Thursday, April 10, 2008 So: Not hot in a bikini By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
A five-day forecast by the weather bureau says Metro Cebu’s temperature will rise by one degree Celsius every day. For those of us living in Metro Cebu, we’re better off than those in Metro Manila who are better off than those in Tuguegarao.
In Metro Cebu, temperature this week ranges from 32 degrees to 35. Friday and Saturday will be the hottest. Yesterday’s 33 degrees was already blistering so I can imagine patches of skin falling off from the heat this weekend.
They’re boiling in Metro Manila with temperature at 36 degrees Tuesday and yesterday and 37 degrees today until Saturday. That’s why Baguio City, where temperature will be 27-28 degrees, will be inundated with Metro Manila’s urbanites this weekend.
Tuguerarao in Cagayan Valley in the north is the hottest place in the Philippines these days with a temperature of 38-39 degrees. I know how 38 degrees feel, or at least close to it. It’s like red ants biting my skin and I’m standing close to a lighted stone oven, and I’m not even baking pizza, just bibingka.
Other places that are hotter than Cebu by one degree are Laoag and the Subic area, and just as hot are Iloilo, Bacolod and Tacloban. Mindanao’s key areas such as Cagayan de Oro, Metro Davao and Zamboanga are less hot by one degree.
In a capsule, it’s hot everywhere in the Philippines these days. It is excusable and understandable, therefore, to wear a bikini and boots to the office. After all, the weather bureau has advised us “to take precautionary measures against heat cramps, heat exhaustion and possibly heat stroke.”
It was all this talk about the weather and driftwood that my friend Ganzo told me about Panaon where she says the sun doesn’t bite, just the sharks. It’s an island in Southern Leyte about five hours by boat and bus from Cebu for a total roundtrip fare of P760. It’s where the sea current undresses you and you learn to fish to stay alive.
Is there electricity in the island, I asked her. “Once in a while,” Ganzo replied. It’s the best place to muse and wait for the stars to align. It is where a piece of driftwood has breasts and wood spirits are respected.
In her visit to Panaon last Holy Week, Ganzo wanted to bring to Cebu some driftwood. But her father discouraged her from bringing them because they had yet to get the permission of the wood spirits lest they get angry and cast spell on the family. The permission is sought through a lengthy ritual. We city people dismiss this as superstition but the barrio folks pay respect to the unseen beings.
The island is so backward that the only shopping you will ever do is at the sari-sari store. In the barrio where Ganzo has built a house, the residents fish to have food on the table. Everyone eats the same variety of fish and culinary creativity is valued. For those of us who missed Confucius’ teaching, the de lata is our salvation. But in Panaon, canned goods are as expensive as rice.
Panaon, however, is not the place for the bikini and boots because in the island, hotness is not gauged by exposing skin but by knowing how to fish. That’s why the Panaon fishermen are hot.
