Rural Road Trip Part. 2

The continuation of the post on the accidental road trip that our family took to the rurals following the hospital visit to my centenarian grandmother who choked on a soft bread morning of January 1, 2011.


I forgot to say that just as we were leaving the town center of Sibalom and approaching the rural areas, my father pointed us an unoccupied and unfinished house (architecture similar to the cake-colored houses I mentioned in Part 1 of this post). He said it belonged to his friend, Bebot, who used to have a store in Belison. I used to come along my father for his daily afternoon chess matches with Bebot at his store. I forgot what his store was selling but it could be general merchandise because he did not appear to me as the farmer-producer kind. I've almost forgotten about Bebot, the chess matches at his store and how his kids and us became friends while we waited for those chess matches to be over. If i remember correctly, he had 2 daughters, one was sickly and the other was fat but both were very friendly. 


Tato Bebot's store had a small patch of soil where they planted catkins. Whenever we dropped by and the catkins were in full bloom, my sisters and I would pick some and bring them home, thinking they were really cats' tails. We played with the catkins until they bruised and turned  brownish-dark violet in color. When they left, nobody tended the catkins and it died a slow, mournful, dry death.


Tato Bebot, i realized, looks like the Filipino Ron Jeremy-- body type, mustache and all, except the hair. Tato Bebot's hair is fashioned in 60's cut with natural waves, and much thicker than Ron Jeremy's. If you care to know about Ron Jeremy you might want to click on the link. But because not everyone wants to click, and I do not want to discriminate the lazy ones, a scroll down option is provided. 


These are the rice fields i was talking about. That's just one of the many of them. 


Have i mentioned that San Remigio is intersected by the great Sibalom River? Now that I did, I guess you now know why the flooding and the washing out of some 2-3 barangays in 2008. 


And then back to the conversation about cemeteries.


We passed not 1 but 2 cemeteries. The second one is San Remigio's. In my very limited travelling experience, it is one of the more laudable land of the deads I've seen. There's something very spiritual about the place that i can't seem to put my finger on. Maybe it's the indian trees? The white washed tombs? And because there was nothing audacious in sight, the tranquility and serenity was preserved. The simple, white-washed entry-way (that also acts as waiting shed, I guess) was so something new to me. Normally, the patrons of the cemeteries would build grand entrances and canopies complete with fake tendrils, columns and of course the image of Jesus Christ or Mother Mary or maybe even God, if they knew how he looked like. But this one is different. We all agreed this was nami.  I took several pictures of it. 

San Remigio Cemetery

My father enjoyed driving to San Remigio so much because the roads were newly paved. In most parts, only half or the 2-laned road was used because the other half was still under curing period. 


I don't know why but i was suddenly reminded of my bus rides around Negros Occidental and/or to Bukidnon from Cagayan de Oro, on the way to SR. It must be the curves and the esses BUT then, the Iloilo-Antique highway is full of that and I have never felt, not even once, a slight resemblance to any of the NOcc or Bukidnon bus rides. Not even once was a memory of a feeling of any other trips was stirred. Travelling to Antique from Iloilo or vice versa is just that--travelling to Antique from Iloilo and vice versa. Nothing more, nothing less. I do not know if that spells tragedy.


Little Baguio was what the marker said when we reached SR town center. The marker was so predictably LGU; so predictably Filipino LGU. It was shaped like a giant heart in light blue paint that's almost fading to white. And of course, no marker or infrastructure in the Philippines is complete without the name of the donor. This marker is right across a Jesus marker, which, yes, you guessed it, marks--something!!--the entrance to the Municipal Hall of SR. And i thought governments are a-religious. 


Actually, I have never been to Baguio. I'm never really a tourist-traveler and much of my travelling were nostalgic, sappy, and just terribly lonely, driven only by the spirit of completing the work I was paid for. They were of course very heavy with lessons but I honestly do not want to travel for work alone again. 
Because I have never been to Baguio and have never experienced the chilly weather that is Baguio, never smelled the smell that is Baguio, I have no idea what to expect upon reaching SR town proper. It is beyond my capacity to affirm what was said in the marker.


"Would you like to see the municipal building?" my mother asked. 
If that is not clue enough, she works for a municipal government. SR municipal hall compound is probably the first government compound I've seen that is not devoid of trees. I would very much want to see what's up there and know why they kept the trees when most would rather cut and sell them for profit. I know, because that's what the Patnongon LGU did. 

My father suggested we see their friend (or comrade?) who lives in the area. They want to surprise her. He carefully negotiated between the narrow road with an oncoming overloaded jeepney. Did i say SR is a hilly (more like mountain) town? Few meters from the marker is the town market which sits atop a hill overlooking the fields below like a sentry. I was again reminded by the feeling of emptiness when i first arrived for a stop-over at Mina, Sipalay. Mina in Sipalay is a village of engineers who used to work in the mines of Sipalay and when the mining industry was over, all that was left of the village were abandoned, rotting architecture (mostly housing) and a market that's almost deserted, even in the busiest time of the year. SR market was newly painted and was not empty but the whole topography of the place to me bore the sadness that was Mina. 

My parents' friend went to San Jose, the man at the market said. He said he saw her leave the town earlier. Instead of turning back, my father drove forward and Sister #1 prompted for the place-that-Typhoon Frank/Fengshen-washed-out. I tried to snap pictures of the markers of the places we passed along and i was lucky to get a clear shot of two of them: Libonan and Trinidad. 


Friendly Brgy. Trinidad, or maybe the barangay after it, was our last stop. At the narrow street adjacent to a Baptist Church, my father took a turn and then another and we made our way back to Sibalom. 


"Where's the washed-out place?" asked Sister #1.
"Farther away, there at the foot of the mountain."


Oh, we so wanted to see it but my father is leaving for the City today, too, so we really had to return.


I can see now why the area suffered so much, in addition to what my father has also explained. The place is practically surrounded by mountains. It is a valley circled by an unbroken range of peaks where there is no other place for the water to go but here. But nature easily recovered and after two years, not a trace of the typhoon or the flooding can be seen. I just can't say the same for the people.


From the edge of the town center to Trinidad it was dirt road. But despite the bumps the kid remained fast asleep, missing out a lot of things in this road trip he so mostly anticipated.   


Maybe someday he'd be lucky to come back and get to know these places better. Maybe he will. 


------


other things you might care to see.

Threshing by the side of the road the newly harvested palay. 

Oh my.

New bridge. We saw a group of pre-teens playing and across them,
a group of teens with bicycles hanging out with their homies.
Generation gap, literally.

FIN.

***Ron Jeremy is an american porn actor known for his 9.75 inch (about 24.75 cm) penis. I think he was popular in the 90's.