A Visit To My Hometown

As mentioned in my last blog, I write this piece at my permanent residence in Gun-ob, Lapu-lapu City. My flight back home is quite tiring, travelling by bus through the causeway between Alkhobar and Bahrain. On weekdays, I observed that the border in-between two kingdoms is almost zero with cross-country travellers. The Cathay Pacific Flight landed Mactan Cebu International Airport last May 1 at 11:30AM and I was met in the airport by my wife, Fe; kids, RR, Macky, & Nina; and surprisingly grand-daughter Jazzy who's also my god-daughter. Typical to OFW's on vacation, we do shopping at Duty Free Shop before I visit my parents in Pinamungajan, Cebu.

Prior to my vacation, I had already inquired my sister, Coring, the status of the road towards my hometown. It was still under construction on my last visit and had been very bad during my last four visits. I normally visit my parents annually and during those times, I'm afraid that one of the nuts tied to my car would fall-off due to shocks created on excessive road potholes. Luckily, this visit is very relaxing in terms of road condition. Concreting is completed, asphalting is commendable with rip-raps installed at cave-in areas. For a person like me who earn a living abroad thru managing various construction projects, I guess the job is acceptable. However, the work doesn't stop there because maintaining the road is more challenging. I wish the government agency assigned will not sleep in their offices but monitor the road condition and made immediate repairs in case of worn-out areas.

I arrived at Pinamungajan before lunch on the 3rd of May together with my wife; daughter, Nina; & nieces Eji & Giselle. It's always emotional to see the people who brought you to this world specially at their age who are both 75 years old. Fortunately, they are both healthy and as usual happy to see their son and family. We shared pork "humba" during lunch, prepared by my mother, Francing which is in fact a favorite dish of my extended family in Lapu-Lapu City. At night, I attended the Ginoo & Binibining Pinamungajan beauty pageant. I'm not sure if this is the exact pageant title because I observed that both contestants are all not sons & daughters of Pinamungajan. Nevertheless, the pageant looks fine with their amazing electronic tally sheets. The program started very late in reference to the time mentioned in the program that is 8:30PM. I arrived past 9:00PM and surprisingly the reserved tables almost empty. I wondered if the locals officials understand punctuality. With people like me who happen to work in a foreign land and had been very particular on scheduled time, the situation is a shame and I wonder if this will change coz it seems people had already accepted the fact. The pageant started at 10:30 PM and finished unbelieveably at 2:00AM.

The following day, Friday, I was busy attending my visitors from Lapu-Lapu City. As expected, my hometown is full of strangers who had been invited I guess by my kababayan. The streets are full of revelers with food and drinks all over. I wander if how much amount of money spent during this festivity and how many people are in debt as a result of excessive spending. At night, we are about to watch the PDA Scholars including JR Siaboc and Yeng Constantino. I thought that because the evening's affair is different from the previous night, I told my dear wife that we'll come an hour late from the scheduled time expecting the venue to be full. But lo & behold, the reserved tables are the same from the previous night. The general admission benches are almost full but the reserved seats are completely opposite. The so-called VIPs are behaving the imperialistic way, thinking that the program won't start without them. This is totally unacceptable and ill-mannered. As usual, the program started at 10:30PM and anyway my daughter although sleepy enjoyed a lot with the music rendered by the winners of PDA Scholars. The concert ended at 2:00AM and followed by disco dancing. I tried to stay for a dance or two but weariness prevail.

The good thing I observed in my hometown, is the number of native born individuals turn priests. Thanks I guess to those who help financially and spiritually on these kids who opted to select a holy vocation in life.