Chicken Tinola - Maly's Lesson A Glimpse of Live In The Province

Chicken tinola or tinolang manok is a favorite dish of the Philippines and a taste from my wife’s childhood. Typical ingredients are chicken, green papaya, malunggay leaves and sili (pepper) leaves. The malunggay is very nutritious and can add a unique taste to this dish.

RICE HARVEST - A REAPER IN ACTION A GLIMPSE OF LIFE IN THE PROVINCE VIDEO

The reaper is coming! No it’s not the grim reaper, but it is
called a reaper in the Philippines. This is a harvester they now use for
harvesting the majority of the rice in our valley.

Over just the last few years, we have been seeing more and
more of these reapers during the harvest season. Living in a farming community,
the people relied on the different seasons of the year to provide them with an
income. During planting time, they would all be out helping to plant the rice.
When harvest season came, these same people would be out with their bolos
cutting and harvesting the rice. They would also bring in thrashers to thrash
the rice with.

Now this has all become automated with the use of the
reapers. No longer are there scores of farmers in the fields cutting the rice
by hand. The reapers have taken over this job from them. Only the ones that
cannot afford a reaper or only have small plots use the traditional way of
cutting rice. If the rice is blown over by a storm, the farmers can be called
in then to try to salvage more of the rice harvest. Still the reaper is able to
do this work too, but with the rice on the ground already, the quality of the
rice is not as good when harvested with the reaper. The reaper is coming! No
it’s not the grim reaper, but it is called a reaper in the Philippines. Over
just the last few years, we have been seeing more and more of these reapers
during the harvest season.

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Cagayan Valley Isabela and Beyond

Bud Brown - Christmas 2016

Mr Brown is an extraordinary gentleman. Him and his wife Gloria live in the Dumaguete area in the Philippines. He has many wonderful videos he has shared. He is well know for all his charity work he has provided to the children and others in this area. I think some would even call him lovingly as the "Tsinela Man" Often while out in town you can catch him handing out tsinelas (flip-flops) to those Filipino children (and adults) less fortunate. Several have sent him donations as well to help support his works of charity.

This video is a collaboration with Ned and Michelle of Philippine Dreams. Last year they got together for Christmas and handed out spaghetti meals to the poor around Dumaguete. The success they had last year resulted in the quest to do it again this year. They went to McDonalds and purchased 120 meals this Christmas to be handed out. With the Help of Mr Brown's Molly Mobile they went into the parks and areas where the less fortunate stay and handed out all these meals. Ned and Michele even brought along some helpers this year.

This is Mr Brown's version of the day. I hope you will watch and enjoy this video as much as I did.

Experience life-size Noah's Ark! RV Family

Here is a great video by a great family. The Browns live their life in an RV traveling around the country and working. They also raise 2 children and home school them. They often visit exciting places around the sites they are staying at. They recently did a review of the new attraction "The Ark Encounter". It was very interesting watching this video and their experience there.

Kindly check their video out here and also some of their other exciting videos they have posted on there Youtube channel Modigazzi Travels Your Family on the Road!

A Christmas Feast - An OFW Christmas part 3

A Christmas Feast! Let’s eat everyone! What a Christmas feast we had! Food was available all day long it seemed. We had pancit and ox tail soup in the morning, Indian cuisine during lunch with Charles' special Chicken Biryani and then lechon baboy and a roasted turkey for the evening meal! If anyone went away hungry, I am not sure why. Although we were not with our own families, we enjoyed the time spent with our OFW family. We tried to spread a little Christmas joy for all that were here.

Special thanks to all who helped prepare this feast for us! We had help from some of everyone to help make this a successful day! We really appreciated all the food that was prepared!  

Lechon Baboy An OFW's CHRISTMAS EXPERIENCE

Lechon Baboy? What a surprise this morning when we were
blessed to have some good friends come over and share their Christmas with us!
They brought along this piglet to cook. In the Philippines this is called
lechon baboy! Jerry did an excellent job of cooking this for us! We are grateful
to have good friends like this to share this time with! This is just part 2 of
our Christmas Day celebrations. Come along as we celebrate “Christmas in the
containers”!  

An OFW Christmas - Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

Christmas… For most it is a time of spending Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day going from house to house visiting family and friends. A time
of joy watching as presents are exchanged and smiles are made. Having big
celebrations and feast on the table as families come together to enjoy a meal.

Christmas for an OFW, the time spent away from home can be
lonely and depressing. To try and cheer up the team here, we had our own
celebration here this year. With the help of some of our competitors in the
workplace, but friends otherwise, we made the best of the day being away from
our families. This is just part 1 of our Christmas Eve and then our Christmas
Day celebrations. Come along as we celebrate “Christmas in the containers”!  

Buko Juice Before Leaving the Farm

Buko juice is a
popular refreshing drink from the Philippines. “Buko” is a Filipino word
which means “young coconut”
in English.

Well, after all the tomato pickin’, pea pickin’, chainsaw
watchin’ and vittles eatin’ time we had, it was time to take off back to the
house once more. But before we could leave, we just could not resist having a
little fresh Buko juice and Maly had to find some flowers. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

We would like to wish all our family, friends and subscribers a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! May you each enjoy this time with family and friends and have a wonderful holidays!

The Man, The Myth, The Legend - The Filipino Lumberjack

The Man, The Myth, The Legend - The Filipino Lumberjacks are workers in the logging industry who perform long hard hours of work from felling trees to cutting them into boards that can be used for building. The actual work is difficult, dangerous, intermittent, low-paying, and working in strenuous conditions. I give it to these guys, as they are very skilled in what they do. No way would I want to trade places with them. 

GREEN ACRES - FARM LIVIN' IS THE LIFE FOR ME! A GLIMPSE OF PROVINCE LIF...

“Green Acres is the place to be. Farm livin'
is the life for me. Land spreadin' out so far and wide. Keep Manila, just
give me that countryside”. How true that is. There is no other place I
would rather be than out in the country on the farm. We may not have the beach,
the casinos, or the fancy restaurants to go to; but we do have the advantage of
getting out in the fresh air and enjoying time with friends. We took a day to
drive out to one of our friend’s farms not long ago. While there we picked our
way through tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and long string beans before sitting
down for a dinner of some of the fresh vegetables we had picked. We had brought
along some fresh tilapia we had delivered that morning. We decided to cook this
“ihaw ihaw” style. We enjoy the flavor this gives the fish as it cooks over the
open flame.

We really enjoyed our visit and look forward to the next
time we can go again. It is always fun going out to the farm to see what
vegetables and plants they have available fresh off the vines. 

HOUSE BLESSING PART 2

In July of 2010, Maly and the 2 kids left Kuwait
to come to the Philippines. We had looked at some property in the Cagayan
Valley and we thought this would be a nice place to build a house and raise our
family. Little did we know at the time, but things would change with our house
plans as we had an addition to our family added in April of 2011. We made some
changes to our plans and continued to build our house. Now, 6 years later and
after what seemed like endless days of construction, we finally have a place we
can call home! We had such a great day while holding the house blessing
ceremony! We had many friends that came over to help us celebrate this special
day. There was plenty of food, laughter and singing the whole afternoon. 

THE GREAT UNBOXING - IT WAS JAM PACKED

Unboxing a special gift received from my sister in Alabama!
What’s inside? Come along and let’s find out! Finally something exciting here happened
to VLOG about! Make sure to check out the bloopers and outtakes!

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life videos in the Cagayan Valley and Beyond. If you enjoyed this video please
SHARE, LIKE, and COMMENT. Thank you! Salamat!

Preparing Food for the House Blessing to Come (Part 1 of 2)

After 6 long years, finally we have the house completed far enough along to have the house blessing. We had a lot of food to prepare for all the guest arriving! Starting early in the morning, the grill was fired and the process began! Come along as we get ready to Bless this House!

TEACHER'S APPRECIATION DAY 2016

Teaching school is not easy. During Teacher's Appreciation Day, I had the opportunity to teach not one, but two classes that day! My hat is off to all teachers around the world that have chosen this as their profession! I am thankful for the teachers we have at the school my kids attend for all their dedication and hard work they must put in!
This is video was actually filmed in OCT 2016.