Balut Over Hotdogs

Mouth-watering foods, children playing in the city streets, warm and friendly neighbors, and nature’s wonder all in one package; is there a certain place as such? Surprisingly, I found these beauties in a place where most Filipinos would have never thought about.Last week, my ate’s foreign friend visited our country all the way from Milwaukee, USA. It was his first time to travel. When I learned about this, I thought about asking my ate why is it that he’s from the US and yet he haven’t been to New York, or in any states in America (except from his hometown) at least, where people would most wanted to go? I asked this question to my sister but she failed to give me a good answer. Also, I learned from her that he was ecstatic about seeing seas and lakes because he had never seen one back home. I thought he was just joking, but it was true. Hey, we have great seas and lakes here! There is an advantage living in the Philippines, after all. At least, I could save myself from the shame of not knowing the difference between a lake and a pond.

That’s one.The Philippines is a diversity of cultures and traditions, and is shown in millions of ways. One is food. When my ate’s friend visited my grandma’s place where he met everyone in the family, he placed himself in a culinary adventure. My aunt and cousins made him try green mangoes and bagoong, fish balls, and buko juice. I thought about seeing him heave over that bagoong, which, the Spaniards thought, was a foul-smelling rotten fish eaten by Filipinos. Surprisingly, he actually liked it. I realized it’s cool to have street foods, because food would have been boring without them.

Two is the Filipinos’ hospitality. Before when that friend of my sister came, I thought of the impression of the foreigners to the Filipinos being warm and jolly was a fake. After witnessing our relatives’ reception to our guest, I knew it was real. And that really made me proud as a Filipino. Three is our natural wonders. I was not that appreciative about seas and mountains and great natural wonders here in the Philippines. Wonderland for me is Paris, where I could see the Eiffel tower glittering in a night sky, and meet the living and breathing Mona Lisa in Louvre Museum. But when I knew about my ate’s friend’s case, I felt lucky because I won’t have to spend gazillion of bucks for air freight just to get a good look of a mountain and have that great encounter with the setting sun by the sea. And I felt stupid at the same time, because I was longing for that trip to a wonderland called Paris, but I failed to realize that the Philippines, my home, is a wonderland in itself.

Having all these realizations, I knew I should learn more about my own country, and appreciate all the god-given graces bestowed upon us. Inevitably, the Philippines had its fair share of both economic and political slump. US could have gotten all the good things in terms of money, power and politics which every Filipino dreams of. The American way of living is being standardized by almost all nations which is very evident in our country. We might not have all the money and power, but we do have treasures to be discovered by people, most especially by Filipinos. It’s a pity we can’t make it to the top, but it made all the difference. At least, there are things that are yet to be discovered here in the Philippines. Well I guess Balut finally made its way off from hotdogs.