teach them to fish

It is cliche to say "Give a man a fish and he'll have food for a day, teach him how to fish and he'll have food for a lifetime"... But that is exactly what I did to make my sister realize the value of working for money. See my sister has not been working for quite a few months now a ( since mamu is away), my sister gets to keep the household running. Making sure that meals are cooked, clothes are washed. It is with high hopes that I am thinking that she will find a job as soon as my mom returns, but that is still a couple of weeks from now. And Christmas time is just around the corner. That time of the year when everyone, and I mean everyone needs money. 

With that in mind, I thought of having my sister do something to ensure that she will at least have money to buy presents for her inaanaks, or better yet, buy herself something nice. I thought that if I give her 1,000 pesos, the probability of her spending it all on foodtrips is very likely. So instead of giving her the money, I purchased milk, colorful candy sprinkles and declared that we are making pastillas. 

I had everything planned out, I wanted the pastillas to have fillings, so we made pastillas with strawberry, caramel, nutella and chocolate fillings and had them rolled in colorful sugar. We called it sweet surprise. they look something like this:

The first batch we made was given out for free. All I wanted was for my sister to have at least 5,000.00 profit. But my sister-in-law proved to be the "bestseller"! I sometimes think she can sell even ampalaya -flavored chewing gum! Orders started pouring in. From making 6 dozens every night, a day came when my sister had to produce 50 dozens! I urged my sister to not decline any orders, to strike while the iron is hot.

A month into our operation and my sister has already reached my 5,000.00 peso target. 

I feel good about it. My sister has her own money, my nephews have extra allowance, (they sell them to their friends), they all learn that  making money requires a lot of hardwork... but the most priceless benefit we all get from this pastillas-making activity... is the chance to bond! 

Got to go.. I think my sister needs help in boxing those sweet little milk balls!