Khim Heart These

Christmas is a time wherein some people visited their provinces. This was what my sister and I did during our Christmas break. As always, I took "Bonamine" tablet before the trip because I have motion sickness. We were really excited to see our uncle, auntie, cousins and grandmother who usually cries and beg for us to come visit her. At the age of 82, she can no longer see clearly and hoping to glimpse even just a shape-shadow of us before her vision fades away entirely.

On the way, we saw beautiful landscapes. I snapped a few pictures of it using my cellphone. Some part of the road were not yet cemented and bumpy that I was careful not to drop my cell while taking pictures.

It took us 4 hours to reach Candoni - a small town where my deceased mother was born. Little had changed since we left 2 years ago. I still saw familiar faces but was not able to remember their names. The plaza already had walls built around it. There were more tricycles than before. Less trees and more houses.

We greeted our relatives except for our grandmother since she's taking a bath when we arrived. Our auntie said that she usually spent one and a half hour in the bathroom so we might as well eat first. We know she can no longer see clearly so we planned to play a trick on her. When she finally went out, we greeted her. As expected, she was not able to recognize us and we continued to play along. Finally, she realized that we are her grandchildren and cried. We then kissed and hugged her. We felt that she really misses us. She walks slowly and so frail looking. More wrinkled and droopy face. A lot had changed to her compared to the town. We spend most of the day talking.

I usually go to sleep at 1:00 am but on that time, I'm already looking for a bed at 10:00 pm. Maybe because there's nothing much to do. No internet, malls and TVs have bad reception. We also helped in the store since my relatives own one. I noticed that a lot of people buy coconut milk for their suman and kalamayhati. They also prefer cheaper products. Bihon instead of spaghetti. Plain margarine instead of branded butter. Nilugaw instead of salad. They want quantity not quality. There's also a time when I went to the kitchen. I saw them busy cooking kalamayhati. The woman asked the boy if he can taste it and tell her if she got it right. The boy dipped the spoon and tasted it but then tried to dip another. Without thinking, I just screamed "Don't put it back!" They were startled and a little confused. I laughed and explained that it might spoil the rest of the food.

In the morning, you'll have to wait for someone to fetch you water before you can take a bath. Same goes with washing the dishes. Water is not free-flowing from water pipes instead you have to get it from a river or a well.

When I straightened my hair using a flat iron, I noticed my cousins staring at me and very very curious. "It makes you hair straight and neat", I said. I let them try and nearly made me fell off my chair in laughter when I saw their eyes bulge and at the same time feeling their hair hot.

Since we have too much plenty of time, 2 of our cousins taught us 2 magic tricks. It somehow get us away from boredom. We also played games. Then came the sad part - time to go home. :(

Going home is the most excruciating part of every vacation. A part of us wants to go and another part wants to stay especially when we saw tears forming in our grandmothers eyes. We told her to not cry and she said she can't help it and it's just natural. I cupped her face and kissed her many times on the cheek and promised to call more often. It was really heartbreaking - wishing you can be at 2 places at once. Anyway we still went home because I have work the day after.

We spent 3 days and 2 nights in Candoni. When we arrived in the city, I can't wait to open my email. Only 3 days and I've got 132 email notifications, not to mention I have crops ready for harvest in farmtown and farmville. We were back to our daily routine but there were times flashbacks occur especially on the goodbye scene with our grandmother. Thinking back I guess I can say that Christmas "sa banwa" is bitter but at the same time sweet.