Leaving Bicol Province
Trip Start
Jun 29, 1999
1
3
5
Trip End
Jul 21, 1999
Legaspi, Philippines
Monday, July 5, 1999
We left for Bicol on Fri, July 2, at around 7:30 in the morning and got to Polangui, Albay at around 7:00 that night! The scenery getting there was beautiful though. We passed Batangas and Quezon, millions of rice fields and huts, rolling hills covered by coconut trees, and a beach (in Quezon Province).
When we got there, we had to walk further on a dirt road to Mama and Papa's house. It was very rural. Mom called it primitive, actually. It was very peaceful though. They didn't really have any of the modern conveniences like phones, air-conditioning, and indoor plumbing (which bothered me, actually...I didn't really like going to the bathroom, or rather, the outhouse.) But it was one of those places where time seems to stop for you. My grandparents lead a very simple life. Some people who are successful and have luxurious lives dream about this kind of life. My grandparents' schedule probably consists of cooking, cleaning, planting, harvesting, feeding the pigs and chickens. But I don't know. It's not for me though. I want a penthouse in Manhattan, a successful career, a great social life. I don't know, maybe I'm too young to appreciate the simple life. What I did appreciate is the poverty that my mom and her brothers and sisters went through and how they managed to pull themselves out of it.
Ok, enough about that. During our stay here, we got to see my great-grandparents' house. We visited some more relatives and even the cemetery where my great-grandmother was buried. Unfortunately, that particular cemetery seemed as if it's been abandoned. Nobody's maintaining it, so we never found her grave, which is really sad because they can't visit her anymore. Also, some of the grave sites have been destroyed so you can see the bones of the persons buried in them. My brother even found a skull lying around. I felt so bad. Tito Jun said they probably belonged to a poor family.
We also went by their old high school and to Cagsawa where that buried church is. We couldn't go to the foot of Mayon Volcano though because they said it was spitting out ashes and smoke that day.
That night (Saturday), they were all telling stories of back then. Toto Agoy mentioned this one guy that was completely in love with my mother back when she was in college. He used to give Tito Agoy his geese as "pulutan" so Tito Agoy would put in a good word for him, but Tito Agoy would abuse him asking for more geese, or else! :o) They also talked about ghosts and monsters or "aswangs." My grandma, Tita Sylvia, and Lolo Gil (Papa's younger brother) say they have all seen them there at their house and at my great-grandmother's. That kinda scared me sleeping at night there.
By the way, they had a cute little kitten there that I was gonna call Murray Jr (even though he's black & brown), but then he turned out to be a she! One of the dogs also had newborn puppies.
We left at 7:30 this morning. Thank God because I'm covered by mosquito bites!
