Meet Bob!

A couple weeks ago, we were up at Faith for their annual "fall" Bazaar. This is a day of fun and fellowship in the missions community. There are booths set up in the gym selling local handicrafts and other items made in the PI. Outside the high school classes sell food and things to raise money for their class. The week before this event, the school chaplain had run into a guy at the American Embassey Bazaar selling something he had brought up from the southern most island of Mindano. Don knew the missions community, especially the American missions community, would be interested in buying some so he invited him out to the school. What a wonderful surprise on that first Saturday of October to see bright orange pumpkins of various sizes! People who have lived here much longer than us said they had never seen real pumpkins in the Philippines. (We do have some pale orange and green gourd type squash available) I bought a few of the little pumpkins and gourds for a fall display I had on our kitchen table.

The kids wanted a pumpkin to carve and since they sometimes seem to be richer than me, I told them they could buy it with their own money. Will decided to save his money, but Em bought a medium size pumpkin of her very own. (OK really it is a small medium size one) Since this is the hot and humid PI and not the cool, dry fall temps of October in the US, Em's pumpkin began to rot at the top. So tonight, we decided to carve it. I think this is the first time, Em has carved a pumpkin completely by herself. She had a fun time and did a great job.

For those of you who don't know my kids well, they name everything! So meet Bob--Emily's Filipino pumpkin friend. In a country that is already celebrating Christmas, he lit up our evening with a touch of fall harvest. We have already gone online to research how to plant the seeds from Bob. Perhaps by next year we will have a whole host of Bob's offspring. We aren't known for having a green thumb so we will have to give some seeds to Scott to plant as well.