Food Is Love!

Recipe 62: Gratitude

Roadtrip Day 23:
Location: Butuan City
Destination: Tagum City, Davao Del Notre

Azmina's POV:

"Flonne! Flonne! Wake up!"

First thing in the morning at the hotel, I hear Alex waking up Alice. Man, Alice's very exhausted in teaching Tina her tricks. On the plus side, though, she was able to cook a delicious beef steak that Alice and I were given her a grade of A+

"Mou! Can I just sleep for a moment, please?"

"...sigh...alright." I wake up to see Alex giving his girlfriend some time to take a rest.

"Good choice, Alex." I decided to speak out for her. "She spent the whole night just to make Tuna learn how to cook."

"Oh, I see." Alex smiles when he hears my remarks. "It's good that Flonne is doing some good things every now and then."

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Well, I feel that Tina and Flonne has the same story...they're almost close to giving up when they faced the hardest problems of their life...but friends like us won't let them fall...we faced the problems together and guide them back...as we believe that the passion is stronger than the obstacles of life...and nothing can stop them from achieving it."

"I hear my name!!!"

Our conversation was abrupted when I hear a shout...I look around...and it was Alice, already awake and sat in the bed.

"Hey! I thought you're gonna sleep?" Alex argues with his girlfriend.

"I was...but I can't stop from eavesdropping on what you're talking about." Alice then stands and approaches us. "Tell me then Alex...why do you drag my name this time?"

"Well...Azmina here is smiling at you while you're asleep so she decided to talk to me about you and Tina." Alex explain everything to her. "By the way, where is Tina?"

"Hehehe...she left some thirty minutes ago...she slept by my side last night then she just wake me up to tell me her departure."

The conversation between the three of us continues on for a half an hour...before we decided to wake the rest of the gang up and leave for our next destination. Luckily, it was Alex who will drive the truck today so...I can make an opportunity to teach Alice, Claire and Danica some of our traditions...the girls are very curious about it...including our clothing, our family values...even our traditional dances...they want to learn about it.

"Wow, Azmina! You have a colorful culture out there." Claire comments. "I'm very excited to see it in person."

"Hehehe! Don't worry, Claire. You will see them for sure." I winked back to assure them. "We have so many communities in Mindanao. Good thing that I'm here to guide through it."

"Is there anything that I should watch out when we go out in your community?" Danica adds a question.

"Well...of course, you should watch about your words and actions...because sometimes even you believe that what you are doing is right...on our culture that will be wrong. Just remember, you need to do exactly what I tell you to do."

"Yes, Azmina!" Danica and Claire answers back in chorus.

"Oh...hey guys. How about you? How long are you at the road?" I asked another question.

"Oh! That's a very interesting question right there." Claire then started to talk much about it. "We've been on the road for more than three weeks! We have been in so many beautiful places, and serve so many people...in fact, Alice and Alex here is helping people in solving their problems through their food! Hehehe! It should be nice if you joined us earlier...those were the colorful days."