In the western world a 20 year old woman is expected to be in school getting a degree or working full time. Here in the local culture however it is expected at my age to be finding me a man and starting a family, YIKES!
The older generation of ladies has been doing their best to teach me to be a good wife. Many have told me that I should find a good boy in the US and come back next year with him and a baby (culturally it is expected that a married couple would have a baby right away)! My friend Emmalyn has been teaching me important wife skills such as shaving coconuts and making coconut milk, oh also gutting an octopus!
Other ladies have been giving advice on how to find the right man. Here is a short list of things that I must find in a man if I am to consider him to be a good husband (according to the Ati ladies)!
1.) Ukay-Ukay Shopper
A good husband doesn't buy expensive clothes. According to the ladies it is best to find a man who wears only clothes he purchased at an ukay-ukay (second hand store). This proves that he is thrifty and will therefore take good care of your money.
2.) Lakad Lang
A good husband walks...always! According to my sources a good husband will not waste your hard earned money on a trike to town. A good husband walks to town and saves the money to buy milk for your babies.
3.) Malakas
A good husband is strong. What defines strong? According to my dear friends he must be able to climb a coconut tree and carry heavy loads of bamboo down the mountain. A strong man will be able to provide better than a weak one (apparently).
4.) Matalino
A good husband is smart. It is best to find one that knows how to build a "bahay kubo" (nipa hut). If your husband can't build a house he will have to pay someone else to do it, and that goes back to the first one (that he is cheap and thrifty).
It never ceases to amaze me how very different our two worlds can be. Yet at the same time there is so much we share. I will never be done learning from these people, a lot of that has to do with my complete and utter lack of simple house hold skills like cooking sea urchins and coconut cutting (that skill still seems to elude me despite the fact I have been taught several times).
I love these people!
-Ati at Heart Forever-
OCTOPUS!!!!!
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| I thought it looked like a Hula skirt! |
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| Excuse my face...I am not angry, just focusing on my task! |
Psalms 34:1-3
I will always thank the Lord;
I will never stop praising him.
I will praise him for what he has done;
may all who are oppressed listen and be glad!
Proclaim with me the Lord's greatness;
let us praise his name together
I will never stop praising him.
I will praise him for what he has done;
may all who are oppressed listen and be glad!
Proclaim with me the Lord's greatness;
let us praise his name together
