Joe Philippines: Family Reunion

The tradition in my wife's family is to have a New Year's Eve celebration with all her mom's brothers and sisters (there are five siblings total) and all their descendants. On New Year's Day, the tradition is a family reunion that includes the brothers and sisters and descendants of my wife's grandparents. This year that amounted to about 150 to 175 people. On more lightly attended years, we hold it at the same place as the New Year's Eve celebration in the courtyard of my wife's uncle's house. But it just wasn't big enough for 175 people so a first cousin of my wife who works in Saudi Arabia, let us use his farm. He bought the farm only about four years ago with absolutely no improvements made on it and has since put a lot of work and money into it. Above is the house he is having built. It isn't done yet but did have a working bathroom and electricity.

Surrounding it was fencing to keep his sheep that he raises from straying to neighboring properties. As you can see, it is fencing only found in the Philippines. My wife's cousin also has a fruit orchard but plans to sell the fruit (something I can barely pronounce let alone spell here) for medicinal purposes when they mature.

Above is the "barn" which isn't like anything found here in the States. It is built using the same concrete beam techniques used for the housing but the floor is comprised of wooden slats to let the manure fall to the ground where the chickens recycle it even further before it gets applied as fertilizer. In the main part is where my cousin-in-law keeps his sheep overnight and breeds them with a couple rams he bought from Australia. His goal is to raise a fatter version of the native Filipino sheep variety to fetch better prices on the market.

Although none of my Filipino family seems to be into the national pastime, just about everywhere in the Philippines you will see roosters perched and tied down out in pastures. These are fighting roosters and the neighbor to my cousin-in-law had a flock of probably around 100 birds. Although I really don't savor the thought of the unnecessary cruelty to these animals, I think I would like to witness a fight someday. Thus far I haven't.

At any Filipino party, lechon or roasted pig is on the menu. Here in the States we can buy "lechon" in several places nearby but they are all poor excuses to the ones my uncle makes. The ones here in the States are made in mechanized machines and are sagging skin, unappetizing looking things with very little flavor. The ones in the Philippines were started the night before over a hardwood charcoal fire outside and numerous brown skinned natives working for my uncle spent hours turning it over that fire by hand. I don't know what he does but the skin is perfectly, tight, crunchy and a beautiful mahogany red and the flavor is amazing. The first time I saw one for my wedding blessing before my wife and I were married, I thought it was a carved statue up until a chef came in a hacked the head off with a large cleaver.

The one at my wedding blessing was much smaller than this one which due to its size, had the legs deformed to cook evenly over the fire but the middle section was still a thing of perfection. Besides this, there was enough other food to feed the entire state of Iowa for a week. The reunion itself was a day mostly spent playing various games and talking along with lots of picture taking. It poured rain the entire time except for about two hours which was spent taking said pictures of family and my quick tour of my cousin-in-laws farming operation. Fortunately he had rigged up a framework of bamboo poles with a dozen tarps stretched over the top to keep us dry. Unfortunately the sheer amount or rain caused the tarps to expand and sag here and there like hugs ballons of water over our heads causing lots of excitement wondering who was about to get soaked while trying to eat lunch. Fortunately they eased the tensions by stabbing the bulges with a knife in strategic places (between tables) to allow the water to drain to the ground. Also fortunately the earth was pretty porous on the farm so instead of a muddy mess, it was just a wet mess. Eventually everyone started going back to their respective homes and late in the evening, we finally got a ride back to our hotel room with a 4 a.m. wake-up time to begin the journey home.

Sadly since our last visit when I wrote this, the uncle who hosted the reunions and made the lechon passed away, most likely a victim of Covid. I'm not sure on the status of the reunions in the years since his demise but I'm guessing they are still being held.