We love checking babanne’s garden everyday to see how the flowers bloom, wilt and turn into fruits! Can you guess which flower turns into which fruit?
🫐Olives
🍇Grapes
🍎Apples
🍒Cherries
🍊Oranges
🍑Peaches
❤️Mulberries
We surprised our 4yo with a visit to Kuşadası, a coastal tourist town that means “bird island” in English. I think she kept imagining a literal island full of birds and was a bit let down that it was just a beach, and a cold one she couldn’t swim in.☹️
Because I welcome any trip to the seaside, I didn’t read up on Kuşadası beforehand…and wow was I surprised–it’s HUGE! Massive hotels and resorts line the rocky coast, and blocks of smaller bed and breakfast places and summer houses (a popular thing here) build up to the city center. There’s also a short elevated beachwalk next to a sandy beach called Ladies Beach, which Koray says was popular for topless sunbathers back in the day.⛱️
Exploring coastal developments in Turkey always makes me wax romantic about the what ifs of Philippine coastal towns. With 7,107 islands one would imagine the average Philippine lifestyle to be coastal, but we have yet to really build cities by the sea back home.
Here in Turkey, we’re on the Western side, facing the Aegean Sea, and the beaches pale in comparison to Ph beaches, but they’ve been developed to be liveable and with enough economy to sustain lifestyles on and off season.
💡Lots to learn!
So thankful to live 1.5hours away from the sacred mountain where pilgrims visit Meryemana, the house of Virgin Mary. Since we moved to Turkey 🇹🇷 six months ago, we’ve headed up the mountain four times to give thanks, recenter and pray for blessings and special intentions.
On Easter Mass this year, I cried within the first five minutes upon hearing the words “Hope after death”. There was just an overwhelming feeling of joy to be alive. And to experience this rebirthing energy with the backdrop of Spring…just wow. ✨️
Hope you’re all feeling renewed and ready for what’s next, friends! Passing around deep, warm hugs with the beauty and colors of Easter and Spring ❤🧡
This year I celebrate Holy Week in a Muslim country for the first time.
Growing up, Holy Week was special for extended family reunions and long beach holidays in Bicol, my dad’s home province in the Philippines. I’ve always been a spritually curious child, and what I most remember were the candlelit processions at night, with devotees walking barefoot next to their clan’s dressed up santo, adorned with flowers, lights and recorded music of the pasyon. I loved naming all the saints passing through our house, and always wondered about life back in biblical times.
Now that I’m in Turkey, everyday I see sheep with their shepherd grazing on the hills and my lingering thoughts always bring me back to imagining those biblical times. Being in similar terrain, the resonance with the Christ experience is immense, almost like a deep remembering, and it helps that we’re within driving distance to Ephesus and the house of Mary.
Palm Sunday is the start of Holy Week, when Christ, the Sun-being, entered Jerusalem on a donkey and its foal.
There is a fairytale about a prince who was born as a donkey. The king and queen, his parents, accept and love him. But they are skeptical about the donkey’s ability to fulfil his desire to play the lyre. Yet, despite his obvious handicap, he does.
by Rev. Cynthia Hindes via Craig Wiggins
Our physical nature is like that donkey. It is the part of us that belongs to a particular family, a particular tribe, nationality, or language group. It represents the earth, out of which our physical nature is born. For most of us, it takes tremendous spiritual effort to “learn to play the lyre”, that is, to rise above the limitations of our physicality, our family origins, our national inclinations, and our language’s thought patterns.
This meditation hits home most especially because Leadia, our life and passion project, is about building that safe, empowering and supportive environment where we can be who we truly are, and build whatever we’re crazy enough to imagine.
Here’s to diving deep into who we are this solemn week, through the darkness & all the way to a lovely rebirthing on Easter Sunday!🌈
#holyweek #iam #rebirth
Read the full meditation here.
If you’re free tomorrow, we’re graduating from the HUG program and doing our final pitches tomorrow night!✨️ Would be AMAZING to have you there for moral support, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy learning about the other Web3 projects launching soon. Panel will be attended by the Hug team, including Hug founders Randi Zuckerberg and Debbie Soon, and the greater HUG community + friends.
Link to register below!
P.s. Its 11pm PH time, Thurs March 30.
In six months she’s conversant in Turkish and everydays are spent hanging out with her babanne (“mom of dad” or grandmother) and dede (grandpa). Really, it’s amazing to see her brave new sentences with the courage I struggle with. Meanwhile I’m plowing through barok Turkish and asking Su to be my translator. 🤣
Collating helpful information here for families who see the world as our classroom and wish to explore the Philippines with their children, combining travel with schooling. Please let me know in the comments if there are places, initiatives, schools and groups that should be here too!
About me: I’m a Filipina artist with 20+ years experience in real estate, also education. I love the Philippines and do what I can to keep fighting the good fight of helping Philippine tourism. I spend my time now raising two kids with my husband: our 4yo daughter and our startup, Leadia. Leadia is our joint life work that is bringing together founders and leaders to live, work and play in multiple inspiring locations around the world.
My recommendations here are a reflection of my interests and preferences for slow travel, sustainability, nature, conversations, impact initiatives, Waldorf, art, farming. Hope you find them useful, and if you need any help, please just reach out in the comments 🙂
Happy travels and exploring!
tl; dr: Crown jewels of the Philippines are El Nido in Palawan and Batanes. Siargao is a close third.
Life-changing experiences unique to PH: Taophilippines.com, Swimming with the whalesharks in Donsol (not Cebu), Benguet trek/Banaue Rice Terraces
Danjugan Island Sanctuary Marine and Wildlife Camps – annual camps for adults 3N and youth 5N. Private camps can be arranged at any date for a min group of 10.
Heritage trips: Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar
Beach towns with surfing and robust communities: Siargao, La Union, Baler.
Best beaches in PH (sand and water/swimmable quality): the remote Islands in the Linapacan strait between El Nido and Coron, Nacpan in El Nido, Darocoton in El Nido, Boracay
Best snorkelling beaches: Bantayan Island in Cebu, Balicasag in Bohol, Bolinao in Pangasinan, Anilao in Batangas
Best dive sites (disclaimer: I’m not a diver): Tubattaha Reef in Palawan, Anilao in Batangas
Luxury island resorts: Amanpulo, Balesin
Family-friendly island resorts: Club Paradise in Palawan, Shangrila Mactan in Cebu, Shangrila Boracay
The Philippines has 7,107 islands, with over 120 ethnolinguistic groups (that means there are over 120 languages, not just dialects, in the PH). English is widely spoken.
Manila is not an easy city, but there are gems if you really try to look.
Caveat: Anticipate heavy traffic, crowded streets and public places, concrete everywhere. Manila is not pedestrian-friendly.
If you want to stay in a walkable neighborhood with city conveniences: Bonifacio Global City, Makati Business District, or Rockwell Makati
Good things about Manila: English is spoken everywhere. It’s where you can see Philippine Art and Museums, take cultural/historical tours. Malls are everywhere and complete with modern conveniences (even 4D cinemas), so it’s a good place to stock up on specialized foods, toiletries, gagdets, clothing, etc. Everything is also available online on Lazada.com.ph or direct to sellers on Facebook Marketplace, with courier service for same day deliveries. Filipinos love to eat so there are lots of dining options and specialized home bakers/ foodies that fit every budget.
Where to check weekly things to do and events: Spot.ph
Popular souvenirs/products: Pearls, dried mangoes (try plain and covered in dark choco), Philippine textiles
Best way to get around is via Grab (car on-demand like Uber)
Lots of groups offering walking / bike tours of Old Manila covering the areas of the old walled city (Intramuros), the Luneta Park, Binondo (oldest Chinatown in the world) and Escolta districts.
These are compiled information from recommendations of other parents in Best of the Best Manila.
Outside Manila
You can view Taal, the World’s smallest volcano (and it’s a volcano within a volcano), from the Tagaytay Ridge
Heritage
Guided 2-hour walk through a forest in Cavite, south of Manila. Take off point is the Canopy Farm, which can be a destination on its own. https://www.facebook.com/thecanopyfarmph?mibextid=ZbWKwL
Antipolo
Mountain city, natural extension of Metro Manila where people who want a greener lifestyle relocate. It has a lot of quaint restaurants, cafes, museums.
Camp Explore
Microtel: a small beachfront hotel in a mangrove area. When the tide comes in, it’s great for kayaking. Needs transfer service to get to the city center.
Ka Lui: Restaurant serving local dishes. Our favorites: Coco banana milkshake and leche flan. Call to reserve seating.
Dos Palmas: Island resort accessible by a boatride from Puerto Princesa bay
Underground River
Taophilippines.com
Thank you to friends and family for your messages. We are on the opposite side of Turkey and safe, but our hearts are bleeding. Please continue praying for Turkey. 🙏🤲
“You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.Flare up like a flame
Book of Hours
and make big shadows I can move in.”
Rilke has always been home for me. The longing, vastness of our inner world, waiting to be set aflame.
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0.12 $ETH reserve
What moats do we build around us? Do they make us feel safe and whole, or bound and lonely?
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Painted from life with acrylic on board, now updated to find its home on-chain.
“I love My Body” series celebrates our bodies in quick gestures–passing moments that say “This is me, I am. “
This work is part of the Everything Passes Collection: Paintings exploring passing moments in life, the big and small of the everyday: our bodies, quiet victories, relationships up close, beauty around us.
I painted this from a live nude session with a rock band playing in the back, over 100 artists sketching in the space. Was amazing to capture that energy with paint. Good times! Still remember it when I look at these nudes.
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0.12 $ETH reserve
What does it mean to feel at home in our bodies? To regard our hands, arms, chest, legs and feet, our head, face, hair, nails and skin as safe spaces to Be?
Is your body a warm and cozy place to hang out, to renew and nurture You?
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This is my @withfoundation Genesis piece, so happy to finally have Montaluts on FND! And milestone too to mint on my own smart contract, thank you @manifoldxyz 🙌
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Painted from life with acrylic on tarpaulin, now updated to find its home on-chain.
“I love My Body” series celebrates our bodies in quick gestures–passing moments that say “This is me, I am. “
This work is part of the Everything Passes Collection: Paintings exploring passing moments in life, the big and small of the everyday: our bodies, quiet victories, relationships up close, beauty around us.
