THE CHILDREN OF ALMAGUER

We spent our childhood living near churches and schools.

After that, we finally settled for good in a house uprooted to Abagatan from Sonsona, in a place where Lakay Burik cleared his lost lands, away from them churches and schools.

From that place, college took us one by one and we started drifting away.

I got married and stayed in my great paternal grandmother's province of Nueva Ecija.

The old folks died one after the other.

Che's husband moved his family to his father's home province of Pangasinan.

Serwet stayed in the the old house in Almaguer, now concrete and galvanized, before leaving for Hong Kong to work there with his wife.

The last time the three of us were together was when an uncle died ages ago although Facebook and occasional phone calls kept us in touch.

So when Serwet came home for a 1 week vacation, we decided to get sunburned for a day.

We were almost all there.

We snacked on Jollibee spaghetti and lunched on Mang Inasal chicken.

The kids danced with the artificial waves, burned their butts down the slide, zipped down the line, and even sang "Luha" for me. 

Then we went our own ways: me to our house near the church and school in Bacal 2, Che to their residence in Pozzorubio which is actually a church, and Serwet to the old place in Almaguer where a Mormon church was almost built.

Sunburn never felt so good.

Mom and Dad must be smiling down on their grand kids...