at dinner in Pampanga

November 20, 2006: Pampanga Philippines

At the dinner table, and in the after dinner grabshot Janet looks like a Super Model giving the photographer some 'attitude'!

I never come to the house empty handed; the first thing we all do when I arrive in Pampanga is for JoJo & his wife to ride with me into town to the local rice vendor, and I get their food first, then at least 100kg's of rice for the month, depending on how much I can spend on them.

Matter of fact, in the first image of Janet eating (and shes eating so quickly she's just a blur!) you can see what a 50KG sack of rice looks like, in the background to the right, there's a yellow sack next to the refrigerator - and that rice sack is literally half as tall as the fridge....JoJo gets those sacks onto his tricycle and we all take a Jeepney ride back to the house to enjoy some local BBQ pork, a dish they rarely get to enjoy as they mostly can afford some fish with rice and little else, but they make due.

That 50KG will last them 3 weeks, and when JoJo's business is very slow, I've seen it last just 2 weeks.

The Family always fusses over me at mealtime, and I'm not used to that (I'm usually the one to fuss over people) as they make my meal first and I'm served first at the the only small table available, while the kids & parents eat where they usually do, on the floor.

I know they're being kind to me out of respect, but I'm always uncomfortable with that arrangement, and I either invite (politely insist) that either the kids or the parents please join me at the table (it can't accommodate them all), or I just bring my plate down to the floor and join them...and they just smile and ask me "...are you ok Paul James...?"

I'm always OK there:)
PJAMES