Before and after

The group picture was taken in the Philippines before my sister and her family migrated to the US. Five years later plus all the junk food, this is how the kids look now (2008).

aya

benny

banjong

elaine

kukie

jp

Kailee @ 14 months

My lolo cropped some pictures of me just to document my looks at 14 months. 

The Heretic

He was never called as such, but everyone in the community was sure that he was, and that included me. We dubbed him “pope,” “attorney” and the kids all called him either “lolo” or “uncle,” and all the while he gave us enough space to interact with him. I thought of him as rather odd because I was in and out of his house as a close friend of his children. He had all the tools at home, and the latest, expensive and rare ones. He was also authoritarian and brash, and a no-nonsense guy.    I eventually grew up to be able to rub elbows with this guy [coz as a kid I was rubbing my head to his knees], and to see eye to eye with him. We were neighbors again when I returned to the village after eleven years of my wandering. This time I wanted to get into the soul of this mysterious guy who by this time was mellowing as he aged. He was still the know-it-all guy but now he had a new air around him. It was something I had to get to the bottom of.   My investigation and interaction revealed that he was fooling around with doctrines that were labeled by the village leaders as unorthodox and in conflict with the existing doctrines of the village. He was not silent about this fact and would engage anyone who touched on the subject. This would explain why people would avoid meeting him on the street. He was also like a magnet to serious bible scholars who were not allowed by the village leaders to visit his place.   This time I didn’t want to judge him without objectively scrutinizing everything that he believed, and in the process something indescribable happened to me. I found out later that I had been possessed by the same spirit that had him, and I started believing and talking like him.   This got the attention of the village leaders and they moved heaven and earth to kick me out of the village, saying that I was a heretic. Was I a heretic? Does honest study and belief in the bible make one a heretic? The hero of this essay [not me] eventually retired and left the village. He moved to America where he breathed his last, and now he sits by the bosom of Abraham.    He may be looking down at me as I write this piece and only now will he realize that he was instrumental in my salvation and to threescore more who took up his cause. I dedicate this blog entry to the most misunderstood man in the community, the heretic for God and the light that set me on my road to heaven, Alfonso Melgar Sr., may you rest in peace.

Never in my own Pinas

Ever since we moved to Bangkok a year ago, I have been very keen in observing Thai culture. Not only because I grew up in a mixed american-chinese-spanish-japanese-filipino culture but also because I sensed that the Thai way of life is slowly being diluted by western culture, and I had to get the original before it suffers the same fate as my own.

Let me start with these two pictures... they represent the generosity that is the warp and woof of the Thai character. This would never, I repeat - never, happen in my homeland. If only I could read Thai I know there are a lot of freebies out there.

Our water bill...

we average 450 baht a month for water. That is for the 5 of us plus a baby. This month I went to pay my bill but they wouldnt accept the payment. The teller and I tried to communicate but she couldnt speak english and so she had to call someone on the phone to explain to me that my I didnt have to pay my bill from August 08 - Jan 09 if it didnt exceed 500 baht. If it did, only then would they charge me. That means that I could save at least 2,500 baht, and to take into consideration the millions of households in Bangkok... the amount is staggering! Could the Philippine government do the same for its constituents?

Free bus fare...

State-owned city buses starting July displayed the white sticker on their windshield announcing free rides to the public. That means that Thais could go to and from work without spending a single baht - for six months [that's a big help for a poor worker]. You bet the buses were jam packed. This plus the water bill are measures to help the poor when the prices of commodities are jumping. Can the Philippine government operate a hundred buses for 6 months without collecting fare?

It's a private hosp with at least 1500 employees... 

Every year the owner, Dr. Supot, has a year-end party [they dont believe in Christmas]. The details of the Party '07: @ his river resort, hauled the employees by bus [15-20 buses], served dinner [at least 12 courses], gave each employee a gift ranging from 200 - 1000 baht depending on what you picked, awarded gold necklaces 

to the 10 year loyal employees [rumored to be 50,000 baht each] and there were 64 awardees, etc. The punch line? everything was

free. the employees didnt have to contribute a cent. we made mental calculations of the expense and we were convinced that he could have spent at least 3 million baht. 

never in Pinas, 'ika nga.

Secure

Almost every growing child finds an icon on which to feel secure, a "security blanket" so to speak. Kailee is no exception from this trend and she feels secure in the presence of this almighty stuff toy, which we christened "Patchy" because of the patches of cloth that were sewed on its body.

This album was created to document the toy and to preserve it for Kailee's viewing when she has already grown. Her mom Kukie also had her own "Tapow" security icon when she was Kailee's age, a stuffed rabbbit with real rabbit skin. It got lost in all our wanderings and she wished we had kept a picture of it.

The Models

if only she consented to the invitation to pursue the modeling career. Her dad stood in the way of her becoming a pro.... if she did then for sure her family name could have been different now.

This album contains the pictures of a once-upon-a-time model with her daughter and granddaughter, both models too, in a day at the park with budding photographer - master Jed Abordo and his Nikon. Some of the pictures here were taken by the wa-pa-mosikat-unya-laos-na photographer with a digital point-and-shoot Sony camera.

The park is bigger than the MVC campus and had the ambiance of a golf course. Note: no entrance fee and bicycles were for rent at a meager 20 baht unlimited time.... never in my own pinas. A sad thought of homeland indeed.