Sunday, January 20, 2008 Gil: Who am I By Sandy Gil Sunday Dunes
(Part Three)
MOM had treated the family to an after-dinner binge at the plush hotel restaurant, and I was glad that my wild family was enjoying this expedition to Davao. Things had been going fine when...
With nary a warning, my brother-in-law decided to open his price purchase from a nearby convenience store right there in the middle of the luxurious hotel restaurant... in full view of the entire Filipino nation! All of us stared in fright. My sister, Myrna, gave her husband the evil eye that unmistakably warned him not to pursue whatever it was he was about to do. Unfortunately, none of the eye signals worked.
A corporate executive in Manila, my brother-in-law was oblivious to his surroundings. With much gusto, he plopped a medium-sized plastic bag on the table and voila... a pint of ice cream! He then grabbed a spoon and began to gobble up the half-melted dessert -- which, by the way was still sitting inside the plastic bag on top of the table.
The waiters, the guests and my relatives present were speechless -- due either to extreme embarrassment or extreme shock. Whatever the feelings might have been, I am certain these were extreme.
I, on the other hand, decided to have another glass of wine.
-o0o-
That night, I slept like a log. My subconscious refused to dream. I was in denial... No mathematician am I, nor an events organizer, nor a yogi who goes through an out-of-body experience, nor a tour guide -- probably a wino -- but certainly I was turning out to be a psychological mess! Who am I? Who will I be after this nightmare was over?
-o0o-
After a sumptuous breakfast buffet at the hotel the next day, December 31, the forty-four family expedition (also called a convention when announcements are being made - inclusive of Q&A portions and open forum) checked out of the hotel, boarded the tour bus once again and were ferried off to Sasa. We were on our way to Paradise Island Beach Resort where we were booked for two nights.
Toni, my 15-year old daughter, asked me why Davao had an Eden in the mountains and a Paradise along the beach. I gently smiled at her and replied: Anak, in between Eden and Paradise is Hell.
-o0o-
I did not earn a medical degree; nor did I ever study how to be a ship's captain or a sailor -- much less, a lifeguard. I regret all that because that short bangka ride from Sasa to Paradise needed all the above expertise... particularly the latter. As everyone filed into four bangka with their luggage in tow, I was secretly harboring the brilliant idea of accidentally pushing a few relatives off the bangka, or perhaps tipping the bangka over. Hehehe... Bet you, with my kind of family, they would have thought that was fun!
-o0o-
In Paradise Beach Resort, I did the same thing I did at the hotel -- assign rooms and fill in forms. In the meantime, while my family waited for their rooms, some had started to avail of the fun activities that the resort offered.
My brother, Miguel, who is a doctor, went scuba diving with my sister, Ana. By the time they returned to the beach pavilion, Miguel had a slight reddish scar on his forehead. He had been bitten by a fish, about six inches long. Duh? Miguel bragged that he had swum after the fish to show it a thing or two. But, alas, it was too quick. Duh?
-o0o-
The beach is marvelous, particularly for people who have no easy access to such natural splendor. My family possesses this kind of ignorance. The babies refused to plant their feet in the sand; the teenagers endlessly splashed tons of sun block lotion on themselves; and the female adults donned enormous sunglasses and wide-brimmed hats.
I, on the other hand, retreated to a corner to contemplate on life in general. I was slowly losing my patience in answering many silly questions, a lot of funny requests and some impossible demands...
So I decided to ask for a white board to be placed in the pavilion. On the white board, I wrote announcements -- and a section of it was reserved for the family to write their silly questions, funny requests and impossible demands. I now felt like a convention coordinator!
Alas, however, a white board full of graffiti emerged. Did I expect anything less from my family?
