Mandy
Posted by: Fats in: Fats, Vitamins & Minerals > Wika at HirapFinally, after two months in a boat from Vancouver, Edward’s mail-order-bride has arrived, a gift from my cousin Grace! 
Her name is Mandy, and she was wearing a Tommy Hilfiger pink dress when she arrived. Here is a photo of Mandy, now wearing a diaper. 
And here is a photo of Edward wearing Mandy’s pink dress. Hmmm … 
Now there are three doggies in the house, Edward, Maria and Mandy. And since Maria is very jealous and won’t give Edward away, Trevor suggested that we get another dog for Mandy. Hmmm …
Incidentally, I was told that Sandy, my sister’s pit bull, died last Sunday. Quite sad, although I suppose much better that Sandy is now in dog heaven rather than locked up in a cage. Nobody knows what happened, but my mom suspects that it could be the annual shots that the vet gave Sandy a week earlier. It also turns out that Asel who regularly feeds Sandy, wasn’t around that evening since she was with my sister’s family on an out of town trip over the weekend. So it was my mom who fed Sandy, and Asel said she gives Sandy a comforting pat before feeding her. So we suspect that Sandy must’ve been so depressed that Asel wasn’t there to feed and pat her, and she died of depression!
Anyway, here at home we now have Mandy, thanks to Grace! I took the photos above with the wooden and wicker bowl my mom gave me and Trevor for Christmas - it’s such a nice bowl and I use it now for my crocheting.
I still haven’t finished my crocheted sleeveless blouse (it’s olive green and brown), and to keep from being bored, I started a new project, a gray and (probably) baby yellow crocheted sleeveless blouse.
Below is a photo of three (of five) scrunchies that I made to give away this Christmas. One set I gave to Asel and another to my cousin’s wife.
Strange, it rained on Christmas eve and rained in the evening and again all morning after Christmas. It seemed to suit so well the sad part of Christmas - the simultaneous frenzy of shopping and the poverty around us. When I was on my way to my auntie’s house for lunch on Christmas day, I was met by three women from Basilan, two of them carrying a babies. I asked where they were from and they said from Basilan and that they were running away from the conflict there. They were all carrying grocery bags, perhaps given by someone who took pity on them. I don’t know if they were really from Basilan, or if someone forced them to beg. I told them that life can be harder in the city too and they promised that they will go back home and not come back. I gave them some money, actually nearly all our money that day which wasn’t very much at all. That evening, we couldn’t give any money anymore to the kids caroling so I just gave them some garlic bread sticks and some cookies and they were quite happy with it. They sang “thank you, thank you” as they received the food, which was nice and kind of funny since it was a nearly auto-response after getting something (usually money) after the Christmas singing.
On the way in my auntie’s house two children raced to the door and was forcing to get in - they were begging for food. They looked so poor… I wondered how they would react if they saw a table full of food. I remembered my niece who cried when she saw so much food on the table served by my sister for my mom’s birthday last year.
Last night, it must’ve been nearly 4 in the morning, I overheard some boys outside talking about some problems in the family, a huge family perhaps as they referred to aunties and sisters and mothers and cousins. The problems included ill feelings in the family since one of the boys got a job at a call center, and he couldn’t help other members of the family get a job there too. He explained he was only working there and couldn’t really help except by recommending family members. But some family still felt ill towards him, because of the desperation of getting a job. There were lots of ‘little’ problems too like rumors going around the family that he and his siblings all had mobile phones while the rest of the family cousins and aunties didn’t, and how such things affected the relationship between his mom and his aunt.
These problems are so common, the problem of those who have and those who have not, within families. As a problem within relatively low income families, it is disconcerting. A few days ago, our cleaning lady was called out by someone from the family. I wondered what it was about. When she came back she said it was just some in-law bragging about a new mobile phone. Our cleaning lady said she just told her off, “what do I need an expensive phone for, I’d rather use the money to buy food for my kids!”
A few days ago, the woman who used to own the apartment we live in came over asking us to buy a “health food and herbals” franchise, she said “for ONLY 200,000 pesos” as if we could just pick up that money out in the streets. I was shocked because she has been in debt because of so many failed get-rich-quick business deals and have been giving out money to some religious group that kept promising her “financial blessings” and “economic blessings.” I told her, I’m sorry but we are not obsessed with money. That seemed to surprise her, that there are actually people who are not worshiping her god. It was so odd, that she could believe in a Christian religion, in particular in a Christ that lived most frugally, and yet actually have money as the center of the faith.
I guess what I find truly disconcerting is the thought that there is in fact so much more in the organic world, but that scarcity is an artificial condition created by the greedy and filthy rich, a condition that manipulates everyone.
The repetitiveness of crocheting has been very good for me, just like the repetitive sound of rain. It is good in soothing the mind and easing the ebb or tide of the emotions. I have felt so overwhelmed by the frenzy of family, crowds, poverty, pseudo-poverty, pseudo-rich, and crying now hurts my head much. So it is good to have Mandy, something to fuss about between crochets…
