here, I am sharing to you the church and the plaza in Molo, Iloilo City. *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

En route to Camina Balay Nga Bato in Villa Arevalo, we passed by the Molo Plaza and noticed the newly opened Yusay-Consing Mansion which was earlier bought and restored by SM Corp. It was APEC week in Iloilo City then, so inside the mansion were endless pasalubong ideas from the well-loved biscocho to many pretty native handbags. I just took a photo of the scarf and shawls as they are the apples of my eye as well as the business card of a cooperative producing them.  ***     *** *** *** *** More on the Yusay-Consing mansion : http://www.mb.com.ph/iloilo-heritage-structure-will-be-preserved-sm/ http://www.mb.com.ph/iloilo-heritage-structure-will-be-preserved-sm/ Here too:  http://historicphilippines.com/sights-of-ilo%C2%B2-series/sightssounds-of-ilo%C2%B2-2/the-historic-yusay-consing-mansion-molo-iloilo/the-yusay-consing-mansion-molo/

Belarussian journalist and writer Svetlana Alexievich's body of work consists of nonfiction but she specifically got this year's Nobel Prize for her book, Voices from Chernobyl. Originally written in Russian which follows her country's oral tradition, the book gave voices to the victims of the largest technical disaster of the twentieth century. I was able to read a short but already riveting portion of the book in Paris Review, and I quote here the portion which I believe can represent the pain of 2.1 million people: I was twenty-three. Two months later I went back to Moscow. From the train station straight to the cemetery. To him! And at the cemetery I started going into labor. Just as I started talking to him—they called the ambulance. It was two weeks before I was due. They showed her to me—a girl. “Natashenka,” I called out. “Your father named you Natashenka.” She looked healthy. Arms, legs. But she had cirrhosis of the liver. Her liver had twenty-eight ...

If you have a half day to spare when you get to visit Iloilo City, a visit to Camina Balay Nga Bato in Villa Arevalo is a must. It can easily be reached as this is located just along the road plied by the Oton jeepney. The house is open to walk-in visitors and for a fee of P150, one is treated to a 5-minute video presentation on the history of the house, a tour of the house filled with hardwood furniture and all things old, and a demi tasse of tsokolate. For an additional cost of P50/pax, a group of five can also enjoy the house's molo soup. Filled with antiques (some are for sale), this heritage curio shop is also a dining place during the evening, serving native and organic home dishes such as lupo and takway. Here are some of the photos I was able to take during my visit: *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Submersion of Panay Bukidnons: A Call for Salvage Aside from the imminent fact that the Jalaur River Dam shall submerge portions of their ancestral domain, the Panay Bukidnon's cultural heritage also faces submersion Sunburn, scratches from blades of grasses, and scars from insect bites are among the souvenirs I and a friend got from our three-day immersion with the Panay Bukidnons of Brgy. Garangan, Calinog, Iloilo. We slept and lived with them in order to hear stories about stars and gather recipes of their traditional cooking but we ended up hearing more pressing matters, about the dam project and the struggle to keep the heritage vis-a-vis the daily needs for survival. On our second morning, we traversed the mountainside planted among others with coffee and cacao trees owned by our host family, with the end of reaching Jalaur River where a megadam project is to be implemented. Along the way, we traversed at least ten live streams including Karangayan and Bukay Ng...

If one wants to take a cold dip which is as cold as an iced water, Tuburan sang Guintubdan is the highly recommended place. Cold, freezing, running and with rushing waters, Guintubdan spring waters is located at Sitio Guintubdan, Brgy. Ara-al, La Carlota City, just a smooth 20 minutes from the city proper. Below are my latest photos of the coldest water ever (of course, because it was rainy season when we went there!)  *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***