The Philippines is my second home,” exclaimed David Haldane, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer who moved to the Philippines with his wife Ivy in 2008.
It’s no wonder David was able to write and compile his personal essays—mostly culled from his regular column titled “Expat Eye” in Mindanao Gold Star Daily—on his life in the Philippines which he anthologized in a book named “A Tooth in my Popsicle.”
Vividly written in his casual, witty, vibrant and endearing manner, “A Tooth in my Popsicle” was launched Tuesday afternoon at the Ortigas Heritage Library in Greenhills, San Juan City.
According to Haldane, he is fascinated with the down-to-earth life of people in the countryside especially in Siargao where his wife has a large family.
Although he still has to make adjustments to a generally deprived life in Surigao, he is happy and continuously assimilating with the environment.
One of his essays, “The Thing About Poop,” tells of David’s amusing account of his experiences in heeding the call of nature in a beach sans toilet during a family get-together and the redemptive role of a tissue paper he had to use in his bathroom needs in a public restroom.
In the same piece, Haldane informed that after those incidents, Ivy’s family constructed a small comfort room enough for his poop encounter.