Would you believe after riding the tram traversing through 15 stations – we met several young, risk-taking Filipino entrepreneurs?
First, at a gas station, we met a Filipino mechanic from General Santos in Mindanao who helped us. He sold us the battery and installed it in Bert’s van. We were following him in our rented rv van and we were a hundred kilometers away from Christchurch, our lodging place for 3 nights. We were so glad to meet him as he was so glad to meet us, having been in New Zealand for just months. He applied for the job online and he got petitioned by his employer.
The next day, we travelled by tram, went to 15 stations, got familiarized with the city center and started to walk crossing the river. It was a very windy morning, the chill factor felt like being inside a refrigerator. It was 42 F. We got to the flea market and ran into ‘SangKutsa’ meaning Sautee, a truck business offering adobo crunchy chicken, sinigang crunchy chicken and pork humba. We got two plates to share amongst us and these sweet owners gave us free fruit juices. This, after having great tasting crusty bagels with nutella. Imagine that spirit of generosity?
When we got to the last and beginning stop, stop 1, we noticed a Filipino restaurant, open from 10 am to 10pm, with the rest hours of 2 to 4pm. We decided to try them for dinner and had pancit canton, bulalo, pinakbet with bagnet, lechon kawali and bangus sisig.
The owners are young Filipinos, whose business was just opened 4 months ago and are doing well. Location plus good chef make for a healthy beginning. Their restaurant’s name is Eskinita, meaning an alley. The place was well decorated that conveys a feeling of warmth, lightness of living in an island, and great cooking. Our favorite was bangus sisig and pinakbet with bagnet. Guess what – the owners treated us to two glasses of free halo halo. Is this not a day of grace upon grace?