Summer holiday in Philippines ended nearly a month ago and my children have started their new term at school. Also for my little girl who is 3.9 years old, she has started her 1st day of school last Monday. To help me recover from the holiday mode, I try to get busy as much as possible doing things that I love to do, such as learning some photography techniques, doing some arts and crafts, cooking, reading, and writing.
This year is our 3rd year of living in The Philippines. I have become more and more accustomed to the way of life here and honestly, I have difficulty proving to the locals that I am a foreigner without my passport. Everything about me is just so Filipina. I get about 99.9% people thought I am local even with my broken Tagalog...:)
As part of my way to learn more about The Philippines way of life, I wanted a visit to Museo Pambata (http://www.museopambata.org) in Manila. Museo Pambata is a museum for children, in which displays all the stories and history of Philippines. I've asked my husband to accompany us to visit this place, but unfortunately, his working commitment is everything to him. Fortunately for me, one of my good friends invited me and my daughter to go there.
Museo Pambata has 8 different theme rooms. We visited all the theme rooms and my daughter got more and more excited as we moved from one theme room to the other.
One particular room that got me so excited was the 'Global Village' room. The things displayed in this room would be able to explain why I do look exactly like the Filipina :)
In this room, we could see all the things such as musical instruments and children games used in Philippines which are exactly the same as the ones I know in my country, Indonesia. The musical instruments such as Angklung, Gambang (or in Philippines it's called Gabang), Gong, Kenong were on display. The games such as: congklak (or in Phillipines it's called sungka), dampu (in Philippines it's called sudsod), and Philippine dance called Tinikling (a traditional dance in between 2 long bamboo poles). My daughter had so much fun trying and touching everything in there and at the same time, I explained to her that all these things also can be found in my country and her country, Malaysia.
Especially for Tinikling dance, I have to confess that I don't know the name in Indonesia and Malaysia, but the1st time I saw this kind of dancing with my own eyes was when I visited Sarawak Cultural Village in Sarawak, Malaysia. Before my visit to Sarawak Cultural Village, I only saw the Indonesian dancing with 2 long bamboo poles in the TV. So, this kind of traditional dance where the dancers will dance in between 2 long bamboo poles is a traditional dance of Indonesian, Malaysian, and Filipinos. From here, we can learn how our great great great grandparents had traveled from Indonesia to Malaysia and Philippines and invested the same culture and heritage to the 3 countries. Ha! No wonder I am such a chameleon here in South East Asia. I can look like a Malaysian, or look like a Filipina and definitely look like an Indonesian...:)
