Snapshots of Going
Its 8am and I’m sitting outside the store waiting for the bus to Mayoyao.
A stream of well dress people passes by as 1st mass ends at the Catholic church just down the street.
My family, getting dresses and preparing four the baptism of a cousin where my sister will be a God Mother!
Dad - sitting, chilling, calmly, stoically on the bench by the road waiting with me for the bus in his LGU Lamut jersey from a volleyball tournament in ’02 or ’03. Orange and Black. #7.
2nd service lets out. More people go by including a pink moped with a family of four on it. The little one is standing in the front between Dad’s arms as he drives proclaiming her displeasure to the world. Mom looks back & smiles as they pass.
My mother worrying about me taking too little luggage & the very full, over stuffed nature of my mosquito net bag.
Texts flying back and forth as excited and nervous Volunteers get ready for and leave on all of our trips. “Good Luck,” “Safe travels,” “you’re a wonderful monkey (I mean person)…”
A ridiculous jeep with a lift kit & Texas license plate stops and drops someone off across the street. Seeing the “Someone in Texas Loves Me” sticker as they drive away.
Mother suddenly noticing & worrying about the sun burned bit of scalp where my hair naturally parts. My fumbling through “Not Painful” in Ilokono. Her offers of Merienda… & then pop… & then coffee, & the two sandwiches and drinks she already packed for me to take.
Manang Uzi in a big covered flat bed truck full of excited kids and adults stopping to make sure I’m alright before going to the water park with her family to celebrate her birthday and Mother’s day.
The usual sporadic conversation with Dad about buses & routes & stopping for lunch. About holidays and being able to come home to visit.
And finally the bus to Mayoyao! 10:30 am. Blissfully empty with my Dad hopping on to explain (I assume since it was in Ilokono) who I am and what I’m doing & to look after his errant Americano son.
& now this bouncy breeze filled bus with the beautiful countryside rolling by the window & one excited, marvelously, incredibly free & elated & way too lightly packed volunteer riding along trying to write. (If ya’ll could only see what my hand writing looks like…)
The drivers 2nd just climbing on up to the roof of the bus for no apparent reason while its still moving.
Rice & corn spread out to dry along the road occasionally blocking an entire lane & in Legawe covering an entire tennis court right under the sign “Do Not Dry Palay on Tennis court.”
Occasional stops for more passengers… and for people who the driver thought might possibly be more passengers.
The stopping & filling of the water jugs, along the way at a roadside source which consists of a pipe sticking out of the hillside, including the one on the roof used to cool the engine. The spitting out & rinsing of mouths from the beetle nut & off we go again.
Stopping for lunch (for 2 hours…) in Legawe and running into a Swiss tourist coming back from Banaue who has been bouncing around for about two weeks and finding myself staring just as much as the locals do because of his white skin…
A stream of well dress people passes by as 1st mass ends at the Catholic church just down the street.
My family, getting dresses and preparing four the baptism of a cousin where my sister will be a God Mother!
Dad - sitting, chilling, calmly, stoically on the bench by the road waiting with me for the bus in his LGU Lamut jersey from a volleyball tournament in ’02 or ’03. Orange and Black. #7.
2nd service lets out. More people go by including a pink moped with a family of four on it. The little one is standing in the front between Dad’s arms as he drives proclaiming her displeasure to the world. Mom looks back & smiles as they pass.
My mother worrying about me taking too little luggage & the very full, over stuffed nature of my mosquito net bag.
Texts flying back and forth as excited and nervous Volunteers get ready for and leave on all of our trips. “Good Luck,” “Safe travels,” “you’re a wonderful monkey (I mean person)…”
A ridiculous jeep with a lift kit & Texas license plate stops and drops someone off across the street. Seeing the “Someone in Texas Loves Me” sticker as they drive away.
Mother suddenly noticing & worrying about the sun burned bit of scalp where my hair naturally parts. My fumbling through “Not Painful” in Ilokono. Her offers of Merienda… & then pop… & then coffee, & the two sandwiches and drinks she already packed for me to take.
Manang Uzi in a big covered flat bed truck full of excited kids and adults stopping to make sure I’m alright before going to the water park with her family to celebrate her birthday and Mother’s day.
The usual sporadic conversation with Dad about buses & routes & stopping for lunch. About holidays and being able to come home to visit.
And finally the bus to Mayoyao! 10:30 am. Blissfully empty with my Dad hopping on to explain (I assume since it was in Ilokono) who I am and what I’m doing & to look after his errant Americano son.
& now this bouncy breeze filled bus with the beautiful countryside rolling by the window & one excited, marvelously, incredibly free & elated & way too lightly packed volunteer riding along trying to write. (If ya’ll could only see what my hand writing looks like…)
The drivers 2nd just climbing on up to the roof of the bus for no apparent reason while its still moving.
Rice & corn spread out to dry along the road occasionally blocking an entire lane & in Legawe covering an entire tennis court right under the sign “Do Not Dry Palay on Tennis court.”
Occasional stops for more passengers… and for people who the driver thought might possibly be more passengers.
The stopping & filling of the water jugs, along the way at a roadside source which consists of a pipe sticking out of the hillside, including the one on the roof used to cool the engine. The spitting out & rinsing of mouths from the beetle nut & off we go again.
Stopping for lunch (for 2 hours…) in Legawe and running into a Swiss tourist coming back from Banaue who has been bouncing around for about two weeks and finding myself staring just as much as the locals do because of his white skin…
posted by george at 7:00 AM
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