Vote for Efren, a CNN Hero!

Have your heard of CNN Heroes? Every year, CNN gives $100,000 to the winner (from a field of ten finalists---winnowed from 9,000 nominees from all over the world) of its "Hero of the Year" award. This year, a 28-year-old Filipino, Efren Peñaflorida, made it to the top ten. (A panel of 12 well-known personalities from various fields picked the finalists. Colin Powell was among the judges this year). If Efren wins this year's award (based on how many votes he gets, which will depend on us), he will be able to expand his mobile school program, Dynamic Teen Company, for the children of the slums in the Philippines. What this young man is doing to improve the lives of the kids in the slums is truly inspiring, and I think his efforts are worth my vote.

Voting is open between now and Nov. 19, and it takes less than a minute to click a button to cast your vote. The more votes Efren gets, the greater his chances of winning the "Hero of the Year" award and the $100K. Let's all vote for Efren and help him continue to make a difference in those slum kids' lives! Please don't forget to pass this on to everybody you know---Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike----so more people can vote for this young man with an extra big heart.



This post originally appeared on Bonggamom's review blog, Bonggamom Finds.

Filipino Top Chef

I'm a wannabe foodie.

I wish I could make my deceased grandmother's palabok.

And this week, I'm trying my luck on a mocha roll.

I'm lacking a bit in the kitchen.

So my food fantasies are typically played out with an addiction to Food Network, America's Test Kitchen, and Bravo's Top Chef. I've also been known to secretly watch Hell's Kitchen too.

And with each show, what surprises me is that there is always a Pinoy in the Kitchenaid mix.

Who could forget Dale Talde introducing halo halo to the non-Filipino world during Season 4 of Top Chef?

And he's in good company on the show. Bravo's reality television show has attracted the culinary skills of Filipinos Josie Smith-Malave in Season 2 and Leah Cohen who was just booted off last week.

The mohawk bearing Louross Edralin tested Hell's Kitchen in Season 4.

Of course, the culinary expertise of a Filipinos far surpass the boob tube. Chef Cristeta Comerford is the first minority to head the White House kitchen. Do you think President Obama has feasted on kare kare yet?

I'm channeling my inner foodie here. Here's hoping one of these chefs will take their wooden spoon and beat some cooking sense into me.

pamasko and pasalubong and regalo! oh my...

first things first, happy new year! manigong bagong taon sa inyo! (thank your lucky stars you can't hear me butcher that pronunciation...)

personally, i'll be spending the start of our new year caring for the sick and contagious at home. they caught colds on our recent california holiday - probably on our southwest flight back to chicago. during the six + hours in transit, inbetween drawing on a doodle pad for one child and dressing/undressing dolls for another, i actually managed to read this article in sw's spirit magazine about regifting by kimberly garza.

in the article, she recalls early memories of her mother regifting into a balikbayan box, "I got my introduction to regifting on my sixth birthday, at the hands of a true master. I eagerly ripped into a present from a classmate only to reveal an exact replica of the Dream Bride Barbie I already had. I scowled, but my mother gently placed Dream Bride Barbie back in the box. “Your cousin Eunice would like this very much,” she said. Then she turned and placed Barbie in a large cardboard box labeled “For Manila.”

sound familiar? my mom STILL does this... as does my stepsister and all of the other matriarchs of my family. i don't actually have any boxes, i just contribute to theirs... :) in addition to new "unnecessary" things that we received as gifts, we would also put our gently used things in as well. i used to think my mother was telling a stale joke saying that one could tell who our relations were in iligan because they would be wearing my old handmedowns. and then, i visited and saw for my own eyes that she wasn't kidding.

at one point, i remember complaining to my mom saying, that a balikbayan box wasn't "enough" that we could/should be doing more by donating money to charities in the philippines. but she replied that she didn't trust any organizations in the philippines, she wouldn't be able to tell if her money would actually reach any one in need or just a corrupt few. her sentiment was seconded by the other aunties and uncles i knew of her generation. unfortunately, her concerns and my father's firsthand stories of institutionalized bribery, fraud and exploitation scared me away from filipino based charities as well.

it wasn't until i went back to manila for my sister's wedding that the idea of donating to a filipino charity crossed my mind again. every so often i saw a commercial for children's hour on tv, "a fund-raising and grant-giving organization that taps individuals, employees, and corporations to donate at least one hour of their earnings once a year to fund projects committed to promote the welfare of our Filipino children". although i didn't commit to anything, i started to research other charities when i got home and found these:

gawad kalinga- translated in English means to “to give care”, and it is an alternative solution to the blatant problem of poverty not just in the Philippines but in the world. GK’s vision for the Philippines is a slum-free, squatter-free nation through a simple strategy of providing land for the landless, homes for the homeless, food for the hungry and as a result providing dignity and peace for every Filipino.

cu foundation - a non-profit, non-religious, volunteer-based charitable foundation which provides financial and educational assistance through scholarship to under-privileged children in Ballesteros, Cagayan. The Foundation further delivers requested educational resources and equipment directly to public-based Day Care centers, schools, colleges and libraries in the Philippines.

pinoy kids-envisions a stable and viable community that will uphold the rights, welfare and aspiration of filipino families especially the children towards authentic human development.

teresa charities- provide life-sustaining rice monthly to the elderly poor in Vietnam and Philippines working through a network of churches. Three dollars buys a month's supply.

children's shelter of cebu-Orphaned children in the Philippines need more than just shelter...we provide food, medicine, education and a loving home through three residences and a school.

operation christmas child-enables caring individuals, families, schools, churches, businesses, and other organisations to fill ordinary shoe boxes with small toys, school supplies, sweets, and other gifts for needy children around the world.

haribon foundation- a membership organization dedicated to the conservation of Philippine biodiversity. It aims to build a constituency for environmental issues that will call for prioritizing conservation actions on habitats and sites, based on solid scientific and socio-economic research. We are the pioneer environmental organization in the Philippines.

pearl s. buck foundation- has three distinct functions that operate as one with the common mission of continuing the legacy and dreams of Pearl S. Buck - her commitment to improving the quality of life and expanding opportunities for children and promoting an understanding of the values and attributes of other cultures, the injustice of prejudice, and the need for humanitarianism throughout the world. coincidentally, apl.de.ap of the black eyed peas was sponsored by the foundation as a child.

peapod foundation- this is the black eyed peas foundation. it supports innovative programs for children and focuses attention on universal needs including music/artistic education, shelter/housing and healthcare. some of the donations go directly to charities in the philippines.

wikipedia also has a long list of charities in the philippines here.

honestly, even after all that reading, i was still having trouble getting over my handmedown biases. finally early in december, i ended up donating two shoeboxes to operation christmas child - one for a girl the same age as the paloma and another for a boy the same age as the porkchop. although samaritan's purse sends boxes to the philippines, i couldn't specifically request where our boxes would go. in a way, i felt like operation christmas child was the best of both worlds - a box of gifts coupled with a charity that also served children in the philippines.

i am disappointed in myself for not doing more, for not taking a larger leap of faith. but, i took an itty bitty teensy weensy baby step which is better than nothing i guess... and tomorrow, i'll have a whole 365 more days to take a few more.

...and by all means, please feel free to continue my education on any filipino charities you support/read/hear about in the comments!

perspective from a bridge...

i always wonder if i'm "properly" educating our children re: their filipino heritage. do i know enough? do i even possess the vocabulary? is what i know enough to urge their curiosity further? how am i supposed to build this bridge or even BE a bridge with such a rocky foundation? my own knowledge of what it "is" or "means" to be filipino is wide in some places, narrow in others... and there are the undulating gaps inbetween the rickety planks... planks that were damaged by the fire that ripped thru my mother's childhood home and ravaged by my numerous and indefinite absences from the philippines.

most of the time i try to relate something that the paloma or the porkchop are learning about (in school or out) to being filipino or the philippines. and often, i find that i start doing the research for my children and end up learning something new myself.

when the paloma became seriously interested in dinosaurs. i began to wonder if any dinosaurs had been discovered in the philippines. and i learned that the phillipines was still underwater when dinos roamed the earth. as soon as the paloma started getting into the disney princesses, i checked around to see if there were counterparts in filipino folklore and found a fairytale (and it's neo-ethnic rock film adaptation) with a strong heroine and a real filipino princess.

when we were watching the pixar ratatouille movie recently, i wondered if there were any structures like the eiffel tower in the philippines and randomly googled "eiffel philippines"... and found that san sebastian church and quezon bridge (a bridge i've actually crossed many times and never really noticed) were possibly pre-fabricated by direction via gustave eiffel himself.

lately, the porkchop is only interested in vehicles of transportation... especially cars and trains. the pixar cars movie is on continuous loop, matchbox cars litter our floors like leaves on a lawn in the fullness of autumn... so, i asked my sister in manila to send over a matchbox sized version of a jeepney. and she did. and he quickly broke it. he'll be getting a new one soon... but he knows what a jeepney is - there's just NO mistaking a jeepney.

my visionary sister also sent miniature versions of horses and kalesas when she was roped into accompanying the paloma on two rides during our last trip to manila. whenever the paloma sees horse driven carriages on michigan ave, she always calls out "mommy! look! kalesas!"

anyhoo... asian pacific american heritage month is already half over and for those of you who are looking for a way to get from heritage point A to heritage point B... i thought i would share a project that i did last october, for my daughter's preschool montessori class to celebrate filipino american history month. maybe you'll find something helpful... maybe i'll help spur some creative process.... maybe you'll just get a good laugh at my weirdness...

it all started when i contacted her teacher beforehand to let her know that the month was coming up and that i'd wanted to send some things to school for the paloma to share with her classmates. her teacher was very supportive and basically said send us everything you have and we'll do our best to help her share with the class. i don't know what came over me, but i kinda went overboard (for me, the professional slacker)....

first, i made a flip book (no pun or derogatory word intended). some of them were just simple info cards with a picture on one side and then info on the other side (hello wikipedia + cut + paste + lamination machine + shower curtain ring) - philippines climate, politics, longitude, latitude, religions, industries, the flag, the national bird, the national flower, etc... i added two cards about filipinos in the philippines (population, culture, heroes, language) and its counterpart about filipinos in america. i especially loved typing in that filipinos arrived in chicago in the early 1900s after remembering all the quizzical looks we get when someone asks where we are from and we respond that we're from chicago. the last of the cards are tagalog cards - how to count from one to ten, colors, basic phrases, pronunciation and days of the week.
















i sent along fran ng's "500 words & pictures bilingual visual dictionary" published by Tahanan Books for them to peruse. then, i made the whole class photocopies of paper dolls in filipino national costume from "damit, atbp. an alphabet coloring book on filipino costumes and accessories" published by marren publishing house.















lastly, i added two HUGE bags of mango chips (not pictured because we ate all the bags we had in the house) and florante aguilar's cd the art of harana.

and the result? for those four weeks, the look on the paloma's face was like she was on a permanent vacation on big rock candy mountain. every bit of time she was allotted to share her bounty, she would come home relating the experience and the giggles and the questions. the teachers sent home very positive notes like "the mango chips are all gone. the children inhaled them". i've never seen her SO excited to learn about being filipino and to be so proud of being filipino. at one point, she told me that she told one of her classmates, very matter-of-factly, that "it's ok if you're NOT filipino. you can come see our parades even if you're not filipino. i like you anyways."

so, i guess in the end (and after a very long winded post), even a little knowledge of one's heritage is enough knowledge for a legacy... heck, my mom (who i love love love and to whom i owe so much) never made me a flip book - so, i think my family is getting better and better at the whole heritage thing with every generation.

And now, the good news...

What's new in the Pinoy world these days? The government is incurring a trade deficit, having trouble balancing the budget, Cory's got cancer, we're still trying to get back Marcos' millions.... it's enough to send me back to bed. Fortunately, there's plenty of good news to go around as well. My two current favorite Pinoy success stories:

Our very own Rocky Balboa, Manny Pacquiao, is racking up victory after victory in the international boxing arena. He's got 3 world titles in 3 different weight divisions (he's the first Asian boxer and one of only 8 in the world to accomplish this), has just wrested the WBC super-featherweight crown from Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez and has just been declared a Datu. I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know who he was until my husband told me he wanted to watch the Pacquiao-Marquez match for his birthday (since the cheapest rafter seat at Caesar's Palace was selling for over $2000, we decided to forgo the pleasure). You know he's an international superstar and global sports celebrity when your English husband is the one who first makes you aware of the guy in the first place.

Pinoys have taken over American Idol once again! No, I'm not talking about Renaldo Lapus (although I think he's a sweetheart and wish him the best in his singing career). I'm talking about Ramiele Malubay, the little powerhouse who has made it to the Top 10 Finalists of American Idol's season 7. Truth be told, I find her songs a bit ho-hum -- they tend to resemble, to use a Simon Cowell phrase, a "cruise-ship performance". And I'm not a fan of her hair or wardrobe (I got over that off-the-shoulder Flashdance look 25 years ago). But I have to say, The Girl. Can. Sing. Making it to the Top Ten is a Big Deal. And I love how she embraces her Filipino identity. Like Jasmine Trias and Camille Velasco , Jose Penala and AJ Tabaldo, Ramiele is proving to the whole world that Filipinos can belt it out with the rest of them. You go, girl!

Anyone with more Pinoy Power stories to share? Shout it out!

Bonggamom also blogs at the SV Moms Blog, Finding Bonggamom, and Bonggamom Finds.

You Know You're Filipino if.....

You know you're Filipino if....

You're related to everyone

Your middle name is your mother's maiden name

You like sweet spaghetti

Your second piece of luggage is a balikbayan box

Goldilocks is more than a fairy-tale character to you

By now, practically every Filipino has received some version of this via email: a list of funny (and not-so-funny), endearing (but sometimes derogatory) list of quirks that uniquely identify the Filipino culture. One of the best presents I received this Christmas was this list in printed form: a book called "You know you're Filipino if...: A Pinoy Primer", compiled from the internet and edited by Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz. Anyone who is Filipino (or is married to one) should read it; I nearly peed in my pants laughing.

Leave it to Filipinos to distill all the absurdities of the Filipino culture and present it in a funny way (as the very last item in the book says, Filipinos like to laugh at themselves and others). In fact, the more items you check off, the prouder you feel. The end of the book has a "scoring" system so you can tally how many items apply to you and see how Filipino it makes you. I scored 84 out of a total 203 items; according to the book, this puts me in the "Malayo ka pa!" (You've got a long way to go) category. Sounds pathetic, I know, but in my defense, if I had been living in Manila, I could have added points for things like:

- living with my parents

- having a "Lazy Susan" (the turntable that goes round and round) on the dining table

- having a "clean kitchen" and a "dirty kitchen" (in Palo Alto, we can only afford the space for 1 kitchen, and it's never completely clean)

- any of the items pertaining to the way Filipinos drive (I'm a law-abiding minivan mom in the US, but whenever I go to Manila, my driving habits terrorize my husband)

That would have given me a score of 102, which would make me "Amoy na Amoy Ka, Pinoy!" (You smell, Pinoy!) Not that I eat bagoong (I'm actually allergic to it), but basically, I walk like a Pinoy, talk like a Pinoy, smell like a Pinoy... I must be Pinoy. Phew!

Anyway, go read the book, have a laugh, and see how you stack up -- or, as in my husband's case, see how your loved ones stack up!

Now that Northern California's highway 101 is becoming as "ma-trapik" as Edsa during rush hour, Bonggamom wishes she could give in to the urge to ignore red stoplights and create new traffic lanes whenever she pleases; since she can't, she blogs away her frustration at Finding Bonggamom.

the other f word.

just so we're clear, i'm not talking about this f word: f*ck (i think we're all using that one... maybe not out loud nor in the presence of anyone under the age of 18... but hey, one misstep in the dark involving a lego brick and i let it fly...)

i'm talking about this f word: flip (some of you would use the asterisk in this case as well, i just wanted to be clear for those who didn't know what word i was referring to or didn't know (like me) that it was offensive).

the first time i heard the word was in high school. i was one of maybe five filipinos in my class. but, my family socialized (no, really!?) with other filipino families from the city and suburbs and the other teenagers my age used "flip" often and proudly. i remember one of them signed my yearbook "flips rule, class of '89! future class of '93!".

fast forward to 1998... i'd been living in the sf bay area for a few years. my stepbros, who i consider really "hip" and "happening" (they told me all about the black eyed peas in 1998 - B.F. (before fergie), asked me about life in the bay area and could i confirm that "there's plenty of fine pinays there?" i confirmed that life in the bay area was good, that fine pinays were aplenty and awaiting a visit from my stepbros and i even jotted a mental post-it note that filipino young men were now referring to their female counterparts as "pinays".

fast forward again to 2001... the thin man and i moved back to chicago from the bay area (long story). we were greeted at our new apartment by my brother and my stepbrothers. and while we were unloading the truck, i said something like, "so, what's happening? what are all the cool flips doing for fun these days?" my stepbros looked at me like i had killed someone. they quietly explained to me that no one used that word anymore, that it was equivalent to the "n" word or gook or chink and that historically, american soldiers used it as a derogatory slur/acronym in WWII for "f*cking little island people". i'm ashamed to say that i'd never heard that before. so, i stopped using it. curious? check out some of the entries on urbandictionary.com.

then after giving birth to the paloma in 2003, i started to look for t-shirts for her that referred to her filipino heritage. a google search yielded "flip" t-shirts from cafe press and a t-shirt company that calls itself flipside (i ended up buying from archipelago).

finally, in the more recent past and present - this past may/july, a filipino photographer exhibited a group of portraits of filipinos from all walks of life for a project titled "the flipbook project". and just the other day, i heard "flip" again while passing a loud group of filipino teens (possibly college students) downtown.

so, has a new generation of filipinos reclaimed "flip"? are you using the word again? did you ever use it before and then stop? did you never stop using it? what other words (if any) do you use to identify your (filipino) self? fil-am? pinay? pinoy? mestiza? mestizo? filipina? filipino?

lastly, i was just wondering on a related and similarly controversial note - as a filipino, do you consider yourself asian or pacific islander? i know many filipinos who identify themselves as pacific islanders and others who identify as asian. i also know some pacific islanders (specifically samoans) who are really angered with filipinos who identify as pacific islanders (in all honesty, until i did some research and found out that the philippines itself considers itself part of asia, i thought filipinos were pacific islanders).