Anahawan Central School - A Recollection

June 1986, first day of classes, it was a scary day. A 6-year old is about to encounter one of the most fearsome experiences of his childhood.

My sister pointed me to that small building at the Southeast corner of the campus. On slippers, and with that very cool net bag on my back, I walked anxiously towards an entirely unknown territory, out of the comfort of my home and away from my parents’ safeguard. Every kid is a stranger and not one of them looked familiar. They were all playing, running around, and seemed to already know each other well. And then, few meters away, fear knocked my senses out and could no longer take another step.

Tweet

Ginamos for Sale

Warning: This post is not for the demure :).

“Order ka ginamos? Just text us, we deliver.”

This is what I imagine selling of ginamos would be in the near future. As time and society change, product selling is no longer limited to the stores, tiangge, or display houses. The internet today has now become one of the strongest marketing tools in any industry and any business that is not able to adapt to this change will have hard time keeping up.

And so I predict that even in this so-called “facebook” generation, Anahawnons will always love this humble delicacy that we inherited from our ancestors many generations back in our history. Even those who have reached the furthest islands in the country, or those who have now achieved certain levels of success and are enjoying the greener pastures in the first worlds would, at times, crave for and hope for their love ones back home to send them scoops of ginamos. In fact, I believe that any Anahawnon who does not love ginamos have no absolute bragging rights of being an Anahawnon :).

Tweet

Pacquiao vs. Margarito

The Pacquiao vs. Margarito fight is one that I enjoyed the most, of all the Pacquiao fights. But only because, unlike previous Pacquiao fights, this time I was able to totally get rid of all the spoilers who leak the results of the Pacquiao fight even before it is aired on GMA7, which is already few hours delayed.

Tweet

Tuna, Tuna, Tuna Fish

One of the best things that I miss about Anahawan:

Tuna, tuna, tuna fish

fresh from the fisherman's boat

get 'em cheap

or buy 'em high

if he's your man

y'can get 'em free.

"Tuna, tuna, tuna fish" is a poem that Mrs. Armonia taught my class in Grade 6. Today, I'm a trying-hard poet trying to construct a similar one. Pardon me though, the crap don't even rhyme!

In common Anahawnon terms, we don't usually refer to those fishes as tuna. What we have are tulingan, mangko, and bulis. I'm not really good in remembering fish names but I notice that in Manila, our tulingan is tuna, and our mangko is tulingan. So that confused me at first, and probably, you too. Anyway, the wet market is not my favorite place, so it does not really matter to me.

Tweet