pinoys in mongolia

there’s a smattering of us here. altogether less than 70 maybe, about 40 of whom are in the capital.  

the pinoys who made it to the kambingan week-end 

there’s the development set  -  vso/bahaginan folks (glenn, marge, riezel, ruel, joltz, gecca), delia with unfpa, gerry and terence with adra, and myself.  there are those in the private/corporate sector - ricky, chito, tere, nestie, and joe whom we recently bid goodbye to but hope that he’d be back. 

   vso-bahaginan;  nancy and gerry 

angie and ming are here as house managers of canadian and indian households respectively.  nancy and marnet are accompanying spouses but certainly far from being bored housewives.  grace teaches business in a private college.  the 6-piece pinoy band at strings disco-resto straight from boracay gives us reason to jiggle and jaggle on friday or saturday nights.

angie and edwin (not a couple-yet?) 

pinoy bishop wence padilla leads the catholic community, together with fr, ronald, cicm, from silay and sr. espe.   then there are too the missionaries from different protestant denominations whom i havent met yet, as well others in mining and construction companies. 

a well-bonded hodgepodge of sorts who find every chance to get together.  this sunday is kambingan week-end- to savour various kambing-based filipino dishes, e.g. pinapaitan, kaldereta, kilawin.  lechon and chicken week ends are also in the offing. 

 kitchen beauties - selee, joy, sr.espy,mmy ming, marge

grown adept at finding substitutes for unavailable ingredients, they’d cook sinigang with spinach for lack of kangkong, or use the juice of korean dilis  to flavor a dish mimicking pinakbet.  i learned to make embotido using minced canned pineapple and dill pickles in lieu of sweet pickle relish.  someone magically produced buko salad during the independence day lunch. amazing in a country where not a single coconut tree is found. 

sunday last, a bunch stood as ninongs and ninangs to the impromptu blessing of my flat- house of joy mongolia chapter -  and a cap to the series of  farewells for joe.  central dish was dinuguan made from german blood sausage.  o te!