The other day a girl called Allison signed my guestbook. “OhymyGod! You did visit inabanga? I hate to be a stalker-person, but yeah, I know Uncle Blair! And the mayor of inabanga is my aunt Josephine (ROygie) and I'm willing to bet that you visited Princess Artcraft (well, at least it used to be called that..now its something like Inabanga Loomweaver's Assoc.) The people who own it are my grandparents. Wow...this is really weird.” Yeah, I’ve met the mayor, who’s a really nice, jolly lady. And I spent a few nights at her grandparents’ house. I wondered how she’d found me. So I sent her an email.
Turns out quite simple. Last week, I’d emailed Sassy Lawyer, a Filipina blogger outside manila to tell her about my site. (I discovered her site through Lane’s site---another Peace Corps volunteer. Sassy Lawyer dug it and posted this . So, according to Allison, a.k.a. Princess, “when I realized you were in Bohol, I started reading your entries, and when I saw Inabanga, I was very surprised. Anyway, I've only been here for 5 years (since I was 15)...my grandparentsraised me so I grew up in Inabanga.”
I cc’d Blair on the email to Princess, and the next thing I knew, my phone beeped. A text message from Nimfa at DTI. “We r now clusterd round da pc reading accounts of ur xperiences. U r now da most wanted person at dti. Nene said u beter wear an armor suit wen u come hir :)” I was confused. So I inquired. “U told da whole world bout us making chika round da clock n da pandemonium wen it strikes 5:01” Oh, so that’s what happens when your co-workers read the blog. I’ll have to show them the Mother Jones article that claims 71% of Americans consider themselves clock-watchers too. (Sorry, no link, it’s a print article in the May/June 2004 issue.)
Also, got a comment from Melissa a.k.a. pinayexpat, a Filipina blogger in Germany. Checked out her blog for a second, saw she mentioned cia_b. cia_b was my awesome “buddy” when I interned at bolt around the turn of the century. (I host this site on DreamHost cuz that’s where she hosts hers.) cia_b was one of the select few Filipinos I had before coming over here. I can almost count them on one hand.
There was Renato Geslani back at West Hempstead High School. The kid was crazy. He drove an old tan station wagon and listened to music ahead of the curve. Someone in a bar on Long Island told me he moved out to San Francisco, but I forgot to look him up when I spent 2003 in Stockton. In college, I was in constant awe of Solito Reyes’ mp3 collection. (I guess the pinoys abroad took all the good music and left us with Mandy Moore and Neil Diamond.) Sol says he’s coming to visit his 800+ relatives here for the first time ever, and maybe he’ll make time to visit me. (It’s VERY expensive to visit The Philippines if you have relatives here. The plane ticket is the least of it. EVERYONE expects a present.) Then there was Michelle Reyes, not related to Solito. She was the class president, I think. I definitely voted for her for something. I’m sure there were other Filipino classmates, but I was oblivious. On Semester at Sea, almost all the crew were Filipino. I remember none of their names, but they always seemed jolly, they’d sit out on the deck at sunset strumming acoustic guitars. I’m hoping I run into one of them here. That would be rad.
Since I’m carrying on about the internet, and since my dad asked me and it’s father’s day, I’ll explain my internet connection. I rely on a 2001-era Apple iBook. I compose offline, then go online to upload posts. I use Entourage to access my hotmail account. Microsoft monopoly on a Mac. Who’da thunk it. Oh, but the important part is the connection. I buy these prepaid internet cards giving me 5 hours for 100 pesos (about thirty cents an hour.) Then I connect to Bohol Online at 33.6 kbps. The speed is reminiscent of my pre-pubescent Prodigy connection.
All this equidistant from the “provincial highway” and the pigpen…in wafting range of both. I promise next time to explain the highway thing. It’s not what you think it is.
Posted by dbs at June 20, 2004 06:23 PM