Let's get ready to party! Hands up, throw some Pancit in the air! Already three dishes in, and they just so happen to be party dishes. If you haven't inferred, Filipinos love to celebrate. Pancit is an addicting noodle dish consisting of satisfyingly thin rice noodles, crisp carrots, cabbage, and green beans all coated in an oily MSG-filled sauce. The sauce has the typical base of many Filipino dishes, soy sauce and vinegar, but becomes dangerous when the Magic Sarap is added. This sachet of fish food looking nuggets is essentially pure MSG and salt, so you truly cannot mess this dish up.
Pancit played a background role in two momentous occasions in my time here in the Philippines thus far. While I like to think it was purposefully chosen as the celebratory meryenda on my birthday back in February, even if it was accidental, it still brought some happiness that day. My birthday here in the Philippines was unlike any birthday in my twenty-two years prior. Exactly a week before my birthday, all of my fellow volunteers, then strangers, and I were flying to meet in Los Angeles for our two-day training prior to departure. While my anxieties were riddled with every unknown one could imagine, the imminent occurrence of my birthday in seven days, for some reason, was in the top five. Who will I celebrate with? Will I have to awkwardly tell people that it's my birthday? Or wait until it passes around? Will I have friends by then? Little did I know, birthdays do not go unnoticed here. Remember, Filipinos love to celebrate.
Here is a photo of me, feeling awkward and hungover, while cutting my third cake of the day, just after eating three servings of Pancit. Like I said, birthdays do not go unnoticed in the Philippines. It is not the same "I feel guilty, maybe I should say happy birthday to this person" attitude that many Americans have towards an acquaintance. Filipinos have a genuine love for celebrating a person; it truly is such a warm, loving, and sometimes, overwhelming feeling. Despite the eight awkward "Happy Birthdays" sang to me, or the slight hangover, the Pancit and the love from everyone made this a memorable first birthday abroad.
The next Pancit appearance came at a moment of similar awkwardness and of more unknowns. Following the first three weeks of training, all trainees are sent in clusters to different barangays, or towns, to get accustomed to living with a host family and to boost our Tagalog learning. This day was filled with a mix of many emotions, of fear, anxiety, anticipation, and exhaustion. And Pancit. After leaving the fellow trainees for the first time in three weeks, the unknowns outweighed the comforts while riding the bus to our new towns. My anxious stomach felt sunken in and not accepting of any food. But, as our bus pulled up, we were welcomed with a massive mound of Pancit. Everyone met their host families and anxiously squirmed while we tried to make conversation in our limited Tagalog, promptly taking nibbles of our Pancit whenever there was an awkward silence. I remember nervously asking my nanay, or host mom, Gusto mo ang pusa? -"Do you like cats?," and promptly receiving a response of Ayoko - "I don't like." I quickly returned to scooting the remaining Pancit around my plate. Despite the stress sweats and forced smiles of this day, I now look back at this first Pancit meal with nostalgia and love for the town and the people it was filled with. Yet another Peace Corps skill was gained that day; to feel comfort here in the Philippines, you must first experience the most uncomfortable moments of your life.
A little clip of the awkward Pancit meal, in real time. It really is a huge mound.
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