What I Miss
21st April 2006
Home
I miss the home I lived in. I miss the people I shared it
with.
I miss Jen Jen. Her English was
never the best, but she always had a smile for me. I'll miss her
giggle as she explained to me who the "Sexy Stars" were on
the Big Brother show. I'll miss her kindness. I'll miss her
malicious cleaning of my room when I wasn't looking. I miss buying
Mountain Dews from her. The memory of her sobbing her eyes out in
the Sari Sari store as I left will never leave
me.
I miss Reza. I miss her
generosity. I will miss receiving unaccepted gifts from her. Necklaces,
houses-in-bottles, t-shirts
and photos are just a few that
spring to mind. I miss her explaining words to me. The way
she explained Yudi* to me can only be described as
truly heroic.
I miss Nicole.
She is a good kid. I miss her "Tito Malcolm" 's.
I miss her infectious grin that will break hearts when she is
older. I miss her shyness when she realizes unknown people are
looking at her. I miss her silly games. Sometimes
with me. Indi si Nicole. Wală bula. Sometimes
with her friends, Fafs, Saphire
and Ken Ken.
I miss my Filipino Home. I miss the hum
of the ceiling fan in my room. I miss, in
a strange way, sleeping like a question mark in a too small
bed.
I miss waking up in the morning and stepping over the still sleeping
people on the floor. I miss wondering just who the people were and whether or not I should know them.
Sometimes there were two, sometimes three, sometimes more.
I miss sitting on the floor. The sofas were just too
small.
I miss the meals that
Jen
Jen prepared for me. I miss waking up and having my breakfast
just there. I miss the mangoes, I miss the chicken curries
and, yes, I even miss the rice that was served for breakfast, lunch and
dinner.
 Dumangas Country Village
I miss Dumangas Country Village (D.C.V.).
I miss wandering past Cute's
house and hearing her shout "Si Malcolm gwapo gid. Ngaa
wală miga?". (Malcolm is very handsome. Why does
he have no girlfriend?)
I miss visiting my good friend Eden.
I miss her quirky sense of humor that matched my own. I miss
joking with her about the buang club. I miss the way she
would laugh. I miss her love of family and country. She
would do anything for both of them.
I miss Vincent.
I miss seeing him corner volunteers and giving them the "Vincent
Lecture", where Vincent would explain how much the volunteers were
appreciated. He would explain how even if it seemed like we were
contributing a little bit, it meant a whole lot to the community.
I miss Vincent billing me 10 pesos for a glass of water. I must
owe him a sizeable portion of the Philippines national debt by
now. Cheque's in the mail Vincenzo.
I miss Amay.
I miss the way he could win anyone over with his big grin. I miss his dancing.
I miss his generosity.
I miss spending time with the volunteers in all
their various incarnations. It is odd looking back and seeing the
various groups that I was a part of. One
group morphed into another, then another,
then another, then another,
then another, then another
and yet another.
I miss Raymund,
who only briefly visited D.C.V. Raymund is responsible for setting
up a volunteer branch of the Global
Volunteer Network in the Philippines. He was heartbroken when G.V.N.
left Dumangas. I miss the times I spent with Raymund talking
about the radical (and sometimes scary) ideas he had for helping his
people. Desperate measures for desperate times... His
passion and nobility are to be admired.
The current administration is
not fond of Raymund. I'm pretty sure that gma and Raymund would
never get together for a few quiet San Migs. The administration
recently shut down his opinionated radio show. I'd hate to think what
would happen to my mate Raymund if martial law was ever declared in the
Philippines again. Check out his blog here.
Halong Amigo.
 The Place
I miss Dumangas.
I miss taking the shortcut
out of D.C.V. and walking down the road into town.
I miss the many greetings I got along the
way.
Them: Maayoung Hapon Si Malcolm.
Me: Maayoung Hapon man.
Them: Diin Makadto?
Me: Didto. Didto. Makadto ko sa
banwa.
Them: Oh! Very good!
I miss the many requests I got for rides to
Iloilo from the Filcab drivers.
I miss watching the kids play basketball in the
town pavilion.
I miss wandering past the market
and the bevy of tricycle drivers outside.
I miss the rides on
the tricycles and jeepneys. Nothing makes you feel alive quite
like riding on the roof of a tricycle or hanging
off the back of a jeepney.
The
School
I miss the school that I taught at, Pulao
Elementary School.
Teachers
I miss the teachers
that I spent my breaks with, taught with and discoed
with.
I miss Mam Ivy's attempts at trying to get me a
wife and the very single Mam Thercy in
particular. I used to say to her that I could tell she was teasing
me because her lips were moving. I'll miss her goofiness.
Posing for semi-erotic photos with Mam
Agnes was the height of good humor for Mam Ivy.
I miss Mam Canque's able support to Mam
Ivy's attempts. I miss her jokes (?) about me finding her a
new husband in New Zealand. Her preferences were, in
order: A good attitude, rich and then ugly. She felt that a ugly
husband would be better as he wouldn't fool around...
I miss Sir Jolo. I miss the rides he
gave me on his very dodgy motorbike. I miss the talks we had about
the history of the Philippines.
I miss my good friend, Mam Thercy. I
miss visiting her humble home that I was too embarrassed to take a photo
of. I miss her appreciation of the things I did for the
school. I miss her nobleness in working as a teacher and sharing
her measly income ($6.25 a day) with struggling relatives. I miss
her kindness. I miss her friendship.
Student
Teachers
I miss the student
teachers.
I miss Ricky.
I miss his humbleness and generosity. He invited me to his house
for lunch as a way of saying thank you. His family was dirt poor
but still open their house and fed me until the rice oozed from my
eyes.
I miss Remia,
or Rems. I miss her desire to make her country a better place by
teaching the children. I miss the text message conversations we
had. I miss the flirty
ones and I miss the nice ones:
Same wid us sad 2 say gudbye.. dnt 4get we
alwyz remember u wrever u r n dz world. thanx 4 evrytng dat uv
done 2 me and all of us
I miss Sherlyn.
I miss sharing a classroom with her as she looked upon my zany
teaching techniques. I miss the chats we had. I miss
getting her name confused with her sisters Sherla
and Sheila. I miss the hospitality she displayed in inviting me
to her home for lunch. Like most
Filipinos, her family does not have a lot but were prepared to share
what little they had with me.
I miss Emily,
or Beauty. I miss the way she hit me when I teased her. I
miss the way she called me Sir Coolio. I miss her kindness and
her generosity. I'm sure the t-shirt
she gave me was a financial strain for her.
Pupils
Most of all, I miss the pupils of Pulao Elementary School.
I miss Jamaica's
stomp when she didn't get her way.
I miss Joseph's
nobleness and desire to do the right thing.
I miss Pamela
saying "I know the answer sir. It's so easy".
I miss the way Renalyn's
eyes would sparkle when she knew she had the answer figured
out.
I miss seeing Angelito
discover the inner glow that comes from a good education.
I miss Janica.
A skinny kid with a heart of gold.
I miss the way Michelle
rolled her eyes when she clicked to a idea.
I miss the trust that Joccy
had in me. No one else has ever shared their crush with me
before...
I miss Regie May's
appreciation and the way she called me the most handsomest boy in the
world.
I miss the crazy students. Sherla's
in Grade Six, Gilbert in Grade Five and Mary
Queen in Grade Four.
I miss the way Arles
would cheat. He had no shame.
I miss Angee's
sulk.
I miss April
Grace's shyness when we passed each other in Dumangas Country Village.
I miss Yolly's
responsibility. The teachers trusted her with the keys to the
school.
I miss Joy Joy's
heart. I met no sweeter kid in the Philippines.
I miss the way Krizel
Joy would pinch me to get my attention.
I miss Reegine's
grumpiness when I wouldn't give her my undivided attention.
I miss Karen's
smile. The smile appeared briefly when I finally got her to learn
her one-times table.
I miss Laarni
banging the table with her fist when I didn't ask her to answer the
question. I will also miss her sweetness.
I miss getting Leo
and Anjo confused.
I miss the "small but
beautiful" Mae Joy.
I miss telling Lester
that smoking is really stoopid.
Man, I just miss the Philippines so much...
* Yudi: Used to tease two people
about romantic things. Often accompanied by a rolling of the shoulders.
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(c)
2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to
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