Pagka-pinay "being Filipino" at Global M.A.D.E. Gallery 120

The Philippines works are up on the wall at Global M.A.D.E. Gallery 120 in my hometown community.  Printed photographs of the four, Estudio Damgo projects were among paintings I created while living in the Philippines for over 2 years.  It brings me great joy to share my experiences abroad with people from my childhood who came out to the art opening.  Read more at: A + w o r k s

Semester Break in Bali, Indonesia

Two Balinese women en route with offerings for a traditional ceremony in Ubud, Bali's cultural center.

For a week, Hersley and I traveled to Bali, Indonesia during Foundation University's semester break.  Finding time to relax and explore another part of Southeast Asia was enriching for both of us.  My interest in Bali perked after seeing Elora Hardy's (founder of Ibuku) inspiring TED talk, "Magical Houses, Made of Bamboo", highlighting their progressive structures and sustainable methods in sourcing, treating and building with bamboo.  Being so close to Bali in the Philippines, I made it a point to see Ibuku's facilities in person with the interest of bringing that knowledge back to FU's architecture program, and a chance to meet Ms. Hardy in person.  The latter never happened, but I was able to take a tour of the facilities, including; Ibuku's bamboo factory and two, Green Village homes.  Unfortunately, no photographs were permitted during the factory tour, nor one of the village homes.  However, you can view their professional photos online at: ibuku.com.  

Looking through the circular entry door at Ibuku's central office and visitor's center.

Looking up at a village home interior, features a curvaceous roof and spiral stair.

Looking up inside the spiral stair.

Looking up at a bamboo pendent light fixture.

Green Village inspired our trip, but after discovering Bali's vibrant culture and rituals, our short visit exceeded our expectations. We saw a lot in six days.  Highlights include: exploring Ubud, the cultural center of Bali; attending the Negara Makepung (water buffalo) races; witnessing the annual ceremony at Rambat Siwi Temple; and catching waves in the Indian Ocean.  After absorbing all these events and vibrant places, Bali lingers in my memory on all five senses.  The sights, tastes, smells, textures, and sounds are magical; they stimulate your mind and soul into a transcendent state. I never anticipated to experience a place quite like this, where 80% of the Balinese people authentically practice daily prayers of Hindu origin.  It is common among the Balinese to offer blessings in form of flowers and incense, for all human kind to stay healthy, protected, and prosperous.   These rituals set the tone and permeate throughout Bali and they manifest into a seemingly more peaceful and harmonious lifestyle.  It inspires me to incorporate more beauty and rituals into my life, and generate a positive mindset on a daily basis.

Ubud Traditional Market

Residential entry gateway.  Traditional Balinese homes are designed as an open-air complex; defined by a perimeter wall which clearly separates the public and private spaces to create sacred space.  Balinese people view their homes as temples.

The woman features traditional markings of crushed rice on her forehead and a flower tucked behind the ear.  They are symbols of blessings which are placed after a daily prayer.

Fresh flowers, like hibiscus, are common to see placed on statues and small temples at all corners of the city.  The flowers are a symbol of blessing for the place.

Ubud Palace, a historic place to catch nightly, traditional Balinese performances.

Ubud Palace traditional Balinese performer.

Negara Makepung (water buffalo) races.  The buffalo handler waiting to race.

Thousands from the Negara region assemble along the well-worn path, set in open rice fields, to view the Makepung races.

Charioteer and buffalo racing in action.

Buffalo racing towards a dusty finish.  The winner is determined after two rounds of racing for the shortest time.

Rambat Siwi Temple annual ceremony.  We were very lucky that our hired driver directed us to this ceremony.  There were no other tourists here at this three-day event celebrated only once in a Balinese calendar year, and at only six temples throughout Bali.  This temple was located on the Indian Ocean cliff shoreline.

A grandmother and her grandchildren, playfully posing for a picture.  The girl in yellow, second from the left, was ecstatic upon seeing me (a white American), as if she met a celebrity. Many who made a pilgrim to this temple, came from remote regions, which may have provoked a strong reaction from this young girl.

Xylophones and bells ring a delightful melody throughout the temple complex.  Traditionally, men play the instruments and women perform a dance.  It is uncommon to see a predominant-woman band, like in this image at Rambat Siwi Temple.

The sacred water at Holy Spring Temple in Ubud.

People line up to purify their physical and spiritual well being.

A wall of curling, white waves crashing behind me at Seminyak beach. My first time to dip my toes into the Indian Ocean.  Photo courtesy of Hersley Casero.

Surfing is popular on the West side of Bali and the open waters of the Indian Ocean.

A clean, sandy beach stretches on for miles in Seminyak.

The famous Tanah Lot Temple at dusk during low tide.  One of the top ten tourist destinations of Bali.

Return to Dumaguete City, Philippines

Atop C&L Bay View, one of the new hotels in Dumaguete City with a rooftop vista and skyline. - Photo by Hersley-Ven Casero

After 15 months of living in the United States and establishing myself as a licensed architect, networking and acclimating back to cooler seasons in Minnesota, I have returned to Dumaguete City and Foundation University as a Fulbright Scholar with the Philippine-American Education Foundation, to continue the efforts with the first design-build architecture program in the Philippines.

My return to Dumaguete City and Foundation University has been most welcoming.  I arrived about a month ago, and it's taken me that long to adjust, sit down and actually write a blog.  This is the first time in my 36 years that I have returned to a city to re-live it.  Since leaving home at 18 bound for college, I've moved over 18 times in my adult life.  The idea of "home" has always been temporary.  Although, every place that I've lived, whether it was four months or four years, I've settled into the space to make it my home.  It's been a pattern in my life that I continue to move, relocate, and expand my opportunities, usually for work or educational purposes.  But this temporary move to Dumaguete City is much different.  For the first time, I've moved back to a familiar place while also expanding my career, without hitting the reset button.

When I arrived in Dumaguete for the first time in 2012 (see post), everything was so fresh and limitless.  The new adventure to a new land for a new job and foreign culture, was a risk and leap in my life that kept me on high while I was living here.  After adjusting to life in America and my culture, returning back to the same places, faces, and even the same housing community (different unit, same layout) in the Philippines, lacks the luster from which it all started.  Lacking luster isn't bad, boring, or less than.  Rather, it's comfortably familiar and I often find myself nostalgic for the city I knew in 2012.  I've been so use to change and moving onto the next opportunity in my life, that for the first time, I'm realizing I want things to stay the same.  Friends that were once living here, have left.  I was looking forward to getting my hair cut with the trendy Korean hairdresser, but soon learned, she has also left.  I keep re-living restaurants and venues I frequented in 2012, to find some have closed, others have expanded, changing the way I once remembered them.  My biggest impression after returning to this place is just how fast this city is developing.

I am happy I was able to experience Dumaguete City in 2012, because now in 2015 it seems more metropolitan.  There are more foreigners on the streets, and restaurants offering foreign dishes.  And the traffic (which was once bad) is almost intolerable at times and more dangerous.  Dumaguete City, was once a stopover for Apo Island diving tourists.  It is now a place for retiring ex-pats.  There has also been an influx of Korean's making Dumaguete their home.  Alternative education opportunities catering to Korean students are attracting middle class youth to the area.  But the integrity of Dumaguete has not changed, it is the "city of gentle people" and the home of so many helpful, smiling, native faces.

I'm taking the time to simply just take it all in.  After all, I only have five months and learning that I can't actually re-live a place and my past experiences, instead, I am experiencing Dumaguete anew and realizing that "we can never go back to a place to find it exactly where we left it.  Some things, somewhere, will always have changed mostly ourselves." -Taiye Selasi (TED talk Don't Ask Where I'm From, Ask Where I'm Local)

Reflecting on Place and Family

Working abroad has its trade-offs.  Living halfway around the world from family can be difficult especially at a time of loss. During the short break over Christmas and New Year's, I was able to visit my grandma for the last time.  Sitting beside her for over an hour, I knew it to be my last.  She had been frail for several months.  Her eyes were closed shut due to cataracts and failing vision.  I had to speak loudly into her hearing aids just to say 'hello'.  After arriving back in the Philippines and within a week of my visit, grandma was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia.  We all knew she wouldn't live much longer.

How to begin and close a casual conversation during a brief, holiday visit, knowing that those may be the last words exchanged between grandmother and granddaughter?  How to end a conversation about the weather and other mundane updates, when a rolodex of unexpressed feelings conjure up inside?  How do you say, 'see you later' or 'good-bye grandma'?

I decided not to say much at all.  I chose not to fill the air with words that she can't hear anyway. I decided not to entertain her with daily updates.  Instead, I sat beside her, hugged her, and allowed my tears to well-up in her arms.  I let her fill me with unconditional love and support she offers without judgement, strain, or reservation.  I received the gifts from my grandmother as she embraced her granddaughter.

Reflecting on the gifts she has shared to me in my life; Grandma Koosie gave love without reservation, never expecting anything in return.  I drove her home one time after a doctor's visit for her failing eyes. We stopped for lunch at the A&W before taking the back roads to her house in Glenwood.  Grandma liked getting off the interstate and driving through Wisconsin's farmland.  Sitting in the passenger seat and riding along through rolling pastures was where she could share stories about the places and people she knew on those familiar roads.  Grandma was a car talker.  We sat in the A&W parking lot for nearly twenty minutes before heading into have lunch.  As I was about to pay the cashier for our grilled cheese sandwiches, grandma motioned me to put my money away and insisted on paying.  I could see that it was important to her that she was taking care of me, by paying for my lunch.  Humbled by this, it was her lesson that grandparents should take care of their grandchildren,  just as parents should take care of their children - not the other way around.

During my last visit in the nursing home, I made a comment about how often my father visited her.  My dad has generously taken care of his mother over many years. I expected to hear grandma's response of gratitude for my dad's responsible and caring nature.  But to my surprise, her response was, 'He's so busy, isn't he?'  Grandma had a matter-of-fact way of switching the perspective in conversation to highlight simple, yet important matters in life.

Last week, Grandma Koosie died mid-morning on January 23, on my father's 70th birthday.  She was 92 years old.  I am grateful to have sat beside her and chat about life in the Philippines.  But more importantly, I am grateful that I could be with her and to hear her say that she loves me.  I am grateful to know that she passed away peacefully on my dad's birthday.  This is her gift to my dad, and to all of us; we can stop being so 'busy' and reflect on what matters.  My grandma lived a long life.  A mother of eight in the small town of Glenwood City, Wisconsin and blessed with many grandchildren.  None of us were overlooked, as we were all equally loved by her in varying and personalized ways.

It is uncanny that in the same week of grandma's passing, reflecting on her life and all the thoughts surrounding one's 'meaning and purpose' in life and death, I was able to find closure by attending a funeral in my neighborhood, for a woman who died in childbirth, in the Philippines.  It is never easy to lose a loved one, nor is it easy to live so far away during these important life events.  But I was able to connect with the collective feelings shared by others in time of loss, and listen to uplifting messages while attending a funeral on the opposite side of the globe.  I think of grandma now, dancing barefoot and whistling in heaven.  Congratulations Grandma! - on living a long life and touching countless lives of loved ones who share in many, remarkable memories of you!

The HA? Project

One of my first weeks after moving to Dumaguete, I was introduced to Hersley-Ven Casero, a visual artist and manager of the Creative Department and art instructor at Foundation University.  When I met Hersley, he was organizing a collaborative art show for the VIVA EXCON "Pagpahiluna" Biennale in November 2012.  He invited me, along with 100+ others, to paint a rendition of the "Laughing Boy" portrait to display at the Biannale.  This was such a fun project, and it reminded me that I am a painter/artist and that I should continue to create art.  You can view my painting in this blog post. My HA? Painting

Today, the 100+ art works painted for the HA? project were a great success!  36 selected portraits (mine included) were displayed at Kri restaurant in Dumaguete, and purchased by an art patron from Manila. These works are now hanging in a metropolitan condo in Manila. (HA?: "Laughing Son of Man" sold for P3,500 or @ $85) 

After having such success with the first HA? project, Hersley is making it a life-long mission to continue elevating the arts by collaborating on more HA? project exhibits.  Since then, Hersley has worked with two more groups; where he has motivated disadvantaged boys from Dumaguete, and organized the largest on-the-spot art competition in Bais City, a town 50 kilometers north of Dumaguete.  I was asked to be the judge chairman for this most recent HA? project in Bais City. 

I traveled to Bais City with Hersley and photographer and assistant Benzi for two days.  On the first day, we organized 127 youth from Bais to paint their versions of the "Laughing Boy".  A full day, but a pleasure to see how three primary colors; red, blue, and yellow and a touch of white acrylic can transform into so many hues and shades.  The following day, the event started around 2pm where mayor Karen Villanueva spoke about the importance of art followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony.  Soon after, I announced the winners in two categories: elementary and high school.  Afterward, the contestants took their pictures beside the paintings and with Hersley, myself, mayor Villanueva, and parents.  It was a high energy day leaving a huge grin on my face.  After Hersley and I returned from Bais City, one of the most popular radio shows, Energy Star, asked to interview us about the event.  We were broadcast-ed live throughout Dumaguete early Thursday morning, February 7, 2013.  This was a very busy and fulfilling week, and I'm excited to see where the HA? will go next.

Visit the Facebook page to follow more on the HA? project. HA?

The HA? project displayed works for the VIVA EXCON "Pagpahiluna" Biennale 2012 - Photo by Paul Benzi Florendo

Disadvantaged boys holding up their HA? versions in Dumaguete City. - Photos by Hersley-Ven Casero

The HA? project in Bais City.  127 artists from multiple elementary and high schools in Bais City. - Photo by Paul Benzi Florendo

Mayor Karen Villanueva cuts the ribbon to honor the grand launching of the 21st National Arts Month in Bais City.  Hersley-Ven Casero and I are pictured right of Karen to assist the ribbon cutting. Behind mayor Villanueva is Emmylou Paulio Violeta, curator and host of the Bais City art show. - Photo by Paul Benzi Florendo

 Announcing the top ten finalists of the elementary school age category.  - Photo by Benzi

 Hersley awards the first prize winner a HA? project t-shirt with Karen Villanueva.  - Photo by Benzi

Hersley and I pictured with the first prize winner of the high school category in front of the wall of "Laughing Boy" portraits.  - Photo by Benzi

Taking my picture with one of the top ten finalists from the elementary school age category.  I purchased this painting for 500pp from the young artist, I couldn't resist such talent from an adorable 3rd grader.  - Photo by Benzi

A Chiang Mai New Year

After relaxing and visiting with relatives in Bangkok, I flew to Chiang Mai to meet Jef and Andre to ring in the New Year.  Chiang Mai is a mid-sized, university city located in Northern Thailand.  It's at a higher elevation than Bangkok and is nestled at the base of a mountain.  The air is cooler and the pace of the city is mellow.  Chiang Mai attracts many visitors who are on a spiritual path.  Buddhist temples are littered throughout the city and a very famous temple, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, is located outside of the city in the mountain along with the famous Phuping Palace (pronounced poo ping palace!). Taking advantage of the slower pace, I enrolled in a full-day Thai cooking class.  What a treat! My goal, to bring these tasty tips back to the Philippines...

Jef and I sampling the panang curry we just made.  WOW!  so good.  Panang curry is mashed with peanuts, which gives it a smoother, lighter/fluffier, slightly sweet and creamier texture.

The ingredients for Tom Yum soup all chopped up.  I was surprised on how little ingredients we used to make our serving sizes.  Realizing now, that when I cook, I chop too many vegetables... a little goes a long way.  Love the round cutting board made from a sliced tree trunk.

The following day, I rented a motorbike and ventured out of the Chiang Mai.  I stopped at a resort/lunch spot where hundreds of grassy open-air huts are propped along the river for the intent to relax the day away.  Many family and friend groups were doing just the same on New Years Eve day... Next to me, a group was playing a soft guitar melody that I could simply lay back while taking in the gentle breezes off the river.

Visiting the famous Wat PhraThat Doi Suthep Buddhist temple.  This was a very popular place on New Year's Eve.

 A steep ascent to the temple.

Monks singing into the New Year.

Enjoying the striking contrasting golden hue against a Prussian blue sky!

After my time at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, I headed back to the city center to celebrate New Year's by lighting off luminaries in the streets of Chiang Mai.  This was such a magical scene.  There were so many luminaries in the sky that they started forming new, twinkling constellations that could be viewed all over the city.    

 

 The full moon shining over us all accompanied by the constellating luminaries below.

Happy New Year!! Fireworks and the moon welcome 2013.  My experiences in Thailand have elevated my taste buds.  Thai food eaten anywhere else, does not compare to what they serve in Thailand.  I felt a distinct difference between Buddhist and Christian-rooted culture.  Thailand in general feels more peaceful, refined, delicate, and feminine.  Soft, yet colorful ornamentation depicting lotus flowers and other floral, organic patterns are restful and inspiring images for me.  And I never would have imagined seeing all the gilded spires to the sky!  Those forms have a lasting impression for me, changing my perspective on Buddhist practice, temples serving as conduits transforming universal energy for the purpose of reaching enlightenment.  A beautiful theory anyway...