Summer Memories and Dreams

Okay I've not ben updating my blog as often as I had wanted to but I have been quite busy the past few days spending more time in the library for my research works, and also to find a job so I could survive the hard summer expenditures. A lot of people just don't have much money these days. And that includes me.

The heat is really sweltering, everyone I meet on the streets frowns like mad. Good thing my old airconditioning unit still works fine and even though I see people outside my house sweating it out with the afternoon sun, I still managed to sleep with the covers on top of me.

Yet, Summer in the Philippines is not as hot as in other tropical countries. Perhaps this is because the Philippines is an archipelago and the waters around it helps to make things cool up a bit. This is especially so in the provinces near the beaches like Laguna, Batangas, and most especially the Visiyan provinces.

I still remember the time I spent summer in Malajog beach (Calbayog) in Samar last year. The heat was terrible inland (but not as sweltering as in Manila), but when you get to the beach, the cool wind just makes you think it wasn't summer after all.

When I took a dip into the sea, it felt really cold like taking a bath in early December mornings. The funny thing is if my upper half body is submerged in the sea, it felt really cold down there, but the other upper half exposed to the sun felt the damning heat especially on my shoulders.

Good thing about Malajog Beach and other Samar beaches is that they are not too crowded by people, especially by foreigners, just like what is happening in Boracay where you would see foreigners just everywhere.

Samar is a place where foreigners are still thinking twice to go to. The Warays seemd to get bad publicity allegedly because of their bad tempers. I think this misconcepton is due to the attack by the Warays on the Americans in what is now known as the Balangiga Massacre of 1901. But we must remember that there was a war going on then and that the Americans were even more ruthless in their conduct of war, especially when they get to revenge for the massacre as ordered by General Jacob "Howling Widerness" Smith. He got the epithet because he ordered the U.S. Army to kill all male populations of Samar able to carry a jungle bolo, and to transform the whole island into a "howling wilderness".

When I first went to Samar a few years back, my Nanay even plead that I must not go because something might happen to me on such a faraway place. It's like I'm going to another country? hehe. Being the independent person that I am, I respectfully told her that I know what I'm doing, that I'm only going to Samar, and not Iraq or Afghanistan, and that I'm happy doing it. She just said to me to be careful always in my Samar adventure.

I'm still planning to go back to Samar in the next few months because I have been planning to buy a small waterfront lot there at a very cheap price. The real estate value of land in Samar is still very cheap compared to other island provinces of the Philippines.

Well, I could build a small nipa hut there, sorround it with a garden of wildflowers, and then, as the heat of Summer rolls ahead, I'd be taking a cool dip in the ocean a few feet away from me.

On summer evenings, I would just lie on a couch in front of the beach and gaze at the maligering twilight that gives way to the the enchanting views of a moonlit and starlit night..... Well, everyone has his own little dreams and this one from me isn't too big too.