Recovery

Last week, my father traveled to his hometown of Cabatuan, Iloilo. My siblings and I sponsored the trip that coincided with the town fiesta last September 10. I was glad to see my father's eyes twinkle when I offered to pay for the round trip plane ticket and my siblings pitched in with pocket money. It was not as if he needed the money or couldn't travel because it was expensive. Plane fare, after all, was cheap these days given the competition among airlines led by Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines (never mind the labor problems). He could go if he wanted to but I guess it was a form of lambing that he asked us if we could sponsor the trip. We obliged, noting that it had been almost a year since he last visited our aunts, his sisters. That last time was post-Ondoy when he was probably searching for answers to the disaster that befell us. It was not the best of times and the situation was complicated due to one aunt in Iloilo passing away just after Ondoy inundated our Cainta home. Perhaps it helped my father to return to a place that he associated with stability. After all, walking along familiar streets and meeting up with relatives and close friends are activities that are truly cathartic.

Last year, I remember writing about how it was like a healing experience for me to visit Singapore (twice and only a few weeks apart) after Ondoy. Perhaps I associated stability with my previous experience of living in a developed country (Note: I lived in Japan for 3 years while I pursued my doctorate.). Those couple of weeks in Singapore allowed me to make sense of things and recover my wits. It was critical for me to recover if I was to share my optimism and outlook with the Clairvoyant.

A pleasant surprise came out of my father's homecoming. I called him up on the eve of his return to Manila and discovered that he was browsing over old photos in my aunts' albums. He was with my aunts and two of my favorite cousins - Rebecca and Rhodora, who were a critical part of my growing up years and education (but that's another story). He mentioned that he remembered sending copies of photographs to Iloilo during our younger years. I also remembered sending not a few photos including evidence of my travels in Japan. That phone conversation led to a light bulb moment and I proceeded by asking my father to borrow the photos and bring them back to Manila. My objective was to scan these photos and recover whatever part of my past was recorded. Unfortunately, it was too late to determine if other albums with my cousins in another part of their town contained other photos (and I'm sure they had old photos including those of my uncles, aunts and cousins stashed away somewhere). These will have to be checked later. For the meantime, I am quite satisfied and very happy to get the photos.. In fact, I have scanned all the photos and will be posting a few in future blogs as I relive what I remember regarding the photos.