It’s only been a few months ago when we started subscribing to a couple of television feeds from the Philippines. This was borne out of my husband trying to wean me out of my homesickness and sorry state after I came back from my Dad’s funeral. I must admit, this somehow did the trick. Although, I’m not yet totally over the loss (in fact, I don’t know if that will ever happen), having familiar faces on TV for company somehow helped.
We subscribe to TFC and GMA Pinoy TV and I’m not a TV fanatic, as I seldom sit down to watch, but here in the Northeast the feed of the TV variety show, WOWOWEE is on every 9:00 p.m. which is more or less our dinner time every weeknight.
My husband having very miniscule understanding of Tagalog is now hooked on WOWOWEE. For the non Filipino readers of this site, this is a noon time game and variety show in the Philippines hosted by Willie Revillame. My husband finds the show very entertaining. Although, not totally wholesome with the sexy and scantily clad women around, who are definitely not in need of diet pills, Willie Revillame’s antics and showmanship got him hooked. He specially likes the Hep, hep hooray portion as he laughs his heart out at every contestant getting eliminated.
He is so into it that he asked me to take out from the bookshelf that little Tagalog-English dictionary that he bought many years ago. He thinks that the more Tagalog words he understands, the more fun he is going to get out of watching. Now, he is so into Willie Revillame that he even requested me to search online if we can buy the latest issue of YES magazine bearing Willie in the cover. I did, and found a Yes magazine subscription, but I’m not willing to spend $96 for six months subscription. I did the next best thing, by asking my sister in law to buy a copy of the mag and send it to us.
For now, weeknights at 9:00 p.m., WOWOWEE is right on the background while we have dinner. It’s good there’s a TV in our eat-in kitchen otherwise, he may be carrying his plate to the nearest set. It’s the same thing on Saturdays, but instead of 9:00 p.m. he catches the 3:00 p.m. airtime. Having a laugh or two with good food can’t be bad at all, right?
Do you think he’s crazy? I think he just wants to have fun. Crazy fun!
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Being homesick is NO JOKE. When I lived in Switzerland, there was only one Chinese channel on Swiss TV. It’s CCTV from mainland China. It’s something I’d normally avoid watching when I was back home because it’s full of Chinese propaganda. But there I was, in cold German speaking part of Switzerland, it’s so comforting just to leave the TV on and listen to Mandarin…….mind you, Mandarin is not even the language I usually speak at home but it’s close enough!
@ Angie
true indeed, it’s really comforting even just by listening to your native language. thanks for sharing Angie.