A Day in The Life: Negros Island, Philippines

Negros Island, Philippines

Hello Imgur! Love this whole “a day in the life” series and thought I’d contribute too.

I live in the Visayas region of the Philippines, specifically in a sock-shaped island called Negros (The island is called that because of the dark-skinned indigenous locals called the Negritos). Negros is also known as the “sugar bowl” of the Philippines because the main industry of the island is sugarcane farming/ production. It’s a very agriculture-based place so not a lot of mega cities with skyscrapers and such here.

Like most Filipinos, I have a tiny room with an even tinier bed. Our dogs (mine and my brother’s) occupy most of the bed. I don’t mind though. I like their cuddles. (also, sorry for the glimpse of me thunder thighs. :c )

As soon as I wake up, I’m out to walk the dogs, Ninja (aka little shit) and Night. Early dog tax!

I live in a ‘low-cost’ village in one of the biggest city of the island. Land cuts are very small (our lot is only 150 sqm), and there’s not a lot of space in between houses. It makes the neighborhood homier, in a way though, so I like it.

Also, I’m a 29 yr old woman who lives with her mom and brother. Living with your family is fairly common here. Filipinos are very family-centric after all. The only time I’ll be able to move out, maybe, is if I move in a different island/country...or if I get married. Here’s our house (and our family truck, Hodor).

My mom and I are accountants, the white building beside our house is our small accounting office. People always say it’s convenient that our office is just beside our home, but sometimes it sucks. We get demanding clients in ungodly hours because if the office isn’t open, they think they can always just barge in on us at home. But hey, we get paid for it, so can’t really complain much.

Onwards to my day! I usually take my dogs to our village park, just about 3 minutes walk away from home.

The park is quite small but it has both an outdoor basketball court and indoor one (you can’t see it, but it’s the one with the green roof). Basketball is HUGE in the Philippines, thanks to our former overlords, the Americans. Most people are nuts for the NBA. Heck, I don’t play it and have no particular interest in it but even I know that Tim Duncan recently retired after 19 seasons. Most people here know their basketball news and they don’t hesitate to let you know about it.

While walking the dogs, I fetch my mom from the church. Filipinos are predominantly Catholic, thanks to our OTHER former overlords, the Spaniards. My mom is super religious and goes to mass every day. She often says she needs to do it to pray for my wretched soul (I was baptized Catholic as a baby, but seldom practice it). Said church. You can actually see my mom there probably praying for me.

I usually get back home just in time for breakfast. Today’s breakfast is corned beef, fried egg (I drizzle mine with soy sauce, hence those brown spots), and steamed red rice. I would say this is a fairly typical Filipino breakfast.

After feeding the dogs and putting out food bowls for the neighborhood stray cats, I’m off for work. As I said, I work as an accountant. But I also help out with the family’s farm. The majority of the farms in our island is of sugarcane. It goes the same for my family, too.

Fridays are usually scheduled for visiting the farm which is 2 hours drive away up north. Sometimes we take the coastal road to avoid traffic because nobody likes to take this route as it is the longer way. The seaside view ain't bad, too!

Most of the drive is boring though. Not a lot to see here but just vast sugarcane fields. Our island has a volcano that you can barely make out in the pic here, because it’s covered with clouds. It's one of the most active volcano in the country. The last time it erupted was, i think, last year. You can get a permit to climb it. There's a protected rain forest at the base of the volcano where a couple of rare indigenous floral and fauna can be found. The volcano also has a fascinating "origins" legend about a noble lord with the ability to speak to animals battling out a nasty virgin-obsessed seven-headed dragon and then finally defeating him with the help of the good ol ant army!

At the farm now. Inspecting the sugar cane fields. Planting has just started. Looks like the seedlings (right side) are growing okay, woohoo!

There’s also some wild coffee trees growing in the fields and some cherries have gone red and ready for picking, double woohoo!

Our farm is one of those old school farms. Sometimes, we still employ the services of these hardy animals to plow our fields: the water buffalo (or as we call them, the carabaos).

One thing I love being in the farm is that I'm surrounded by wild flowers almost every where I go. Many of them are considered “weeds” though so they’ll eventually be pulled out. :(

My favorite weed (heh) is called the “mahiya-hiya” (translated as the ‘shy’ plant). The leaves retract when you touch them. Kids have fun doing this. Not ashamed to admit I still have fun when I do it too! (first time making a gif, i'm not sure if it's working...)

A river borders our small farm. This is my favorite spot in the farm. I could spend hours here just staring at the water, occasionally releasing a juicy fart or two.

Before heading back home, we decided to buy some meats and seafood in the nearby ‘wet’ market. This is where we buy fresh produce. The market is usually divided into 2 parts, the side where the meats are sold (this pic), and opposite it, would be where the veggies, fruits and condiments are (next pic). At the side of the markets are small huts which usually offer to cook the foods you bought at the market. We had our lunch here also.

the veggie/ condiments side of the market

Seafood is plentiful here. My favorite are the different kinds of sea shells. I love them all. We cook them in many ways - boiled, grilled, stewed in coconut milk, etc. I have no idea what most of them are called though. Our loot for today's lunch are these four: clams, the -erm- spiraly ones, oysters, and the ones we call “sikad-sikad”

Also love seaweed. We prepare them blanched and drenched in vinegar, mixed with tomato, ginger, garlic, chilis and loads of red onions. Here’s some we saw (and bought) in the market. The… uh, coral-looking ones, the slimy-spaghetti ones, and the pulpy alien-y ones.

Since it’s a Friday, some towns on our way back gets crowded because of people working in the city finally going home to their home towns for the weekend. The traffic in the island can be bad in some towns but it’s never as bad as in the capital, Manila.

The sun sets here are quite nice. My favorites are the purple sunsets (especially when it’s over the seas). Today it was a bit golden. (I attached said purple sunsets too, just because I love them)

said purple sunset. iz pretty.

Had to do a little bit of work before my day finally ends. So I had to stop by the office before finally going home. Here’s where I do most of my accounting work.

Ending the day with a dinner of chicken stuff on a stick. We call the dish "inasal". Our island is well known for it. Today's inasal is chicken breast, wings and...intestines (I know it sounds and looks disgusting but it is delicious. Trust me.)

grilled chicken intestines on a stick. oohh yeaah.

Neighborhood stray cat tax!

I know Imgur hates selfies (or pics of OP...?) but I've read a couple of comments that some people appreciate seeing the face behind these posts. So here's a pic of my friends and I enjoying a drink of flowery fruit juice! First one who can guess which one is me gets a box of treats from the Philippines! (I promise no seaweed and intestines.)