Leche Flan

Favorite of the Aziziah Boys

Ang resipeng ito ay sapat para mapakain ang 11 masisibang naninirahan sa Aziziah.

Mga Sangkap:

12 pula ng itlog (dilaw ang tunay na kulay nyan)
4 lata ng gatas na kondensada
2 lata ng gatas na ebaporada
puting asukal
banilya

Paraan ng Pagluto:

1.  Ilagay ang ebaporada sa isang mangko.
2.  Ihalo ang pula ng itlog sa gatas na ebaporada.  Haluin nang banayad.  Pigilin ang sarili sa pagbabate.  Pag binate, titigas.
3.  Salain bago ihalo ang kondensada.  Baket ka'nyo?  Mas madaling salain habang hindi pa malapot.
4.  Lagyan ng kaunting banilya.
5.  Itabi ang hinalo at simulan ang paggawa ng karamel sa trey na aluminyo.
6.  Ilagay ang asukal sa isang maliit na kaserola.
7.  Isalang sa mababang apoy at hayaang matunaw at kumulo.
8.  Bantayang maigi upang di masunog.
9.  Tanggalin sa apoy kapag napansin na nagbabago na ang kulay.
10.  Ibuhos sa mga aluminum trey habang mainit pa.  Huwag babagal-bagal.
11.  Palamigin ang karamel para mabuo bago ilagay ang hinalong itlog at gatas.
12.  Pasingawan nang 40 minuto.  Tingnan kung luto na sa pamamagitan ng pagtusok ng tutpik (o kahit anong stik o kutsilyo, huwag ang daliri).  Luto na ito kung wala nang dumidikit sa pinantusok.  Kung hilaw pa, ituloy ang pagpapasingaw nang 5 minuto pa at muling tingnan.
13.  Palamigin sa pridyeder.

Paunawa:

Hindi pananagutan ng may-akda kung sakaling magka-dyabetes ang mga masisiba.

Lagyan ng bagong pitas na dahon ng mint (na dinidiligan ni Boomer)

Aziziah Garden

I had to be in Riyadh to see onion flowers

By our third year in Riyadh, the Baldiya boys disbanded.  It splintered into different groups.

We moved to Aziziah.  Instead of malunggay trees, there is a small garden in the front yard.  When we moved in, there were strange flowers in the garden which I later learned were onions.

Before winter the onions were harvested by the caretaker (who looks like an undertaker) we called Sadeek.  They were replaced by some other plants, among them roses.  By Christmas that year, there were blooms.

Isn't it amazing to know that roses can also grow in severe climate?

This looks to me like kangkong.

I also don't know what this flowering plant is, but is sure looks pretty.

Published Authors

One happy day:  first delivery of our textbooks  

Perhaps my greatest achievement at HIPF is turning the Senior Instructors into published authors of textbooks and workbooks.

Who would think that ordinary plastics industry professionals in the Philippines can become published authors in Saudi Arabia?

Starting the project was the difficult part.  I had to fight those who believed that writing textbooks is beyond the capability of HIPF Senior Instructors.

Gawang Pinoy: 9 textbooks and 11 workbooks 

Substitute Teacher

Chemistry lesson

A few of weeks into the very first semester of HIPF, a Chemistry teacher suddenly died.

Mushkila!  Where will they find a substitute to teach the subject?

No, I did not volunteer.  The Institute asked me to temporarily take the classes.  Good thing I am classroom-ready if Chemistry is the subject.

Plastics in my Chemistry class

My First Students in KSA

Junior Instructors of HIPF

Before HIPF trainees were the Junior Instructors.  They were my first students in KSA.

I also coordinated all the activities regarding their training.  I prepared their class schedules, arranged the topics and the Senior Instructors who would teach, and keep record of their grades.  I even mentored each one of them when it was time for their oral presentations.

A top manager in school said they were my babies.  Indeed, they were.  I cared for them and I am genuinely interested in their progress.  There was a time when there were I think ten or eleven of them.  By the time I left HIPF, only five remain in the institute.  The rest moved on, either to further their studies outside KSA or join other companies.

I was able to practice teaching Basic Plastics subject with them.  And also because of them, I had the chance of teaching a subject I never thought I would ever teach... English!

On hind sight, they were actually my first Saudi friends.

Junior Instructors in training

Shabab

Group F - my most well-behaved group

Some things are always bound to be lost in translation when you are lecturing at HIPF.  Learning a new language is perhaps the most difficult thing to do when you are no longer a little child.  I could just imagine the frustration of most trainees trying to learn a technical subject that is delivered in a language that is not theirs.

Everyday was an adventure.  It was like walking in a rocky beach and finding gems among the pebbles.  I was always amazed to find one or two trainees who are really good in a class... but then there would always be one or two who are just plain trouble.

If there is one virtue I was able to hone with my experience teaching the shababs, it is patience.  My secret?  Before coming to class, I repeat three times: "I will not be affected by impertinence".  It also worked when dealing with some colleagues.

The first ever entrance exams at HIPF

Tulak Boys

Having fun

It was fun.  We bought a used car that showed its true form as a lemon the first try we had to drive it to Batha Philippine market.

Since then, Galanto (yes... that's its name) had to be repeatedly delivered to the repair shop either on a wrecker or pushed by its loving owners.

We used to joke that the car is being haunted by the spirit of the one it had ran over when it was with its original owner.

Galanto was the training car for three of its owners who had to first learn how to drive in their lives.  Soon enough, we finally conceded that its use had been served and it ended with its favorite mechanic.

We found Galanto parked in front of Pinoy Supermarket one time and like finding an old friend, we stopped our brand new car to take a good look.  Result... a backing car bumped our rear end.  And that confirms the theory of Galanto being haunted!

The new car

Villa Baladiya

We call this home for two years

This was our home for the first two years in Riyadh.  We left the place without ever knowing what the name of our street was.

All we know was that we were in New Sina-iyah (Industrial City).  We learned a little later that the houses were identified by the PO Box numbers.

Accommodations for foreign workers in Saudi are called villas.  We called ours Villa Baladiya in honor of the sewerage company that visited us every week to do their job.

Other names considered for our villa were Villa Flores and Nova Villa.

There were a couple of malunggay (moringa oleifera) trees in the front yard, home to birds and occasional cats.  Together with some ipil (leucaena leucocephala) trees, these malunggays thrived in this supposedly arid place.  The Baladiya boys can tell you why....

See the malunggay?

Dates

Date palms at HIPF

Like the OFWs of HIPF, the date palms at HIPF were transplanted in 2007.

We witnessed how the trees grew full crowns and by the second year, bear lots of fruits.  HIPF produced its first graduates at around that time too.

Before I left HIPF in July 2011, however,  the trees are seemingly refusing to fruit.  A couple of trees even fell off, insides empty from rot.

The tree is very much a part of the national symbol of Saudi Arabia

The Harsh Sun

Ruins at Al-Ha'ir

I guess the sun is just as bright in some other places on earth, but the heat it brings to Riyadh in summer could be unbearable.

You would enjoy doing laundry though.  A couple of hours is all you need to dry your clothes ... indoors.

Hang your clothes outside if you want them crisp.

An OFW and his laundry 

Red Sands

A favorite place for Filipinos in Riyadh

I guess you can consider yourself lucky if you experience all colors of sands.

The everyday brownish dust that settles everywhere in the 2nd Industrial City of Riyadh is a constant reminder that you are in the middle of a vast desert.

Riyadh is one place where vacuum cleaners work extra hard.

But if you are one to enjoy sands, you can go to the Red Sands.

The Red Sands of Nisah

Higher Institute for Plastics Fabrication

These stairs I walked

This is home to plastics fabrication knowledge.

When we first walked in for work in April 2007, the buildings were empty.

I last stepped out of the gates of the campus in July 2011 so full.

Teaching at HIPF and living in Riyadh is education for me.

I know I was the one who learned much.

Enter you who dares to learn

Camels

Side view

Camels are charming animals.  They seem to always have ready smiles for everyone.

I remember our first close encounter with camels was when we came across a couple feeding on garbage from a bin by the roadside near our Villa Baladiya (a.k.a. Villa Flores or Nova Villa - more on this later).

There was even a time when a flock made the vacant lot beside our Villa their grazing ground for a while.

But it is still best to observe the animals in the desert.

Camels at Rawdeth Khoraim

Sometimes It Also Rains

Itago natin siya sa pangalang Edgar

OFW = Overseas Filipino Worker.

HIPF = Higher Institute for Plastics Fabrication.

Senior Instructors = OFWs of HIPF.

Riyadh = the location.

It all started in April 2007.  I am sure a story repeated many times before.  

Filipinos braving a different world, already expecting the harsh sun.  

A harsh sun they did find.  But sometimes it also rains.

This blog is dedicated to my friends.  

Starting tomorrow they will be going back to the desert after the Ramadan vacation.   

I will not.

Will they miss the rains in their beloved Philippines?

Sahod sa alulod.  Malakas ang ulan sa Riyadh noong April 15, 2011