my lola

Every wrinkle and every line has a story.
At 83 she has lived.
Through a world war to personal spiritual wars, she has survived.
Given birth to not only 8 children, but 100 grandchildren and 100 more great grandchildren.
She is a mother of the leysons, a mother of Leyte.

She lays in bed, covering whats left of her.
Shy and embarresed of her skin and bones.
She speaks in bisia, if only i could understand.
No one is there to translate. But i listen as she talks.
I'm fustrated with the communication barrier but am content watching her speak.

She pinches my skin, rubs my belly, smells my hair and touches my croutch.
She held me as a child, bathed me, sang to me and kissed me when i was born.
She does the same at 19.
Her warmth wraps around me.

Lola was a wife,
Shes a mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother.
She has a story that i will never know or appreciate,
But i do know, how much i love her.

Leyte. Villya

Ormoc city is a smaller version of Cebu.
We took a jepney to Bay Bay costing around 20p each. The closer we got to bay bay the cleaner the air and the more i felt at home.

We eventually arrived at Aunty Marys house after an hours drive. It was still the same. Chickens roamed freely around the yard and Uncle Ting tings card table still hand its gamblers. Some of the family where there, but i was pretty keen to have a sleep. It was also nice to catch up with Ate gaga. Were going to Vilya tomorrow, its Ate Jen Jens 26th Birthday. I'm also pretty excited to visit my Lola.

Going to Leyte

It's Saturday morning and we just finished organising the presents.

We went for a walk through Cebu. It's old streets started to get busier and fruit stores where starting to open. Wild dogs woke from the sleep and i could hear church bells in the distance. Cebu is quite old, theres alot of universities, students and pretty simple people. The city smelt of sewage, but they still took pride of their streets as they swept up rubish from their gutters. It's busier then leyte, i can understand why Gigi would want to study here.

Later that after noon we took a four hour ferry ride to Leyte. Cebu to ormoc city costing around 500p each. We took second class, but i thought it was more comfortable. We sat out side with the cool ocean breaze. We didn't have Tv but we had a beautiful coast line and open sea to view. I slept most of the way.

The flight and the arrival.

I flew out Saturday the17th of April, 12.45 am in the morning from Singapores Budget terminal. I booked my tickets through Cebu Pacific, only costing me $350 sing return. It's pretty cheap.

Living in Singapore is like the "hub" for south east Asia, so i'm pretty lucky.

Like always dad took me to the airport reasonably late. Only an hour before the flight, but it was ok, they where running late themselves, i guess its the Philippino style.

I was pretty worried about baggage, as they charged $5.00 for every kg over 27kg. But i was .5 of a kg under. I was stoked. I was expecting to pay at least $50.00 for all of the presents that i was bringing over. The flight was pretty comfortable but i was too excited to sleep.

After four hours i arrived at Cebus air port. It wasn't that hot but i was swamped by a lot of bag boys in blue shirts. Eventually i saw Aunty Marys and Ate Gigis faces and took a 300p taxi ride to Ate Gigis dorm room. It was only morning but i could see my Philipino adventure unravel. We sat up all morning eating chocolate and organised all the presents to hand out for my relatives.

Gigi and A.mary where pretty happy, they got first dips on all the gifts.