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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
General Santos City...Where the grass is greener still
By Prima Guipo-Hower
THE Boeing 757 taxied out of New York's JFK Airport. I gazed outside my 2A window seat. There were mounds of snow, five-feet tall on the tarmac. At a distance, a snowplow was busy clearing one more airstrip.
Tampa my "other home" is still many hundreds of miles away. But the snow was a dead give away. It told me I was no longer in the Philippines!
I came back to the United States via Philippine Airlines. I never thought a company that holds a monopoly (I don't like monopolies) over the skies of the Philippines could make me so proud I am a Filipino by birth. But that's for another topic. Later.
When I arrived at my port of entry San Francisco, I was told by the Delta agent, that my connecting flight to Atlanta, Georgia has been cancelled due to a severe ice storm! They were rerouting me via New York where a blizzard had just dumped four inches of snow the week before!
Making my way from the International airside to the Delta gate, I cannot stop thinking of another place that I have just left behind, a place some of us wistfully refer to as "home". Still.
So the "old home town does not look the same as I stepped down from the plane". In my case, there's no more "mama and papa" to meet me either. But "down the lane" there are still friends not named Mary perhaps but eager to say welcome home.
It was so good to "touch the green, green grass" of General Santos City. This was our collective refrain-Linda Leyson Herrera, Angel Boloico, Leilanie Zerrudo Gammon, Bobby Borromeo and Edna Chua Ko and I. The first time we sang this Engelbert Humperdink favorite, we were at Don's VIP Lounge owned by Oyet and Anita Veneracion trying to ignore the huge sawa enclosed in a glass case a few feet from where we sat. It was crunching on live chicken while we were munching on dead chicken now delicious strips on our plates. (Evelyn Alburo turned down the lights low so Linda Herrera won't see the python, her pet peeve.)
We sang the song every chance we get from then on. On our trip all the way to Davao City, at the Fruit Stand near Palkan Crossing after Angel's car broke down, eating our last snack together in Glorietta Mall, Makati. Even now as I write this column, I could hear the voices of friendship singing the old refrain.
"They all came to see me under the old oak tree" so goes a line from the song. Yes they came to see me...Linda now a Labor Attache to United Kingdom, Angel a successful entrepreneur in Riverside, California, Lannie a superb interior decorator of her house in Elk Grove, California, Bobby an Associate Professor and Chair at De La Salle, Manila and Edna, the Centennial President of Davao Rotary Club.
We have all become strangers in our own hometown but fortunately, not strangers to the many childhood friends, classmates and former teachers (too numerous to name them all) who joined us during the launching of my book TIO DOROY'S Field at Notre Dame College. (Thanks Orman Manansala for making us all feel at home).
Mayor Pedro Acharon, Jr. the good looking and very youthful dynamic leader of our city attended the event. He personally and graciously welcomed us to General Santos City. Each of us came away feeling we can't wait to go back.
Before we left General Santos, we already planned a grand 40th Reunion for Class 1967 in 2007. And we pledged to drag along with us our many classmates in the US, Canada and elsewhere to join us in rediscovering our favorite childhood haunts.
Our beloved hometown now boast of many places for us to hang out and events to enjoy-lunch at Isla Parilla, get-away to the rolling hills of Upper Labay overlooking a golf course, cultural treat called Isda-Isdaan in Bula, fluvial parade on Sarangani Bay to celebrate the fiesta of Sto. Nino, the class reunions, to name a few.
Ahh...the fluvial parade! Thanks to Marfin and Rosalina Tan, Richy Rich and Laila Tan, Noli and Celia Parica Esma for a memorable experience.
Together, Angel, Lannie and I have been to the famous Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California in 2003, an old American tradition attended by half a million people. Here all the floats are decorated with fresh flowers from all over the world. Lannie and I agreed, that Bula's fluvial parade was up there with the Rose Bowl Extravaganza under the heading "something to write home about."
As it was during the Rose Bowl Parade, we had to wake up very early in the morning to get a good seat. We stayed at Sydney Hotel overnight-six members of Class 1967 and my sister Josie Guipo. At three in the morning, we all got ready. By four thirty, Bing Carino Mirabueno joined us in the lobby. Noli Esma, still drowsy from sleep, drove us in his SUV to the SAFI pier. Coco and Laila welcomed us aboard the Pacific Rose, a 60-foot Yatch owned by the Tan family. Breakfast of fruits, rice and lechon on waveless Sarangani Bay gazing at the glorious sunrise inside a spacious cabin! What a view! Then we all trooped upstairs to watch 230 fishing vessels (large and small), some tied together eight abreast as they take their respective positions in a parade formation.
The colorful bancas and the drab gray Navy Patrol boat lined up too and waited for the Sto. Nino to board the Lady Evelyn. Decorated with streamers and beautiful floral arrangements of fresh flowers, Lady Evelyn stood out among the vessels waiting behind the lead boat, Pacific Rose. I have seen nothing like it before.
As we watched, Celia gave us our first lesson on Fishing Industry 101. She said, "This parade is participated by owners of fishing fleet of General Santos City. Every year, they draw lots as to who becomes the host of the parade. The host prepares his best boat to carry the statue of the Sto. Nino. It is a distinct honor.
A fishing fleet consists of an Unay or a mother boat. It is usually the biggest. That Lady Evelyn for instance (pointing at one vessel at least 100 feet long bedecked with fresh flower from stern to bow), cost about ten million pesos and can stay out to sea for three months or more. Then there's the "runners", smaller vessels that runs back and forth from mother boat to shore to deliver the catch and men who want to visit their family. There is also one boat that patrols the fishing territory. Although most owners live by gentleman's agreement, hard times bring out the pirates in many."
By 8 a.m., fireworks filled the skies over the shoreline about 500 meters away. An amphibian vehicle surrounded by a crowd of merry well wishers eased out of the white sandy beach onto the azure blue waters of Bula carrying the red suited Sto. Nino. After it was ensconced on the pedestal of Lady Evelyn's bow, the two-hour parade began.
From the bow of the Pacific Rose, the lead vessel, Lannie and I sat and watched it all unfold. Rows upon rows of fishing boats glided through the calm waters of Sarangani Bay. The parade celebrates the bounty of the once unnoticed barrio populated by hardworking and humble fishermen eking an honest living out of their beloved ocean to provide their children and their children's children a brighter life than themselves.
At ten a.m, we attended mass at the new Bula Cathedral. Life in Bula, General Santos City has definitely changed. I remember a time when my husband Alvin J. Hower was a Peace Corps Volunteer living on a loft studio of the Bula Parish Center in the early 1970s. The center is no longer there. A basketball court filled with children playing Michael Jordan's game has taken its place. Al used to tell horror stories about his battles with gigantic rats and roaches that called the loft their "home" before his unwelcome intrusion.
Bula was a very sleepy fishing hamlet then. Al spearheaded the building of the Bula Nutrition Center, a community outreach program under Fr. Albinus Lesch, CP to help feed the malnourished children, provide them an early childhood education and teach their mothers some form of trade-sewing, cooking, responsible parenting, etc.
I almost didn't recognize Bula as we walked the crowded streets, the few blocks from the church to Richy Rich and Laila's residence. I have not been to a Barrio Fiesta since I left General Santos in 1974. So for me it was like learning the old tradition all over again. We-Celia, Bing, Josie, Eulita, Edna, Avelina, Cora and I-danced in front of the Sto. Nino. We secretly made our personal wishes!
I wished the day would never end and that I could go back again someday.
The atmosphere around the churchyard was festive with tinderas hawking their kakanin next to the souvenir, candle and fruit vendors. Hmmm, lanzones, rambutan, star apple, kamonsili-childhood treats from long ago!
I was amazed that people just come and go to eat at every house. The hosts don't necessarily know the guests. Hospitality at its best.
My kumare Celia Parica Esma warned us to "eat half a meal only". I didn't exactly know what she meant until later. After a scrumptious lunch at Coco and Laila's house, we all marched down to Marfin and Rosalina Tan's impressive residence. There another huge table filled with chaffing dishes laden with traditional and western recipes awaited us. There we gorged ourselves again. Rose told us that she and Beth Yumang Ng personally cooked most of the dishes the night before. Whoever goes to the trouble of cooking (when they have numerous maids and helpers) and for strangers at that! What a sweet tradition.
I was glad fiestas only come once a year. I think I gained 10 pounds in one day!
On January 16, 2005, Angel and I boarded the AirBus 300 bound for Manila. There another kind of adventure awaited us. That will be for the next column.
We left Leilanie to spend more time with her family at Isla Parilla and tend to her orchids in Lagao. Lannie is so enamored with the slow pace of life of Lagao that she decided to buy a small lot on which to build a bahay kubo someday. We both plan to surround it with millions of million flowers called hydrangea.
Angel and I agreed on two things-it was hard to leave General Santos City behind and we don't enjoy saying goodbyes at airports. So while we were taking a morning jog around the oval exercise area in front of the City Hall one day, we plotted to leave our hometown as quietly as possible. He was going to pick me up in his car with only his brother Rolly as company (so Rolly can drive the car back home). We'll say goodbye to our family by our respective gates and drive off to the sunset. Wrong!
Mila Royeca Evangelista called up very early Sunday morning. Perhaps she'll see me at the airport said she. My brother Nono and wife Son arrived in their mini-van. Soon Tito, his wife Merly, children Baby Girl, Boyet and Trina piled in with my sister Josie.
I phoned Angel. "I'll just see you at the airport", I said.
Thirty minutes after I arrived at the airport, Angel drove up in his car, followed by another van full of siblings and relatives. And Mila Royea Evangelista.
So much for a quiet departure!
But we both admit, it was not all that bad. The goodbyes I mean.
At Centennial Airport in Manila, my sister Susan and Angel's sister Mila were there waiting for us. Ready to take us to Baguio.
Close family ties at its best.
Only in the Philippines!
For Bisaya stories from General Santos. Click here.
(This section is updated every Monday)
(February 14, 2005 issue)
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