what did you expect?

It's been a busy day! So while I was running errands I stopped at a little stand like this one to pick up some lechon manok (otherwise known as rotisserie chicken) for our dinner tonight. With some rice and green beans, it will be a great quick meal.

 Rotisserie stands are all over this town - you don't have to go too far to find one.  I always make sure to ask for my chicken not chopped, because otherwise these birds are mercilessly hacked into random chunks of bone, sinew and meat before being wrapped up in a banana leaf to take home. 

But I don't take these banana-leaf wrapped rotisserie chickens for granted.  I remember all too well when Manila was flooded in late 2010, and very few chickens were to be found for sale. Circumstances shift rapidly in a developing country.

Because so many products and goods are available to us here (like the Jolly Ranchers and Stubbs BBQ sauce I saw at the grocery today!) it's sometimes easy to forget that we are living in a developing nation.  I very quickly slip into this crazy American consumer frame of mind where I expect that just because G-mall had Chai tea for a whole year, I will always be able to find Chai tea on their shelves.  But it's just not so.  A common phrase used by helpful sales personnel here is, 'Sorry ma'am, not available.'  If there's no chicken, then there's just no chicken.

As Anne of Green Gable's neighbor Mrs. Lynde says,

'Blessed are they who expect nothing 

for they shall not be disappointed.' 

 -L.M. Montgomery

 So as I head to the grocery store next time, I'll expect no Chai, no chicken, no cream cheese.  And if I find one of them, well then I'll just be delighted!