birthday bliss

It's been six months and this long drawn visit of wonder | wander | women finally comes to an end - all too soon. Especially as it's been a week closing with several birthday activities. Intimate one on ones, group meet ups, family gatherings. 

It's just never enough - no matter how well prepared or purposefully planned. Stormy weather, blustery winds, and hard rain all week are not the best send off at all. 

clouds clearing overhead

Good thing our little island knows best how to host a fun fiesta and have a blast of fun. Food, food, lots of incredible food. Friends, family, all our relations. At home, out and about, or out of town. Whatever, however, forever! 

Palm Sunday at home

One of the things wonder | wander | women love about our haven in Union City NJ is its small town barrio ambiance that reminds us of our childhood home town. 

Andrew Altarejos photos for Digicast Negros  Parishioners attend Palm Sunday mass at the San Sebastian Cathedral in Bacolod City.

Being back here in the Philippines after a four year hiatus brings this all back home to us. Alleluia! Lent and Holy Week in our native island home is yet another immersion into our childhood. 

the great pretender

Fifty two years after the First Quarter Storm a dictator’s son sits in office as president of the Philippines. How the hell did we come to this?

this 70s generation dream is now compromised

What can this pathetic excuse of a mama’s boy offer the country? A male child of no particular achievement or promise other than that he is lone heir to the conjugal empire of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.

keeping our home fires burning

This blog post was originally going to be called “five stages of grief for six more years”, but there is no reason to mourn yet. Besides there’s grief that feeds pointless anger, but there’s the mourning kind that fights fiercely and propels us to love more and try harder.

We have invested too many years — wonder | wonder | women do not give up.

free documentaries about the Marcos Regime

By midnight on election day the Marcos-Duterte party were claiming the lead by double the number of votes over the Robredo-Pangilinan camp — the popular and favoured party. We witnessed vote buying and attempts to steal the election — it was expected given the history of these opponents.

political dissent cartoon by Tarantadong Kalbo

legend of the BAKUNAWA

wonder | wander | women love watching the turns of the seasons and the phases of the moon; we're fascinated by the many legends around the world that explain these changes.

art by Mahala

Anting-anting: the secret soul of the Filipino

For the first time since 2013, the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac, the Paris museum of indigenous art, invited collaborators from the Philippines to present an exhibit on the mysterious objects of power that make up such a large part of Philippine life: the anting-anting.

resurrecting deep forests

wonder | wander | women are currently working on a project close to our hearts and our homeland roots - the long lost mystical babaylans of Negros Island.

Concept Art by Mahala Urra

Native precolonial history is hard to confirm as the land was ancient and isolated. Original oral traditions practiced and handed down through generations by its inhabitants were systematically eradicated by a succession of colonizers.

Of particular interest to us are the Pintados and Negritos of our island home. The origins of these people is a much debated topic. The Malay term for them is orang asli, or original people.

the earth from above

Being insatiable tourists, the wonder | wander | women love taking pictures, but some of the best photo opportunities come at thousands of feet above ground level.

clear blue

As today's clear blue sky makes the promise of Spring more definite, wonder | wander | women sift through images of azure happiness.

The Dumaguete Promenade

It's still too chilly for our tropical bones. Much as we love Game of Thrones and John Snow, their iconic warning - "Winter is coming!" - elicits shivers that are far from delightful. 

par avion

We love spending holidays together, however hectic - but once again it is time for wonder | wander | women to head back to our relative bases in different parts of the world. And that means incredibly long flights.

banquets in Bacolod

Coming back to the homestead means spending time with family and friends whom we dearly missed, relaxing and recalibrating for our more hectic lives abroad.

It also means food. All our favourite, native food, that we crave and dream about when we're in our adopted countries and away from Filipino kitchens.

Charles Lahti: Cebu Exhibit at 856 G Gallery

With half of #wonderwanderwomen already back in the Philippines for the holidays, we opted to reblog  the latest post written for Kate's Paperie and Charles Lahti Studio. 

Congratulations Charles! Catch his exhibit in Cebu - it's ongoing til Dec 18! At 856 G Gallery. 

Once again we take great pleasure in presenting the work of beloved family, friend and resident artist at Kate’s Paperie - Charles Lahti . His numerous fans and followers are familiar with his exuberant handmade silkscreens and limited edition prints. 

Read the full blog here. http://katespaperie188.blogspot.com/2014/12/charles-lahti-his-cebu-exhibit-at-856-g.html