Good Morning Anahawan, Goodbye Anahawan

The thing that bothers me about buying a round trip ticket for a vacation is that it reminds me that the good time being planned is also going to end soon. Even worse is that it could psyche one into a countdown towards the end of the vacation, the day to leave home again. I just wish that, someday, I would be able to go home without thinking of the day that I would leave again, or at least be able to stay there for as long as I wanted to.

Blog Commenting System and Site Loading Speed

For those who have been visiting this blog for the past few days, you might have noticed the changes that have been occurring to this blog. It was part of an attempt to speed up this blog for slow speed internet connection. Last week, we conducted a survey to determine how this blog is performing for its readers. One of the most important problems pointed out is the slow loading speed of this blog. I was suspecting it was the facebook comment plug-in that is causing the slow speed of this blog. I tried replacing it with disqus and intensedebate for a few days but they do not seem to improve the speed. Besides, I understand that many readers of this blog are facebook users so comment systems other than facebook’s make it inconvenient for users to share their views.

Problema sa Tubig?

It is hard to imagine that Anahawan’s water reserves could finally dry out considering its relatively untouched forests, that is, when compared to those of fully developed towns or cities. Complaints mostly came from residents around the upper areas of Barangay Dijo but there were also few coming from certain areas of Lo-ok. Water shortage has been mostly experienced around 6 to 7 in the morning - also a common case in many other communities.

I first learned of this issue when I uploaded a picture of that pond-and-statue at the center of Anahawan park a few months ago. Some commented that there was supposed to be water coming up that statue. After few exchanges of comments, Anahawnons were airing problems of water shortage in their own households.

Ang Kinalami-an Nga Sud-an

Responses to that article about ginamos (salted fish) posted in this blog last month has proven that ginamos really is gold for many Anahawnons, especially to those who have been away in other countries for a while now. Some people who saw the links on facebook got the impression that I was also selling ginamos. Though most of them were just "kiddie" comments, I think I got at least one serious inquiry on how to place an order. If I was ready that time, I would have jump-started on that business opportunity. :) For those who have not read that post yet, you can read it here: Ginamos for Sale.

So what else is gold for the Anahawnons?

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.

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 :).