Our church is hosting Filipino Pastor's from all over the US today and I wanted to share the work of the team - Team "Bahay Kubo." The Bahay kubo or Nipa hut is a native house in the Philippines in which the walls are made from bamboo tied together walls and the roof is of the nipa/anahaw leaves. The photo below is a small nipa hut in my Mom's ancestral home in the province. It's a nice place to cool off while sipping the juice of a freshly harvested coconut or savoring the juice of a ripe yellow mango. Ohhh, delicious!
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There is a song on the "Bahay Kubo." You can do a youtube search to hear how it sounds - it's one of the songs that in my opinion every Filipino toddler (whether pure or inter-racial) should be able to sing. The song describes the bahay kubo as despite being small, is full of different local fruits and vegetables which are then enumerated.
We decorated the buffet table with various fruits and vegetables in season and placed them in different kinds of baskets. The baskets and the woven fabric came from the private collection of the ladies and they were very nice. I'm not even sure if they still make this good quality products. The banana leaves are fresh from the garden. We love how it turned out.
We also prepared welcome kits that included a directory of local Filipino restaurants and a couple of pastries among others.
I had several empty starbucks coffee bottles which we made into table centerpieces. We added decorated sticks and greens then placed it on top of a square green burlap. I will take a better photo and re-post it.
To make it more festive, we added large buntings that ran across the width of the gym. I used construction paper, jewelry hemp cord and glue... ohhh.. it was tedious but I love how it turned out. 
We spent about 3 hours from start to finish, that's pretty fast considering we had to steam iron the table cloths, etc. It helped that some of the items where prepared beforehand. It was a group effort - blending of minds, skills and talents.
It's amazing how we can glorify God in simple ways such as this. It's always fun serving with people who love God as well.
This afternoon, I will be cooking beefsteak for them... and that's another story.
Have a blessed day!
♥ michelle ♥
These were very talented ladies (and assistants) at work. And how they made everything work - from overturned stools (to hold the big banana fronds), to empty frappuccino bottles (centerpieces) - the pictures do not do their work justice. They succeeded in making our dear visiting pastors and their families very special, some of whom have not had "fiesta - like" festivities and food for a long time. Thank you. Blessings!!
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