Busy Day at the Market

It’s December 30, 2007. Two more days and its another new year again.

My husband and I decided to go to the public market to buy vegetables, fruits and fish we need for our Noche Buena. But before that, we dropped by early at the supermarket to pick up a couple of things.

As we had expected, the public market was packed and, as in any christmas time, prices are just way higher than their usual prices. You see, we love grocery shopping and going to the public market a lot so we quite get to monitor the prices. It’s sort of therapeutic going through all those lanes, really! More importantly, we get a good feeling when we see the refrigerator and the pantry all stocked up. Not that we spend unnecesssarily, we just try to have what we expect we will need for the week.

As I was saying, the public market was already busy with shoppers and vendors alike. There were so many fruits on display already, some of whom I don’t quite often see sold there. I think there were also twice as many vendors on that street today.

A lot of people were busy choosing their fruits. Filipinos prepare either 7 kinds or 13 kinds of round-shaped fruits to be placed on their tables when the new year comes. Having these fruits are said to bring good luck. I always have 13 kinds of fruits but now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure whether they really bring good luck. I wish they WOULD really bring good luck though. The local news said today, “Who is being lucky, the buyers or the vendors?”

I think that the New Year is observed more seriously by Filipinos than the December 25. So even if vendors take advantage of the celebration is up to them. But, really, we cannot keep the New Year from coming. So let’s just make sure we are ready for it!

Bislog: Bisayang Tagalog, Tagalog na Bisaya

Dili ko tagagensan pero kabalo na ko magbisaya.

My former staff would sometimes cringe at my bisaya because it is, as they say in tagalog, sintonado. I learned to speak Bisaya in less than a yea. I think at 3 months I already comprehended the language but could not really put a decent sentence together. Now, I am proud to be speaking Bisaya for 4 years now.

I had to learn it. I was lucky enough to get a job one month after I got to Gensan. Being in the hotel and restaurant industry all my working life, I knew that it was necessary for me to speak the language if I wanted to be good in my work. I am glad of the support my former workmates gave by not speaking to me in Tagalog and being patient in teaching me Bisaya.

Learning Bisaya is such a gift. It makes you connect with the Generals and even with people you randomly meet when you travel who happen to speak Bisaya. Now I know Ilocano, Pangasinense and Bisaya. (Damn, I wish I honed my French!)
So if you are in a place where the language is alien to you, I suggest you learn the local language. Definitely makes life a lot easier!

From Manila to Gensan

You see, I’m a migrant to Gensan.  I was born in Zamboanga, raised in Tarlac, worked in Manila and now I’m in General Santos City. North to South.

When I moved here, my family and friends were worried.  You see in 2003, the year I moved here, Gensan has just been bombed.  In previous years, Gensan was called Boom City. After the bombings, it became the Bomb city. Now that I am living here, it proved to be safer and quieter than Manila (really!).

I moved here because my husband works here. So after we got married, I quit my job and started a new life in Gensan.

Despite career, fashion and entertainment deficiencies of the city and all the dust and flawed english everywhere, I still prefer to live here. Cost of living is way cheaper, bumper to bumper traffic is practically inexistent, seafoods are at half the price and near Davao city. If you are in dire need of some metro life, just go to davao! However, I have to say, that though I have found a good life here, it is not the same for probably 80% of the population.

For people who get to visit Gensan, most of them envy us.  For those of you who have not, it sure is an interesting place to visit. Who knows, you might start thinking about living here too!

New Restaurant

Another restaurant opened again here in Gensan. It’s Grab a Crab and Coffee Club 101. From the title alone, it’s a seafood restaurant (it used to be Orient Seas, a good restaurant, it was). Grab a Crab is located along Laurel just before Bayantel.

The Day after Christmas

After a very merry christmas in General Santos City, today was just dreary. Pioneer avenue was a ghost town at 9am, J. Catolico was just starting to show signs of life and there were just a few souls in McDonalds for brunch.

On the other hand, as I was passing National Highway, there was a long line on Philhealth (you know, procrastination). You see, for Phihealth individual payers, they pay every quarter to avail of medical benefits for the next quarter. There are usually throngs of people in the months of March, June, September and December. There was also a line in Socoteco for their electric bill payments (this is unusual since for the past months I have not experienced any queuing up there).

KCC mall was still abuzz with shoppers (lucky KCC). I guess a lot of people are still in need of a lot of stuff and gifts or they are already grocery shopping for the Noche Buena.