Busy days

I'm busy these days. I'm busy reading the latest Harry Potter book. I'm busy attending meetings and sharing ideas and experiences to people who want to listen.

How I wish I will have more time just hanging out with friends, or watching a movie late in the evening, or sharing a few rounds of beer with colleagues.

A friend of mine once said it was my choice, that I could have more time if I want to. Sometimes I wish she was right. Sometimes I wish that I could close my eyes and ears to what's going on around me. I wish that I am not in the business of receiving and sharing information.

How I wish that wealth is shared equitably in this world, that people can just spend time reading Harry Potter books late in the evening without worrying that one has to wake up early in the morning to rush to the office.

I imagined what if I did not leave my hometown, what if I did not dream of getting an education here in Manila. What if I stayed home and continued what I did best when I was young – chopping wood in the mountains, fetching water, planting rice, taking care of farm animals and climbing coconut trees for copra.

Life would have been different. I would have not known Harry Potter and his magical world. I would have not known how difficult it is to drive a car in Metro Manila. I would have not trusted people who later in life would have turn out to be the opposite of what they pretend to be.

Would life be simpler? Maybe not. Maybe I would have ended drinking tuba in the morning and in the afternoon, attending bayles and going home to my little hut in the wee hours of the morning under the waning light of the full moon.

There are no ifs and buts in life. Maybe the friend of mine was right. Life is what we make of it. So, my apologies for not updating my blog these days. I have to finish reading the latest Harry Potter book to have more time to scan the growing pile of New Yorker, Time and Newsweek on my desk.

Iwasto ang mali

Tagal ko na palang 'di nakapag-post dito. Next time, please also try my GMANews.TV blog for updates.

Siguro narinig n'yo na ang balita tungkol sa mga librong mali ang laman (lalo na ang Ingles) pero ipinamahagi pa rin ng Department of Education sa mga estudyante sa elementarya.

Heto ang ilan sa mga nakakatawang pagkakamali. Sige nga, subukan nyo ngang itama:

* Stop playing in your computer now.
* Be in the peak of health.
* The typhoon is moving in a northeasternly direction.
* Around the pool is an orientally-designed porch.
* I have seen some orchids in our neighbor’s botanical gardens.
* Some plants are self-planters. They plant their own seeds.
* I’m capable of being the best me I can.
* The city’s voice is soft like solitudes.
* I dipped my tired feet into a basin of water to soothe the ache and fret.
* Do animals move only when the wind blows? What animals don’t move when there is no wind but move when the wind blows?
* Take me to the water breaks.
* Rizal made himself famous as a writer.
* Stars seem to twinkle because they are very far away. There are dwarf stars. They are like people.
* We celebrate in February People Power. In April, we recall the Death March, Bataan’s fall. May is a month of cold showers. July is a month to remember our American friends forever. We remember a birthday in August, Quezon’s so well-loved and famous.
* You should always address the envelop and leave it open.
* The children felt the bridge under them falling.
* He found his friend clowning himself around.
* Sometimes the elephant becomes angry with Kim for fooling the animal around.
* God wants me for a sunbeam to shine for Him each day.
* Kiosk: a somewhat similar structure open at one or more sides used as a bandstand.
* He seemed to be waiting for someone, not a blood relation, much less a bad blood.
* In bullfighting, the bulls are not the ones which fight with each other. It is very dangerous to face a bull that has been played with.
* “Here’s for you!” the guard said while hitting Basilio.
* The bamboo whirled till it spun like a top then stood tall and graceful as a queen but the hardwood tree hit the wind with its bark.
* Our hopes and dreams are like fleeting birds at night. People are not made to float like a bird.
* Galileo invented a magnifying telescope to study the moon.
* We grow our hogs in our own farms so you’re sure to get meat that is grown.
* As the campers trek through the trail at the rainboat they’ll stop now and then. They had huffs and puffs.
* The farmer is hopeful that someday he will reap with joy.
* The high flagpole could be seen easily. During windy days, the flag flies so high it doesn’t drop. The national anthem sounds so high that we cannot reach the pitch.
* The daily policeman reports to his post in the morning. He stands straight watching the vehicles go by. Those who stop late for the red light are apprehended.
* The chicken was dressed. They stripped off her feathers, served her quite bare and everyone poked at her breast.
* Open door on back of camera, place film and close camera door.
* Choke: stop breath by blocking the windpipe. The baby was choke from eating biscuits.
* The bat licks itself like a cat; after washing up, it flies away.
* Not all mountains are made by wrinkles in the ground.
* God’s footsteps bulged the mountains up. God like morning bending over her baby kneeled down in the dust.
* Because you made a fool of me, you’ll get the greatest wrath. I’m afraid of the wrath of the stem.
* The lakes widdled down in the hollows of the ground.
* The hen walked coquetly.
* When he smells something foul, it makes him squirmish.
* The potato pursued a disapproving lip.
* Look at the sky at night. You see the moon and the stars. Then you see lightning flashes and you hear thunder before the downpour of rain. Why is the sky? And why is the sky?

Kapatirang Claretiano

Ilang saglit sa CDO, hapunan sa Manolo Fortich

Ang sarap ng steak sa Manolo Fortich sa Bukidnon. Ang kapal ng karne pero ang lambot. Siguro dahil pinya lang ang kinakain ng mga baka doon.

Ang ganda pa rin sa Mindanao, kahit na meron nang SM sa Cagayan de Oro. Malamig pa rin ang hangin, malayo pa rin ang naaabot ng mga mata habang bumibiyahe sa highway.

Masaya sa CDO lalo na gabi ng Biyernes at Sabado. Meron silang night market. Nakabili pa nga ako ng short pants at baseball cap sa ukay-ukay. May live band din at kainan at inuman. Sa isang piano bar naman ako nagpalipas ng oras.

Nakakalungkot lang na mukhang dumarami ang mga batang prosti at bugaw sa lansangan, lalo na malapit sa mga hotel at inn. Mukhang malaking problema itong dapat harapin ng local government at ng mga pulis.

Hindi nagdadala ng condom ang mga prosti sa CDO. Minsan daw kasi bigla na lang nagtsi-check ang mga pulis at hinuhuli ang mga batang babaeng may tinatagong condom.

Mukhang walang matandang prosti sa CDO. Panay mga bata. Sabi nga, 'di sila makapandaya na estudyante lang sila, karamihan kasi ay mukhang mga "pupil" lang.

Marami na ring dumadayong turista sa CDO. Sumisikat na ang river rafting at entry point na rin ang siyudad papuntang Camiguin, Iligan, Bukidnon at mga malalapit na mga bayan.

Ang swerte ni Bedol

Natapos din ang paghahanap kay Lintang Bedol, ang elections supervisor sa Maguindanao na ipina-aresto ng Comelec dahil sa hindi pagpapakita sa canvassing ng resulta ng eleksyon.

Nakita si Bedol sa Davao nitong nakalipas na linggo. Hindi naman daw siya sumuko, hindi naman daw nahuli.

Baka nga naman nakasalubong lang niya ang mga pulis na naghanap sa kanya at sumama na lang siyang kusa dahil gusto niyang mamasyal sa Maynila.

"Not guilty" ang sagot ni Bedol sa bintang na "indirect contempt" dahil sa hindi niya pagpapakita sa canvassing noong Mayo. Pansamantala siyang pinakawalan ng Comelec nitong Martes. Magastos naman kasi kung patuloy na maninirahan si Bedol sa hotel sa Maynila. P2,200 hanggang P2,700 ang bayad sa isang kwarto bawat gabi doon.

Comelec ang magbabayad sa kwarto ni Bedol. Sila kasi ang nagpahuli sa kanya. Sabi naman ng PNP, kung 'di kaya ng Comelec bayaran ang hotel, sila na lang daw ang sasagot sa gastos. PNP kasi ang humuli kay Bedol.

Swerte ni Bedol. Nakalibre siya ng tulog sa hotel at ng pamasahe sa eroplano mula Davao papuntang Maynila. Marami pa siyang badigard.

Naalala ko tuloy ang isang manunulat na hinuli dahil sa demandang libel. Kinuha siya sa kanyang opisina sa Ortigas, isinakay sa taxi papuntang Pasig kung saan ang istasyon ng pulis, nang bumaba na sa sasakyan, siya ang pinagbayad ng pulis ng pamasahe.

Pasensya na raw, sabi ng pulis, wala silang pera. Malas lang ng reporter. Siya na nga ang hinuli, siya pa ang pinagbayad ng pamasahe. Kung alam lang niya na siya ang magbabayad, sana nag-jeep na lang sila o kaya'y nag-traysikel.

Swerte talaga ni Bedol.

Pero, teka, papaano kaya siya uuwi sa kanila? May dala kayang pamasahe ang mama? O baka naman may bahay siya dito sa Maynila.