I saved a drowning baby

Last night i dreamed of saving a baby whom i have found out from a raging river canal. It was a stormy day at my grandmother's hometown of Tiwi. The rescue came successful after a friend's radio call to me,it was my collegemate Alex. I came cown from the bridge with a rope,inspite of the very cold water and the danger of drowning in it, i kept an eye to the baby.when the riverflow brought her,i quickly grabbed her and told my fellow rescuers up on the bridge to pull me up. The baby was totally wrapped-up like a mummy! I was frightened as she might be dead due to hypothermia and drowning. When we got up ,my wife and i took her into bed and opened the cloth wrapping her,it was an awful sight. To my amazement,she was alive! And ahe was very beautiful and her eyes were like the Virgin Mary's.

"Lupang Hinirang"

I saw this exerpt form an email sent to me by a fellow from Philippines.
This gave me a sort of reflection for being an OFW..

My Fellow Filipinos
> When I was small, the Philippine peso was 2Php to
> $dollar. The president was Diosdado Macapagal. Life was
> simple. Life was easy. My father was a farmer. My mother
> kept a small sari-sari(common goods) store where our neighbors bought
> sang-perang(a chip of-) asin (salt), sang-perang
> bagoong(shrimp paste), sang-perang suka(vinegar), sang-perang toyo(soy sauce) at pahinging
> isang butil na
bawang. Our backyard had kamatis, kalabasa,
> talong, ampalaya,
upo, batao, and okra. Our silong had
> chicken. We had a pig, dog & cat. And of course, we
> lived on the farm. During rainy season, my father caught
> frogs at night which my mother made into batute (stuffed
> frog), or just plain fried. During the day, he caught hito
> and dalag from his
> rice paddies, which he would usually inihaw. During dry
> season, we relied on the chickens, vegetables, bangus,
> tuyo, and tinapa. Every now  and then, there was pork and
> beef from the town market. Life was so peaceful, so quiet,
> no electricity, no TV. Just the radio for Tia Dely, Roman
> Rapido, Tawag ng Tanghalan and Tang-tarang- tang. And who
> can forget Leila Benitez on Darigold Jamboree? On weekends,
> I played with my neighbours
(who were all my
> cousins). Tumbang-preso, taguan, piko,
luksong lubid,
> patintero, at iba pa. I don't know about you, but I
> miss those days.
>
> These days, we face the TV, Internet, e-mail, newspaper,
> magazine,grocery catalog, or drive around.  The peso is a
> staggering and incredibleP44to the $dollar. Most people
> can't have fun anymore. Life has become a battle. We
> live to work. Work to live. Life is not easy. I was in
> Saudi Arabia in 1983.It was lonely, difficult, & scary.
> It didn't matter if you were a man or a woman. You
> were a target for rape. The salary was cheap & the
> vacation far between. If the boss didn't want you to go
> on holiday, you didn't. They
> had your passport. Oh, and the agency charged you
> almost 4months of your salary
(which, if you had to
> borrow on a '20% per
month arrangement' meant your
> first year's
> pay was all gone before you even earned it).The
> Philippines used to be one of the most important countries
> in Asia. Before & during my college days, many
> students from neighboring Asian countries like Malaysia ,
> Indonesia ,  Japan and China went to the Philippines to
> get their diplomas. Like Thailand , they went to study
> agricultures in UP Los Banos and earned their bachelors in
> the Phils and now we imports rice from them. It's
> opposite now. Philippines used to be the exporter of any
> agriculture products but now it's different. We imports
> because not much land (farms) they can cultivate due to
> private sectors who focused on developing houses, buildings,
> supermarkets, mall and others. What happened now?
What's
the government doing? Checking their own
pocket, their own
personal interest and pork barrels. Wow!
Until 1972,like President Macapagal, President Marcos was
one of the most admired presidents of the world. The Peso had
kept its value of P7 to the $dollar until I finished
college.
Today, the Philippines is famous as the
'housemaid' capital of the world. It ranks very
high as the 'cheapest labor' capital of
the world, too. We have maids in Hong Kong , laborers in
Saudi Arabia , dancers in Japan ,migrants and TNTs in
Australia and the US , and all sorts of other
'tricky' jobs in other parts of the globe. Quo
Vadis, Pinoy? Is that a wonder or a worry? Are you proud to
be a Filipino,  or does it even matter anymore? When you
see the Filipino flag and hear the Pambansang Awit( National Anthem-"Lupang Hinirang")
 do you feel a sense of pride ....or a sense of
defeat & uncertainty?
If only things could change for
the better...... . Hang on for this is a job for Superman.
Or whom do you call? Ghostbusters. Joke. Right?
This is one of our problems.
We say 'I love the Philippines ... I am  proud to be a
Filipino.'
When I send you a joke, you send it to everyone in your
address book even if it kills the Internet. But when I send
you a note on how to save our country & ask you to
forward it, what do you do?
You chuck it in the bin.
I want to help the maids in Hong Kong .. I want to help
the laborers in  Saudi Arabia ... I want to help the
dancers in Japan ... I want to help the TNTs in America and
Australia ...
I want to save the people of the Philippines ... But
I cannot do it alone.
I need your help and everyone else's.
So please forward this e-mail to your friends. If you say
you love the Philippines , prove it.  And if you don't
agree with me,  say something anyway. Indifference is a
crime on its own.

Juan Delacruz

Sweets for my sweet

My first food photography using my Canon 400D and 18-55mm f3.5 lens. I have made this shot for a local bakeshop ads.My newbie project after a 3 month handling my first DLSR. Quite fun doing it that time ,as the Canon brought me into my new hobby.=)