Caroleen’s Treasures

Since I am feeling so grumpy every morning, Donald let me stay in bed when it’s time for Ella to prepare for school. Although I was already awake, staying in bed and not moving around much helped a lot. I heard them have their usual battle of the will from eating breakfast until Ella went in the room to kiss me goodbye. She wouldn’t forget to kiss me and hug me a couple of times before leaving which her Daddy find so funny because it’s like we won’t be able to see each other again. Add to it is the almost endless reminder to take care always. She grew up hearing that from me and she always said that to me too and I won’t feel fine if I don’t watch them heading out the gate.

After walking Ella to school, Donald came back and killed the time in front of the pc doing some tweaking which he proudly announced he has increased our internet speed. A few minutes before 10am, he left to fetch Ella and I started rinsing the white clothes that I’ve soaked yesterday. Our water really gets to my nerve. It just doesn’t smell bad (like that of a mud and rust) but it makes whites yellow. I was telling Donald that there might be a leak underneath because other wells don’t have such stinky water and that when the baby comes, we might be buying more water for drinking and for our white clothes especially the baby stuffs.

I was feeling starved after doing the laundry when Donald and Ella arrived. Ella had tests done in the book that made Donald wait for several more minutes. I was grinning when Ella handed me a siopao. :grins: They went straight to the market after her class to get break and a piece of siopao. How I wish they’d get me two but I was happy anyway because that was a surprise actually.

When it was about to prepare lunch, Donald noticed we ran out of LPG so he used the charcoal stove. I was thinking about not buying LPG until we get paid on the 21st but I have low tolerance on smoke especially the charcoal fume from the blower so he went to get a refill after our nap in the afternoon. I asked him to buy a whole coconut so I could make maja blanca. We have a box of cornstarch in the cabinet that’s been sitting there for a month now so I was thinking about making maja blanca. I also asked him to buy margarine because I have some left over flour and I am dying for polvoron. So when he came home with the things I have asked him to get for me, I was totally shocked that he paid P30 for a whole coconut!!!! (Around $0.6) Even if they say inclusive of it was the charge for grating, it still doesn’t justify their price. Heler! Trento is a small town in Agusan del Sur. This is not a city where the coconuts came from the jungle. We are suppose to have cheaper commodities here but sadly, we are like living in Quezon City. Even “wilted” rambutan from the backyard of the vendor are sold for P25 a kilo ($0.52) which I just dared buying because I truly, madly, deeply missed rambutan.

So while preparing the mixture for maja blanca, Donald and I are laughing in disbelief. We kidded we will just go back to my hometown for good where everything is cheap. Then Donald said, if people will ask why we moved, we would answer “Because the coconuts here are very expensive.” Speaking of moving to my hometown, Donald was bugging me about that for months now and he could make me crazy but there are times that I feel he was right. That Kabacan is a place for us because he feels more at home there and we could always get free coconut from Mamang Eling’s yard.

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