Looking back, I can see butterflies, birds, insects roaming around this time of year. All greens are now growing in our own backyard especially “The Saluyot”. I probably can see many stars in the sky at night time by now. And more so on seafood delights from the ocean when we see rainbows and signs up on the sky when it’s crystal clear blue color comes out. Most of the fruit trees are now blooming in every neighborhood that has them planted. It’s again time for a fruitful life! So abundant, profitable, and beneficial for all humankind…I saw these things come alive at our very own neighborhood, our very own Lapog!

You see we don’t see these things very often here in the States. We don’t see the stars so bright at night but houses full of lights. We don’t see seaweeds, clams, fishes, fruits and vegetables being sold from house to house but only found in the market. I am now seeing mangoes in boxes for sale at $9.99 a box at the Asian Food Market while I can just go to Darao and climb a mango tree and pick a fruit myself. I don’t have that capability to do that here with our favorite tropical fruit trees. I have not seen any chesa here before. Neither of those lomboys nor star apple fruits. I have not seen those lansones and/or santol, sarguelas, karamay, and many more fruits that I’ve tasted while growing up there. I wonder when I can taste them over again. hhhmmm…. The only place I can think of with similarity to our place is Hawaii! And perhaps the cheaper way to go about if you have a big family as airfare hikes up so much on high season.

I feel that I want to see those happenings over again…Will it still be there? Did it change? Where are my neighbors now? It feels very different now and the change is not just gradual but so extreme. I don’t know how to explain it but real different..I can see people no longer have bicycle but chop chop. I didn’t see kalesas, or karisons. I didn’t see the things I expected to see when I was visiting. Is it only me, I say to myself. Perhaps someone out there can relay what I must have felt. Was it because I didn’t stay there very long? Do kids still go look for simmawas (beetles)? Do they still do: agtaep ti bagas, agbayo ti saba, aginnanderan, aginnudo, and all that physically fit activities of our past? I wonder….