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MANKAYAN 2009

 

My coffee moment...


End of January 2009, I decided to travel with my siblings to Mankayan to give our last respects for auntie Jane, someone who had been to us a consistent caring mother-figure in that old hometown even after we left the place for years.

The travel to Mankayan is a journey back in time. It's centered mostly on our store-resto named Mankayan Cafe, full with childhood and growing up memries.

Hitting the Halsema highway set the time backwards. This was punctuated by the intermittent smell of chicken dung, as we tried to overtake trucks and trucks of fertilizer backloads! Made my temple throb. The smell was like that pesky fly that would not go away.

It was a chilly January. The cemented Mt Trail was no longer that boring, compared to the rugged, bumpy road way back then. I was on the middle seat, no choice, as I wasn't able to beat Ming to the window, and of course, I couldn't argue with Dammi to give up her side. Nways, it was a smooth ride, of course, sans the chicken dung smell! We stopped by Sayangan. Ate balut and green mangoes! The 'munisipyo' in Poblacion looked the same as it was before many decades ago. I broke a glass-door at the rooftop in high school and I fainted for the first time in my life! Blood drained from my head and I swooned, the world dimming and swirling. When I opened my eyes the whole cast of the drama club practicing for that night were all eyes on me like I was some specimen on an operating table. I was lying on some table and quickly assessed what happened to me. I had no bloody injury. I remember running towards an open door not realizing that I hit the glass door. Maybe I did it in slow motion that no shards fell on me.
St. John's Parish, my old church. Good to visit and see it still doing good, and even better.

I appreciate the ECW all in white. Twas nice to bid lovingly a friend that way, singing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken". We stayed in church the whole night for the wake, singing til 3 in the morning. Time to go. The body will be burried in Besao. 4 in the morning, we had the final prayers and we set off to travel back to Baguio.

I looked down at the plaza and took pictures. Got these orb strewn pics instead. Mankayan heaven!
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