let me start by saying that this was the most fun i've ever had on new years eve, and it will be impossible to describe here.
new years here is a giant holiday. everything is closed for a week long national holiday.
and they light up the sky and the streets on new years eve. i was invited to celebrate at jeri's house with her family and i brought along our social worker jasmin, and baby isiah, who were both staying with me while the baby home was closed for new years.
we had a nice dinner and all sorts of american snacks, wine and champagne.
bernadette had this fabulous horn which doubled as a hat.
here is a little video of her adorableness: bernadette nye
the fireworks here are cheeeeeeap and plentiful.
okay, get a load of this next one. this is a judas' belt. here is what wiki has to say about these:
Popular in the Philippines during New Year's Eve celebrations, it is known as Sinturón ni Hudas (Tagalog, "belt/cincture of Judas," from theSpanish cinturón de Judas). The name comes from a dying Catholic tradition during Holy Week, wherein a chain of firecrackers is strapped to an effigy of Judas Iscariot and then lit up.
In El Salvador, the firecracker is known as Ametralladora or Metralleta (Spanish, "machine gun"), and also mainly used during Christmas and New Year celebrations.
A Judas belt consists of a number of small explosive rounds, each one typically 2" long and 1/2" in diameter, arranged sequentially along a common fuse.
The belt is either laid out on the ground or suspended from something like a tree or wall. The end of the fuse is lit, and as the fuse burns, it ignites each of the explosives in turn at a rate of up to 1000 rounds per minute. The noise produced is similar to that of a machine gun, but slightly irregular due to the inherent differences between the rounds.
Typical belts contain only two to three hundred, while those containing up to ten thousand rounds are not unknown.
and when i say these fireworks are cheap, here is an ad for judas' belt
LF Firecrackers JUDAS BELT 1,000 rounds 380php ONLY! Philippines
LF Firecrackers JUDAS BELT 1,000 rounds 380php ONLY! firecrackers, judas belt, fire crackers, firecracker, firecrackers for sale, Fire cracker, lf fireworks, lf fireworks price list, fireworks supplier, judas belt firework - Other Items Marikina City Metro Manila Philippines - 3029689; For sale LF Firecrackers JUDAS BELT 1,000 rounds 380php ONLY! at Sulit.com.phOnline Classified Ads.
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and when we do our math, P44 = $1 you see this is $8.63.
cindy burke how many can i order for you . . .
and of course we posed the baby with it!
i sooooo wanted to post this picture on facebook, but instead i just messaged it to the culprits involved. uhhhh why don't we just take a pic of him with a couple of pistols and get the baby home shut down . . .
i did take a video of the judas' belt, which is completely awful because i totally did not anticipate the noise it would make and just screamed and went running for the house with the baby. here it is:
the kids played with the philipino version of sparklers, and yes they are in the street, and yes half of them were barefoot.
a roman candle tipped, so sir darren walked out and righted it, and yes he is barefoot.
i soooo wish i would've taken more pics, but i was holding a baby all night. if you zoom in on the one above, you can see they were setting off rockets in a wooden crate full of glass pop bottles. old school.
you must remember that these are private parties and not municipalities - we had huge in the air 4th of july style fireworks going off around us 360 degrees, and we were in antipolo up in a subdivision.
here is a link to a video that someone posted on youtube. i hope you watch it because it shows EXACTLY what it was like here. crazy chaos party in the streets.
i was told that on new years day, you should carry coins in your pockets for good fortune in the new year. you should also put a bowl of 12 pieces of fruit on your table, and if you are wealthy, these are to be all different and all round.
over at the birth home, you can see that we are not wealthy but there was a bowl on the table with apples and such, and a bowl containing 12 orange balls and some round stickers.
okay, my birthday is january 3. i was awakened at 6am with these lovely ladies singing outside my bedroom door. there is something called a manyaneta, which is a wake up birthday party, usually celebrated at 4am. we had singing and dancing and we sat in the living room on the floor and had coffee and egg pie.
jasmin was the lead planner and contacted grace to get some of my favorite songs, which was how i ended up teaching the cupid shuffle to a bunch of philipino women at 4am. :o)
you see what sweet and humble fun we have here? a pan of boiled water for instant coffee, milk in a box and pie with a candle in it cut up and eaten with a napkin. and lots and lots of love and laughter. can you imagine serving like this to guests at home? but, it was so fabulous.
and then they tricked me into going to deborah's for a surprise party brunch. yeah, it would've been nice if i'd have taken a shower before all these photos, but oh well!
this was out in the side yard in deborah and darren's kubo. sort of the philippine version of a tiki hut
we had homemade cinnamon rolls, bacon, eggs, fruit, and coffee. which is called kape in tagalog, prn ka'-pay.
jeri gave me roses. she had planned to just get loose roses and then to ask everyone to give me one and say one word that described me. but the lady at the flower market delivered her baby at the birth home and recognized jeri, so she 'fancied up' the roses into a bouquet for her and jeri just couldn't say no. the roses were beautiful and the words were generous and full of love.
these are the philipino pants that julia gave me.
they had katherine on the computer for a skype date and also invited lori french, who brought her son. she gave me some monogrammed stationary and deborah gave me a beautiful porcelain ornament.
on a side note, this fellow on the right is a friend of deborah's sons. his name is john paul, as many kids were named john paul after the pope's visit. pope francis was here today and we already had our first baby boy named francis at the birth home this morning. the philippines has a population of 100 million and is 80% catholic.
here is a picture of baby francis!
i hope that you can see that i have a wonderful group of people here who have taken me in and i hope that none of you are worried about me spending the holidays away from home.
actually, i really hope that one of you will come and spend the holidays here with me next year!
xoxo jo
