I started the mass and ended up going around Surabaya with some friends. Days before, Ms. Liza one of the Filipino teachers here, invited me to her house to have spaghetti. She just came from the Philippines and armed with Filipino brand seasonings like hunts tomato sauce, knorr pork cubes, ginisa flavor mix, datu puti soy sauce and vinegar, she started to cook. But before all the cooking began, she jemput me here at RM and we rode pedjak, a transportation powered by the strength of the human legs. Similar to the Filipino padjak but instead of a side car, the driver was at the back while passengers stayed in front, quitesimilar to the Chinese style human drawn carriage. Naawa talaga ako kay manong kasi antanda na tapos inalila pa namin ni miss Liz. I pitied pak driver because he was already old and still was trying his best to earn honest to goodness money with the sweat of his brow. I told Miss Liz that probably we should give him extra money because hinatid kami at tumawid pa ng dangerous highway just to bring us safely to our destination. This is precisely why we rode the pedjak, to avoid walking across the dangerous road, so when pak asked for extra because we were only suppose to pay lima ribu, he asked for sepuluh ribu. Miss Liza was persistent and did not want to give in so with limited bahasa, she started to insist to pay only tujjuh ribu. While pak sopir pedjak was still talking to us Miss Liz told me to start walking away from Manong. This was ofcourse after we stole some shots with his pedjak. I asked Miss Liza if pak was ok, she told me, tara, bilisan mo lakad, di ko rin siya maintindihan. Ganyan na lang pag di mo na maintindihan lumayo ka na lang, tara! hehe what a way to run from the situation.
We entered the national cemetery first to take pictures and also to avoid pak who was still folowing us. After making sure that pak was no where in sight, we started to go back to the side walk and waited for the angkota, the local jeepney. This mini van is used for public transportation and one has to pay around tiga sampai lima ribu in order to go from one point to the next. We rode one that was bound for atom,particulalrly to a pasar traditional, or local market near Miss Liza's place in Simpang, the Jalan or name of the road where her house is situated.
We saw a lot of Filipino teachers buying their week's supply from the pasar. Our goal was to buy ayam to make ayam goreng, pasta and babi for the spaghetti, ikan for daing, some sayur and buah (we bought good avocadoes). One can buy a lot of things even with limited bahasa with some hand gestures and lots of guts. For example, Miss Liza told me that the woman selling babi was mataray, so when we came there Miss Liza started to point at the meat she wanted. The tindera or lady selling the meat was asking her in bahasa what part of the pig, how to cut, how much etc. Miss Liza just pointed at the meat and said ini, setinga kilo, ini potong, ya potong, ya potong potong hehe she meant that the lady should ground the meat. Then I remarked, now I know why she seems always angry with you, you are so bossy, hehe Akalain mo un, ipatadtad daw ba manually ang karne para maging giniling. Tapos hindi pa niya masyado maintindihan ang bahasa, nagtaka nga ako bakit nakakabili pa si Miss Liza ng buo pa ang mga parte ng katawan, kung ako si Manang baka naisahog ko na ang braso ni Miss Liza sa giniling eh, hehe. Di pa natapos dun, sumunod ang manok, naku tinuro ang pitsom and pak pak, habang si manang kinakausap ulit siya at nagtatanong. Ang nakakatawa nung hindi magets ni manag ang pagtuturo ni Madame, nag-act na si Madame na parang charades, wings (while moving her arm up and down) hehe panalo talaga ang chicken wings gesture ni Miss Liza. Sumunod ang ikan, pinapahiwa ng pahalang at pinapahati, again potong lang ang gamit ng may kasamang hand gesture, akalain mo nagawa ni ibu tindera! At naku naman bibilib kay kay Ibu, hiniwa at nilinis ang loob ng bangus gamit ang kamay na naka-manicure ng red, with rings and bracelet, hehe saan ka pa? Hulinh huli ang gulay. Kahit malayo ako kay madame alam kong tumatawad siya sa gulay habang sinasabing, bulok bulok naman tong iba, baka pwedeng dagdag o libre na lang, hehe action speaks louder than words!
At syempre natapos din ang aming pamamalengke at magluluto na. Sa lahat naman ng panahon, ngayon pa naubos ang gasul, kaya ayun nagpabili sila. Malwalhati namang nairaos ang spaghetti at fried chicken. Next task, makauwi ng Gereja ng buo sakay ng either angkota or taxi. Finally nagdecide ako na magtaxi na lang, pero nako kahit si manong taxi matanong kaya ayun sinabi ko na ang famous emergency lines ko, saya tidak mengerti, saya dari Filipinas, hehe tameme si manong, pero syempre naituro ko naman in bahasa ang pupuntahan ko at medyo nakakaintindi naman talaga ako, masyado lang siya mabilis magsalita.
Kinahapunan, lumabas kami ng isa pang kaibigan. This time we were suppose to go to the mall to buy some things. But before immediately going there, we first passed by a client which she was supposed to tour around a property because she was in the real estate business. Unfortunately the client came late so we had the time to have short bahasa indonesia course, went to Gereja Santo Jakobus to see the church, visit the chapel of Mary and the adorasi. After meeting the client, we went to Supermall aka PTC to buy personal things and ended up eating yogurt es cream at sour sally.
The day was fun, fruitful, meaningful, entertaining and educational. Fun because I experienced new things, fruitful because of the practical lessons I had, meaningful because it was the first time I went out of the bounds of the usual parish related work, entertaining precisely because of the fun company and educational because I learned that there is another face of Surabaya that I have never seen, which is waiting to be discovered and explored.
I started the mass and ended up going around Surabaya with some friends. Days before, Ms. Liza one of the Filipino teachers here, invited me to her house to have spaghetti. She just came from the Philippines and armed with Filipino brand seasonings like hunts tomato sauce, knorr pork cubes, ginisa flavor mix, datu puti soy sauce and vinegar, she started to cook. But before all the cooking began, she jemput me here at RM and we rode pedjak, a transportation powered by the strength of the human legs. Similar to the Filipino padjak but instead of a side car, the driver was at the back while passengers stayed in front, quitesimilar to the Chinese style human drawn carriage. Naawa talaga ako kay manong kasi antanda na tapos inalila pa namin ni miss Liz. I pitied pak driver because he was already old and still was trying his best to earn honest to goodness money with the sweat of his brow. I told Miss Liz that probably we should give him extra money because hinatid kami at tumawid pa ng dangerous highway just to bring us safely to our destination. This is precisely why we rode the pedjak, to avoid walking across the dangerous road, so when pak asked for extra because we were only suppose to pay lima ribu, he asked for sepuluh ribu. Miss Liza was persistent and did not want to give in so with limited bahasa, she started to insist to pay only tujjuh ribu. While pak sopir pedjak was still talking to us Miss Liz told me to start walking away from Manong. This was ofcourse after we stole some shots with his pedjak. I asked Miss Liza if pak was ok, she told me, tara, bilisan mo lakad, di ko rin siya maintindihan. Ganyan na lang pag di mo na maintindihan lumayo ka na lang, tara! hehe what a way to run from the situation.
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