| Serious post incoming.
I don't know if I wrote about it or if it was one of those things I was always meaning to write about, but the last time we visited the Philippines was the summer of 2008. We stayed at a modest, two-bedroom house we had apparently always stayed at, where my mom and her three siblings grew up. There, my two uncles, the oldest and the youngest of the siblings, lived as well as the youngest's wife and their two children. Everyone was very accommodating and, by the end of the trip I had grown very attached to them. To be honest, I cried for a good portion of the way back, but in my defense, I had no access to the internet on a semi-daily basis and the only people I got to talk to were mostly relatives. After the trip, I got a crapton of friend requests from various relatives and family friends in the Philippines but, most importantly, from my family in that little blue house. Maybe about a year afterward as I was getting a ride to school, my mom informed me that my aunt had apparently cheated on my uncle with a man from Canada or something. Obviously I was upset, as at that point I had considered him my favorite uncle. And according to my mom the rest of the family here was even more so, because we had apparently paid for her way through nursing school for the sole purpose of getting them to move here to the States. Shortly after this news, I noticed my aunt had either vanished from Facebook or defriended me and went invisible, so I had no choice but to believe the story.
Flash forward to my vacation now with a handful of differences this time around. For one, my mom and step father bought a house that they plan on living in when they retire (and this is a whole 'nother 'nother thing but, rest assured, there will be no long-winded blog about it... yet) so it's only me and my grandma staying in the same small house. Then there's obviously the missing aunt, who at this point I have heard absolutely nothing about in the last two years. A whole lot of nothing happens for the first couple of weeks outside of playing games and stuff (another big difference: I brought my laptop this time and, while I was gone, my uncle upgraded the router here to a wireless one) until my cousins stateside come here, which we then start doing tourist-y things. After they left, I did some more stuff and then last night happens. Several things happened last night. One of the minor accomplishments involved being dizzy and public urination. It was pretty neat. The second thing, however, was far from minor; my aunt had come by to visit. By this time in my vacation I actually got closer with my cousins, her and my uncle's children, here so I was hanging out with them on a daily basis. When she popped her head in the through the door, the immediately left the room we were in to greet her. She had also brought her nephew, who I had met the last time but vaguely remembered. At first I didn't know how quite to react; should I just go in my room and wait for her to leave? I decided to hang around the door to my room and talk a bit to get a sense of the situation instead of giving the cold shoulder and I quickly found that, at least on the outside, there seemed to be no hostility between my uncle and aunt. They talked openly to each other and even joked about a few things. She was also quite friendly with me as well, complimenting me about something and talking to me about random things. And I know it could have been "for show" or whatever seeing as their kids were right there, but later in the night when the kids had both gone to sleep they still talked and joked as if nothing really happened between them, so I figured it was genuine. We sat around in the living room and talked for a bit. I had a conversation with my not-really-cousin-cousin (my aunt's nephew) about video games and work in the Philippines, and then we had dinner. After dinner, my cousins went to bed and my uncle convinced me to have a drink. My uncle's friend had brought over some beer and so we decided to drink outside. There I talked more with my not-so-cousin-y-cousin, mostly about video games (he happens to play the rival game to the one I play) until my uncle tells us to move over to this little hut-like thing. I'm describing it poorly here, but I will say that it felt very bar-like so the move wasn't unappreciated. Time flies and I have just the right amount to drink to get tipsy, frequently use the washroom, and lose my sense of time. For comparison, we had started drinking around 9PM and it was evidently 1AM by the time everyone aside from myself and my cousin-who's-not-quite-my-cousin-in-the-conventional-sense. He and I ended up taking a tricycle (according to Wikipedia, it's the Filipino term for the "auto rickshaw", not even joking) to the Filipino equivalent of a 7-11 to get Gatorade and sober up. At this point we had talked quite a lot, something I'm attributing to the alcohol, so I decided to ask him about what exactly the deal was between my uncle and aunt. I wasn't quite prepared for what he said: my uncle was a paranoid, short-tempered person and had allegedly hit my aunt, causing her to leave.
I didn't know what to think. Hell, I'm sober now and I still don't know what to think. In retrospect it made sense; they had fought often three years ago and my uncle only ever seemed to get mad at everyone but me. But hitting his wife? He always seems so laidback, but... Now here I am, writing about it, hoping I could make some sense of it by the time I got to this sentence. I'll let you know right now that I haven't. And it sucks. --- Just in case you were wondering, the drinks I had were Philippines-brewed beers, San Mig Light and Red Horse. San Mig Light is your standard beer, 5% alcohol and all that, but Red Horse gave no indication as to what its alcohol level was. Everyone kept telling me that "the Red Horse will kick you." I didn't know what that meant until a) I had to relieve myself in an alley somewhere in downtown Imus, and b) I had wicked stomach acid issues in the morning. I'm looking into bringing some back to the States, but we'll see how that goes.
Anyway, see you all later. |
