Family Reunion in Silang

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For our first visit to the Philippines, I was excited to see some family who had visited the states but also see relatives I had never met.  Tito Selit organized a mini-family reunion at the home of one of his sisters, Tita Vicky, in Silang, which is in the province of Cavite, about an hour and a half south of Manila. Adam and I met a whole slew of aunties, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. (For those not familiar, anyone in the generation of your parents is your aunt or uncle, though technically not a sibling, hence I have tons of aunts and uncles and the knowledge of my family tree grew about 100+ this visit!)  While many of the faces were new to us, everyone was so welcoming and warm, it felt like we had grown up around them our entire lives.

In addition to being with loved ones, Filipino gatherings are all about eating. And most of the conversations go like this: ”Let’s eat.  Time for merienda (snack)!  Did you eat? Okay, eat some more.  Do you want to eat again?  Did you try this dish? Are you sure?  I don’t think you had enough.  Why aren’t you eating?  Let’s eat some more.” And then it moves on to “why aren’t you doing karaoke? If you are not singing, you need to be drinking. Want a San Miguel?”

My family prepared several Filipino dishes and had  a tasty ube (purple yam) Red Ribbon cake, from one of the most popular bakeries in the country. We feasted on adobo, stuffed milkfish with raisins, kare-kare with banana blossoms, tilapia, sweet spaghetti, rice pudding, bread pudding and fruit salad.

After gorging ourselves, Adam and I went with our cousins JoyceAnn, Bianca and Bianca’s boyfriend Robert to visit Tagaytay.  A city neighboring Silang, Tagaytay is known for its beautiful scenery and cool climate and overlooks Taal Lake and Taal Volcano Island in the middle of the lake. As the rain was moving in, it was hard to see the volcano but we enjoyed a zipline through the trees with a view of the lake.

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  • Bianca, JoyceAnn, Amanda and Adam in front of Lake Taal in Tagaytay
  • Family Reunion
  • Zipline in Tagatay
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Posted: April 12, 2012

Author: Adam and Amanda

Category: Asia, Blog, Continents, Philippines

+1 Comment
  1. Papa says:

    Great photos and narrative! Are you sure that Fillipinos and Jews don’t somehow have a common ancestor? Your description of the eating mandate would seem to support that theory!

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