trip home

it took the car to break down before we got to realize the treasure in our own backyard. with such greens, with such opportunities for tourism, with such agricultural richness, why is biliran still deprived of economic development? only in bohol i saw people taking pictures at manmade nature, but here, i was the only one taking pictures.

trip home with nanay, april 2011

biliran greens

half of my life, i wandered and wondered. went away far from home to look for greener pastures, more literally so. til one day, i found my feet walking my way home. i have returned. and realized the greenest pasture of all is just on my way home.

with all its potentials, let me rediscover my home. this is biliran province. you all discover. why look far away from home? april 2011 in biliran province (naval-culaba via cross country)

victorian sunset

somewhere along the way from victoria to allen, northern samar while we took the motorbike to catarman. rain and wind that was, bebet and i braved the way to catarman. home for bebet, 2-night stay for me. i was invited to speak in victoria, and accommodated in catarman. bebet's house offered a hotel-quality stay, to my pleasure, despite the rain. april 1, 2011

basey walk

from manila to brgy tingib in a day. i was just fulfilling my commitment. work it may seem, but here is one perk of that hardworking day.

kids reminded me to slow down, take a walk, and play more. january 28, 2011

unusual times

my visit to manila (and tagaytay, january 2011) was not really a walk in the park. i had a work to do, an auntie to visit, and a sister to comfort. i was also to accompany my nanay to do the same things, minus the work to do.

nanay's coming to manila was not a walk in the park either. her sister is now undergoing dialysis. nanay would like to personally take care of her for a while. on another hand, her daughter, lulu, just recently lost a husband. these emergencies pushed my nanay, who hates to travel, to fly.

however, for me, hope i am not being insensitive, i have to turn these unfortunate events into opportunities. to be with nanay on a travel, despite the purpose, was enjoyable. no need to cry over spilled milk. happy we must be. to visit a sick auntie was not a sad experience, it was an opportunity to catch up good old things of good old past. auntie cried and auntie smiled, too. with my sister, i offered my ears to listen and my shoulder for her to cry on. the passing away, if you know all the story, would mean a moving on for my sister.

stressful? nope. foremost, i have a God who strengthens. second, there are playgrounds everywhere, blue sky to look up, rainbow for reminder of never again would God destroy us by flood.

after all, it is still a beautiful world.

neil's kids

kids of my brother. they belong to the category of contractual apo. my parents have over 50 grandchildren, and they are categorized as regular (those who are staying with my parents), contractual (those only contracted to come by, usually on special occasions), probationary (those who are blacklisted, an mga pasaway) and those who come almost everyday for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and go back to their respective homes to sleep. these particular 2 apos have very expressive eyes, and they register well in my camera. i took them to the seashore for this shoot. culaba, biliran. december 25, 2010.

maupay nga pasko

celebrating pasko with loved ones is memorable. many christmases past that i took this idea for granted. but in 2010, i made sure our christmas celebration would be a reunion of sort with my beloved parents and kids of my siblings. december 24, 2010, culaba, biliran. seen here are my nanay, tatay, gemma and chikki. those two boys are jiggy and jun.