Welcome back to me. After a week rest and gloriously celebrating the UNDAS ( its not equal to UNO and DOS... its actually equal to UNO - 1 and Das - a spanish term meaning day... I learned that, the morning I asked people why UNDAS and not UNDOS! haha... shame on me.. thanks budsk for that information...) somewhere in the middle of the Philippines, I am all set for the hagardous days to come. Gone are the resting hours and the happy-go-lucky times. I must go forth with my life after that peaceful engagement with nature. But before ever leaving off the past and venturing to my present and my future, I would like to inform you all that I've seen the other side of the world.
I have been here in my computer desk, living a life centered in the midst of technology. I thought everything was easy with all the stuff and gadgets that we have. But traveling to a place, where progress is not of immediate concern, showed me that their was something better. Their is something better than having a mechanized life, where all things are too organized it chokes you into it; better than your french fries that needs ketchup to balance the flavor; better than appliances that shuts you off of your perseverance. It takes a week of living in some mountain range where the sea is its base for a teen like me to understand that I've never seen everything yet.
Ever want to know where I've gone? Here are some of the things that makes my image of that somewhere:
It is a place you would...
>> appreciate sea foods (even small fishes) because the taste was so supreme that it takes no condiments to fix things up...
>> understand the difference between "panggatong"-cooked and stove-cooked meals... (rice is better cooked in "panggatong"... promise..)
>> see a rampaging priest over a broken microphone in the middle of the celebration of the holy eucharist... ( he even threw it to the person in charge.. I was so shocked that I drop my jaw down because of the his reaction)
>> find a single mall in a town and not even having Ayala, SM and Robinson in its name. (there were rumors that SM wasn't given permit to build there because the town's leader owns the said mall...)
>> like to go home when the clock hits 6pm because almost all stores and shops closes at that time... ( it seems creepy when the only light you see is the street light...)
>> pay P60 for a tricycle ride for about the same distance as UP - diliman to SM North... ( actually it changes: 55 when the sun is up but a sorrowful 60 when the lights are out...)
>> take refuge in the worst Airport and Seaport... (my nephew told me that... spare me the guilt...)
>> dis-orient your senses... ( wake up with the sound of noisy roosters and smelly pigs...)
>> smile and nod in everything you hear because you simply dont understand; and if ever you understand you wouldn't know how to communicate back...
>> discover that the only person that gets the higher priced items in the market are those who looks like from another place...
>> notice people staring at tourist (local or international..) as if they have one eye and a million mouth...
>> learn people calls you by your ancestral being... (they call me... "puya ni Viring"- child of Viring... Viring is taken from my mother's name Virginia who lived there during their childhood days...)
>> take sight of the highest shrine ( we climbed that... I wish that adds to my Holy-ness..) and the biggest bell in asia and third in the world (it was made out of 70 bags of coins...whew!)..
I have experience much in my visit there. It was not all fun, but each and every act i've done made me a better person. What I have here in the city is very much different from what I was in the province. It was more minimal but though that set-up, I did not have a hard time dealing with things. It is more leisure than work. I would love to go back there and experience more of that place. I might be back there next summer and hope that you yourself would care to visit such a wonderful place...
