Route 1
Steps less: 2548
7:10?
Skater boys Sun strikes me at this time
The house
- no longer as i remember it
- actually, i no longer even remember what it looks like
- Peache and white
- Fenced
- with a guard house
- A taxi waits in front
- I look for a far space to stand up to avoid alerting anyone
- i pretend as if i am a commuter waiting for a jeep (man vehicles here at this hour: jeep but mostly taxi)
- Taxi leaves and someone comes out of the gate and locks it
Memories
- the robbery
- I come out of the gate with maroon long sleeves and a spotted yellow tie, leather shoes with long nose
I don’t remember walking here and the past and seeing this vantage point overlooking Mt. Data. Perhaps I saw it but never care. This place gives one a good view of the mountain famous for its Mickey-Mouse-like sattelite disks and of course La Fresa. For me, Mt. Data is one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever done. I remember telling myself when I got on it and looked on the cliff below in the morning after the night we spent inside the tent. Told myself, “I’ll return to you in paradise.”
I would return to Mt. Data but not on top of that cave about two years later when we conducted a survey looking for deaf in the area. Spent an entire day asking but found none.
Baguio Convention Center
- in recent years it has been: an alternative bus station (when the terminal at Gov Pack was under construction). During the COVID-19 pandemic this became the triage where passengers went thru.
- I cant remember it being this guarded. Fenced and a security guard looks over me as I take photos and write on my phone.
- I see its windows open. See thru the inside
- It was renovated. Gov really invested in it.
Memories
- meeting CO unknowingly by accident
- Interpreted main talk
- Attending an assembly no longer part of the baguio sign language cong but of uslg
This pine trees area near it is what’s enduring
Passes by CSWD and memories of getting records arrive.
Old session kh
- closed
- They may have transferred to the new kh i’ll go to
- Kh inscribed on gate as if to own the place forever
- Long before i’ll transfer to baguio, this was where I attended several meetings when I was young
- My family had a friend. Brent. Foreigner. He married Kate, a Filipina (talk about this story more)
Trash day at Valenzuela street A garbage boy passes by May have been paid ₱20 to bring bags to the street Trash bags line the street Collector coming soon and all things that have come to pass shall be hauled
Today, I am my own garbage boy
Mabini elem school
- Today, this is where I bring my niece and nephew to school and fetch them when I come visit.
- In the past, a little boy and her sister also used to spend time with me here
- This parking area is our spot. The two children has a brother who was baptized in the faith but left early. He was way older than the two. Older than me for a few years. Their parents esp the father was the closest to a mentor I had. Perhaps even to a father. How did they felt when I left without saying goodbye? How did they deal with losing another brother out of the faith?
- A taxi driver stops on the waiting shed where I sat down to write these words.
- He too, kuya tom was a taxi driver. He would be on a two-day shift to earn money. Too tired and sleepy to talk to me sometimes. But he trained me. Gave me the ins and outs of leading a congregation. The couple told me all the stories they knew about this well-known brother and that. Scandals in the cong. I was very young at this stage but perhaps they think i was ready to hear these stuff. I’m glad I have forgotten about these stories.
I led my nephew at this school awhile ago. Now he is reading a book or listening to his teacher.
Bonifacio Street
- a lot easier to walk here now
- Play of lights
- At this tim (9:16) some building block the light giving us shade
- I walk here no longer as an evangelist fighting for one way of living. I walk as a photographer-writer looking for lights, different ways of seeing one thing. I’ve never held strong beliefs or convictions about anything and because of this, I came at odds to people even with friends who are a bit at the far side of their belief systems. It is so difficult to explain myself sometimes. To say. Hey, I had to fight to contend to grieve just to be in a position that is this open. So sorry if I cant take sides. Sorry if I refuse to fight for the poor or the rich or the have or the have nots. If I may, I want to have this freedom and enjoy it for a while.
- Many churches alongside SLU
Rimando Road
- great view of aurora hill
- never stopped to appreciate this before
- If i had meditstion and mindfulness training i mah have been a better pastor
- I look for signs of places familiar
- Ambiong I can see
Summerhill kh
- it is in one of these establishments where I used to eat with my friends after meetings. Here I watched as tsunami engulfed Japan in 2011. A few weeks later, I got depressed
- Ground floor now parking, that was where I took a nap before my PSS
- Still has some exit ways
- but it is no longer the same place and somehow a part of me is happy.
- A few men are working, cleaning the building. It is Monday. Things like this usually happen here. I recognize at least one of them. I promise not to take any photo of people i used to know in the church so I didn’t photograph the side of the church. I will see the kh in the coming walks so will take more photos later.
On my way back I saw the balili river. Of course ive seen it before but now i took a closer look of it. For some reason i felt the need for my camera to zoom and look down closer and to focus my sight given the glare.
The people I loved in that church those i really loved are now gone. Faces are different. I of course went way of course.
I felt uneasy. As if a voyeaur looking at these people from a far. I walked away and sar on a part where I can see no one and only the building. Tell observations.
I left still feeling weird. But this feeling is expected. There is no goal in this walk like meditstion. I dont desire for reconciliation. If it is uneasy so be it. Wht is important is I explore these new emotions and try to be with them.