Uniqueness of Filipino ways, culture in a book, “A Tooth in My Popsicle”

CEBU CITY – “A Tooth in My Popsicle”, a collection of ebullient essays on becoming Filipino penned by a journalist, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer, David Haldane who married to a Filipina and with their two young children, they currently divide their times between homes in Joshua Tree, California and in Northern Mindanao, Philippines, where he writes a weekly column for the Mindanao Gold Star Daily.

“A Tooth in My Popsicle” was first launch in Manila and now on its 2^nd launch in Cebu at UP-De Joya Gallery on April 12 and there will be succeeding launches in Iligan City and in Surigao City in Mindanao in the coming months.

Patrick Bonales, head of the PR firm promoting the book said, Cebu is always part of its launching because “if you cannot make it in Cebu, you can’t make it in other parts of the country.”

Haidee Palapar, region 7 coordinator for the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) said, the book is a good and easy read for Filipinos since it is written in essay format on Haldane’s experiences in the Philippines, particularly in the countryside in Mindanao where traditions, culture and mores are practically intact.

“From the foreigner’s lens/points of view, the book describes the uniqueness of our culture and ways that despite the many foreign influences, we still have those identifiable marks as Filipinos,” Palapar noted.

In the author’s note, Haldane said that the collection of these personal essays began a few months prior to the couple’s departure, as they plan the renewal of their wedding vows in the small thatched-roof village of his wife’s birth on Siargao Island, the now-famous surfer's paradise in northeastern Mindanao and ended just over two years later with the birth of their newborn daughter in the house they built overlooking Mindanao's historic Surigao Strait.

“Filipinos have an inmate goodness in life, they have that joy of feeling or enjoying life that is unique to Filipinos.  They are joyful and very appreciative of what or how life is,” Haldane noted.

According to Haldane, he is still exasperated of how inefficient some of the things to be done in this country, he added that “A Tooth in my popsicle” is mostly a collection of short essays of his experiences in the Philippines and his life with his Filipina wife and coping with the Filipino tradition, culture and the reality that are uniquely Filipino experiences.

The essays were written between March 2028 to December 2020, Haldane’s experiences in becoming and somehow enjoying the way of life here which mostly evolves for him and his family.  He couldn’t imagine himself that one day, he’s be writing ‘The Thing About the Poop’ and going to bathrooms in this part of the country is a struggle, he shared lightheartedly during the book launching here.

“What began as a blog for a now-defunct website called Live in the Philippines eventually morphed into "Expat Eye? a weekly column for Mindanao Gold Star Daily, one of the leading newspapers in the sometimes. troubled region we now call home.

"Some of these essays, especially the earlier ones, draw on experiences gleaned during the many trips we took to the Philippines before moving there. Together they tell the story of a transformative adventure, sometimes frightening, often frustrating, occasionally hilarious, but always, I hope, entertaining,” Haldane bared.

“A Tooth in My Popsicle” is available in paperback at bookstores and online at Amazon, Shoppee and Lazada.  Get a copy now and enjoy reading some of the hilarious and wholesome humor that the Filipino culture brings on the table. (Photos: MBCNewman)