iligan city father's day

cheryl, my friend and officemate, sent me a father's day SMS greeting on june 13th and asked me if my daughter ayi greeted me already, of course she didn't because it's not father's day yet as i realized later...much much later...after waiting about half a day for ayi to send me a greeting.

the debutante's kitchen
i spent the first hours of father's day peeling peanut's for the dessert maja blanca at a debut party in the place i was staying in iligan city. i wasn't asked to help in any other way 'cept for peeling those nuts until my eyes drooped heavily for lack of sleep. i spent the previous day helping facilitate a group discussion for the advocacy of an anti torture law in the philippines, and the day before that i joined an area visit in Bukidnon where oil palm plantations expanded into indigenous peoples lands.

the afternoon and evening i wasted waiting for my laundry which cheryl told me couldn't be picked up because the shop's damn dryer got broke or something.

radio interview

i slept in the living room of my hosts and i thought there were just a lot more people going to pee early in the morning (about 5 a.m.) when somebody went GOOD MORNING ROMEL!! i forgot how early they wake up in the province (which is weird because iligan is a city), and i realized they were just waiting for me to get up so they could finally turn on the lights in the living room.

so i turned off the alarm on my cell phone which i had set at the supposedly 'early' hour of six. i took a quick shower and waited for detdet (another friend and offciemate) for us to go to this early radio show where we were given several minutes to advocate for the anti torture law on air.

hello piggy (also gender division of culinary labor)

when we went back to the house the food preparation was in full swing, the playful pig had already been skewered in a bamboo pole and the men were roasting and boiling and whatever else one could do to a pig's innards. the women were in the kitchen, icing was being put on the bare cake and there was pasta cooking on the stove.

the father's day greetings were also finally coming in,

papa hapi faders day!luv u veri much! - ayi: 09:1800
happy fathers day fr me, kai and yhen. i love u - lenlabs: 10:25:38

and i couldn't answer back because i ran out of celfone credits to do so. i decided to go catch some sleep first but as soon as i got my self on a mat, i got a call from the 'men' at the back to join them in 'something'. that turned out to be a male bonding ritual where we all go feast on roasted pig liver done medium rare. soon rhum with sprite was being passed around.

deja vu all over again

while getting tipsy and more sleepy by the minute, i would keep myself awake by going to the kitchen and pester the inhouse master chef and cook who was then placing icing on the cake. but just a short while later i found myself in the same sleeping mat and being called back to the backyard to share something with them again. this time it was the intestines which was cooked by their bald neighbor who really looked like the early mr. clean. this time rhum with coke was being passed around, i wondered if there was a rule to it...liver-rhum and sprite...intestines-rhum and coke.

finally, cheryl contacted me with news that our laundry was finally done and that we could meet in two hours at the terminal to go back to cagayan de oro city enroute back to bukidnon. so i took a bath again to stop myself from falling asleep. refreshed, i was handed more drinks until i really really had to say my goodbyes, which prompted several quickie drinks as i shook my hands with everyone, telling them i'll know even more bisaya next time so as to be less of a communication nuisance. then i had to pass through several levels of feminine blockades that were only to be breached with a really hardened heart. and so, as the party was beginning to warm to its early guests i was already munching on a donut at the city bus terminal bench waiting for cheryl and her boyfriend gordie who had fallen asleep waiting for me, to wake up.

animagus

gordie took the ozamis bus while we took the bus which had 'the bourne identity' playing. because it erally wasn't a long trip, we arrived in cagayan de oro before the movie was finished. two other father's day greeting came in from my officemates, but i still had no money to buy celfone credits to thank them. i remember my wife finally calling me up but i just can't recall which part of the day that was.

we stayed at the usual protestant church hostel and then off we went to the mall where it said it was super specially dad's day there. but we decided that it was harry potter day that day.

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when i later asked cheryl why she didn't greet me that day when she did a full week in advance, she said she just forgot.