So I am finally coming "home" after almost 4 years, my longest absence from home country. I must admit I have gone quite distant from my feeling of longing for the Philippines.
I vowed not to return after a long time after the traumatizing experience I had during the Ketsana typhoon and flooding which turned Manila overnight into an Asian apocalyptic version of Kevin Costner's 90's hollywood flop Water World. From my last trips to Davao, Cebu, Boracay, Iloilo, Batangas and Manila, storms and water followed me incessantly and it even came all the way here to Cambodia where it flooded for the first time due to Ketsana reaching its borders.
I still recall hanging on to my dear life traversing the sea from Samal Island to the Davao City wharf with a small speed boat in the middle of a deluge at 3 am just so I can make it to my 5am flight to Cebu. I was living the set of The Perfect Storm and it was probably only my tongue that didn't get the lashing of the rain and sea water coming from all sides. I arrived at the Davao International Airport looking like a wet puppy, shaking from the cold and from the experience.
Then came Boracay and Batangas which were suppose to be perfect postcards of a thousand glorious summers. Coming there on September is probably a very bad idea, especially if you're there for work - shooting resorts and the destinations for a brochure. The search for the perfect sky and light is like looking for a lost 1000 peso bill in Divisoria.
Then the perfect coincidence of Typhoon Ketsana lashing its watery might to Manila on the same day I was flying out back to Cambodia. I was happily going about with my last minute shopping in Glorietta, but after an hour, I discovered that all its mall entrances were blocked with water and there were no taxis in sight. The underpasses were filled with water as well and I didn't happen to bring my scuba gear with me, so technically, I swam over to dry land to find a taxi to bring me to get my luggage in San Antonio Village where I was staying. Imagine my surprise when the guards at the village entrance told us the taxi couldn't go in anymore because the water level inside is already more than a meter high! So I had to fetch my 80-kilo luggage (3 bags - I know, this deserves another post!) on my own, in the middle of the waist deep water whose current is enough to make the Niagara Falls blush. Thankfully, my heavy luggage kept me anchored until I traversed the 1 kilometer journey safely - twice!
But of course, finding a taxi, getting your luggage and surviving the raging water is one thing. Getting to the airport is another.
I have stayed and lived in Manila for almost 5 years but this is probably the worst troubles I've ever seen the city tackle.
Now, this is my first time to go back after that, but even if I still picked the same month when the sunshine takes cover from the wrath of typhoons back home, I am still positively excited about it, considering how resilient my country has been, and how my fellow Filipinos who, even through the face of near cataclysmic events that come their way almost every day (typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, protests, bad fashion from moms of millionaire boxers, bad presidents, etc), everybody still lives their lives with a big smile on their faces.
And that alone is enough to make me go back.
And of course, there's also the Pastillas de Leche donut at Go Nuts Donuts.
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2 comments:
Not only is doing the right things important (praying, attoning for your sins, thinking the right way:::accepting humility, modesty, vulnerability), so is avoiding the wrong things important as well:::"Go and sin no more".
There was a very real perception that bi-racial was much worse for the white than it was for the person of color. The liberal culture screamed racism when there is a very reasonable explanation for this reality::::
In this white punishment known as the United States the person of color has already adopted the disfavors/temptations intended for another race. But by associating/mating with a person of color the white is newly adopting the disfavors of another culture.
And this is the reason why people of color are not welcome in the United States. The gods control everything:::The perception they want to create, the thoughts they want you to have.
People of color can't recover from absorbing the temptations from two cultures. And why they become more and more like so many blacks in America:::Veterans at absorbing the temptations of two cultures.
To further illustrate this is why California's educational system/funding was ranked #1 when California was white:::Education being the basis of the affluent economic system. Now even public higher education has become unaffordable.
The gods placed us all into our own corners of the globe. As such for thousands of years we spent time and reproduced with out own kind.
This is why mobilty/travel, biracial unions/offspring and partaking of other cultures is a sin::::
Each has it's own elements of disfavor, and by experiencing other cultures you are being exposed to these disfavors, which if people may adopt will make their state even worse than prior.
The United States has been considered a "melting pot" where rejects from around the world were sent when kicked out of their motherland.
Remember, this concept of cultural diversity is an element of the liberal platform the gods used to promote societal decay, revealed on the map with the "beast" that is the SanFranciscoBayArea and the spread of social deterioration that spread to the rest of the country and eventually to the entire globe.
Ronald Reagan spent the communist block into submission with defense buildup, and in the process increased the National debt from $1 trillion in 1980 to $6 trillion when he left office.
W charged both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to the national debt, honest numbers to come.
The gods used W to initiate the "Great Recession" with deliberate legislation/regulation changes, allowing the sub-prime fiasco and corporate irresponsibility/criminal behavior which led to the multi-trillion dollar stimulous package, pocketted by Republican friends and donors::::$5 trillion charged to the National credit card.
This corruption is one element of evil in the party of good. War mongering is another.
Damned if you do, Damned if you don't::::With the Democrats you subscribe to social decay via liberlism, which WILL lead to the Apocalypse. Republicans are being used by the gods to bankrupt the United States, ultimately motivating people to the point of "desperation prayer" once anarchy presides::::Punishment designed to correct your behavior.
I have showed you how to think the correct way, using an example to illustrate. Let's see how many "reverse positioning" examples you can find. There are more.
Hi
I stumbled on your blog. The longest absence I had was five years.
I enjoyed reading your account about the typhoon. Glad you survived it with flying colors.. lol!
Wish you had a great vacation
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