Café Norma - and Tales of Voluntarism

Hanging out with Rose has leveled up my knowledge about local people of interest. Today was no different. We were casually having after dinner hot chocolate at Café Norma's when in came this person whom nobody would look twice at; low profile to say the least. Their greetings indicated that they haven't seen each other in ages. 

Briefly, Rose introduced him to our small group. A product of the local diocesan school, Rose and Ms. Teray have been a part of his education and so it has become quite necessary to introduce Jen as the niece of his once mentor in computer studies. 

A proud product of Pax, he owed his training in voluntarism to his alma mater and lived by the values perpetuated by Mother Rita Barcelo: PDOE (I forgot what these letters stand for).  

A third party to their catching up, I managed to pick up facts about this person who is currently based in Africa and leads a UN group on their World Feeding Program. The job entails responding to the needs of countries in times of emergencies whether natural or manmade and he was reportedly  stationed here in the Philippines following Haiyan's visit of the country.  

So, he was responsible for making the Kenyan Coffee available in La Carlota. He brings home bags of the stuff whenever he gets home. 

Cafe Norma

          There's a new place in the city which was worth a try. This week alone, we visited the place three times already.

           On Monday after work, I was already home when Kz's message went through that is for me to meet them at Cafe Norma. The place was easy to find. It is on the same block as Nelim's and according to JM, it is an old place really that has undergone a major facelift. I had tea. It was nothing special but it's a cool place to hang out: small, cozy and private (enough to share confidences, right Kz and Charmaine?).

           Breakfast is served anytime of the day so we had our lunch there yesterday and again, tea at the end of the day.

           And the star on their menu (in my opinion) is their french-pressed coffee. The Kenyan variety was as strong as I make it myself. It's taste is at par with the bevy that my other favorite (oh, did I just indirectly said Cafe Norma is my favorite?) coffee hangout became famous for.

          The thought of  not needing to spend more for something this pleasurable is really a comfort.