Thebarefootfoodie

In the Beginning Love The Children Foundation ( LTCF ) had its humble roots in 1999 as a home for abused and abandoned children in the streets of Davao. It started with a dream of Charito Chua ( Cindy ) who gave up her business, savings and, one wonders, sanity, to provide a place of refuge for such as these, educating, training, loving them. As LTCF grew over the years, it also expanded to be a community outreach centre through the giving of food, educational supplies and medical services offered by volunteers partnering with LTCF. Feb 2011 I could never have imagined when I first visited LTCF in Feb 2011 that  it would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Cindy and her husband, Tony, and that LTCF would adopt me into their family. At that time, LTCF had launched its fledgling livelihood projects, with the older children embarking on peanut brittle ( our local equivalent of "kong tng", only much nicer and doesn't stick to your teeth ) and...

What's In a Name? The only thing remotely " Peranakan " about me is my Chinese name, Soon Neo.   What's in a name? Plenty. I had the dubious honour of being the elder child of the elder son in a traditional Baba family. All my cousins from my Dad's side had a " Soon" in their Chinese names. My brother had it worse - he was named as a fish - Soon Hock . Ironically, the name is a sure giveaway for my heritage ( or lack of it ). It means "lady". Being anything but ... it seemed like someone is having a private joke at my expense. I've been sorely tempted to deed poll it permanently away, but sentimentality prevailed and I'm glad I retained it, although I substituted the Chinese characters for a less cringe-worthy meaning. One day I asked my mom " How did we get our names?" She said that Grandpa ( Kong Kong ) gave us our Christian names and Grandma ( Mak ) gave the Chinese names. " Don't you have a say in our n...