Well it turns out that for the past couple of weeks that I haven't been able to spend any time in Manila, except for a couple of day-trips to Ayala Alabang where Ray and Monique are.
I thought that I wouldn't like it so much, but it turns out that I'm having a really great time. My family here is so awesome. They are, of course, of limited means financially, but they give so much of their time and their love that it more than makes up for everything. I can spend the whole day with my Lola's youngest sister, Lola Cally, because she's a natural comedienne. I'm constantly laughing whenever she's around.
An advantage of being here in Indang, Cavite, as opposed to Manila is my Tagalog is getting much much better. Beth will probably not be happy to hear, though, that my Cebuano is deteriorating because there are no Cebuano here.
Except for one of our maids, Regine. She's Visayan. But she disappeared. The story of why she disappeared is really funny. One night, she was eating dinner with us and she said she was just going to get some water. She got up and walked to the backyard to where the converted dirty-kitchen is (where the maids sleep, it was converted into what looks like a college dorm room) but she never came back. Another maid, Salve, went to look for her and found that she was gone and that she had used up all the load on Salve's cellphone to call her boyfriend to pick her up. Regine left all her stuff so she was probably coming back, but Tita Ado and Tita Alma don't want her coming back. I don't think Salve really minds because we're totally over-paying her while we're staying here.
Yeah, so no Visayan speakers here.
Tita Ado has a small sari-sari store here which means I have an unlimited supply of Boy Bawang! We named the cat Boy Bawang. I think Tita Alma's dog Kerry finds the cat attractive but we don't allow interspecies relationships here. And anyway the cat is a girl.
My mom, after 32 years, has finally come home and like I predicted, is regretting not coming home more often. I haven't seen my mom so energetic in a while. She sleeps late and wakes up early just so she can walk around the neighborhood that she grew up in. It's really nice to see. She and my dad aren't even really affected much by the heat or humidity. Mom's been talking about retiring here.
For me, I love it here too. I will move back home one day soon.
Posted by glenn at June 7, 2005 08:38 PMwe got family in cavite in imus in one of the newer subdivisions. my tito buboy (mom's brother) has moved w/ his wife and kids back to davao but i think my mom's cousins continue to maintain the house. it's nice there. quiet. but that was nearly 10 years ago and it's probably more busy now that sm south mall is so close by and i heard there's another sm that's even closer. gotta love those monopolies.
Posted by: Vette at June 8, 2005 10:10 PM