Back in my Beloved Islands

James and I arrived in Manila at night on January 4. Fortunately, we were able to adjust to the new time zone right away thanks to never getting over our jet lag while in Turkey. We hit the ground running upon arrival because we had some friends joining us and lots planned with them.

Since I knew for a while that I would be spending some time in the Philippines, I went around telling people throughout the last couple of years that they should visit me while I was there. I told them they could stay with me and I would show them around. Three people took the bait and actually flew across the world to hold me to my word. The three people were Julio, my first friend from college (we met in April 2014 during admitted students' weekend); Kyla, a friend I first met on zoom (I was helping her unionize her workplace); and Nate, Kyla's partner whom Kyla and I knew would get along with James even before the two of them met (both have the inclination to engage in conversations that even I find too intellectual).

I was especially excited for our tour because nobody from my life in the US had ever gone to the Philippines to see me before. In preparation for our trip, the five of us did two zoom calls as a group to talk about things to do, but the organizing and planning was pretty much left to me. I didn't realize how much of a heavy lift it would be (a recurring theme in the things I take on, it seems), and taking charge of the ten days we had together made me realize how being a travel agent is a full time job. The work actually fried my brain so much to the point where I booked a 6 am flight from Cebu to Manila thinking it was a 6 pm flight, leading us to miss the 6 am flight and me having to rebook. I had never missed a flight due to my own negligence before, so it was a humbling experience. It made sense for me to lead the trip on my own, considering I was the only "local" with any competency in Filipino languages, and I did my best. Fortunately, everyone had a wonderful time and was very forgiving of my missteps. I am very proud to come from my beautiful archipelago home and have so much love for the islands, and I like to think that it showed.

Before I continue on with my reflections, it is time for the usual recap photo dump of my adventures. Here is a pic of the crew all together with my grandma in her apartment!

Our group tour started out with a day trip to Taal Lake, which is famously known for having a volcano in the middle of it. It erupted in early 2020 (incidentally during my last trip to the Philippines) so you couldn't actually do the hike up to the volcano's edge and see the crater lake, but we were able to tour around by boat. 

A couple days later, we flew to Cebu, my home island. The day we arrived, we met my grandpa for lunch in my childhood home and then went around the historic parts of the city. It was very festive in preparation for Sinulog, the annual cultural and religious festival held every third Sunday of January. For dinner, we met up with Jillian, my best friend from elementary school. 

At Fort San Pedro, the old Spanish fort

At the pavilion near the Basilica Santa Niño. You can see the image of the Santo Niño in the background!

I have seen Jillian on every visit back to the Philippines since I moved in 2007!

The next day, we got in a van with our driver named Joecar (yes that's his real name) to cross the island on our way to a beach town called Moalboal. We checked in to our resort, Hale Manna, and spent the afternoon and evening there relaxing. 

Van selfie!

Kyla and me at the floating platform in the sea

Sunset our first night

The next day, we had a bright and early start for a tour of southern Cebu. We got picked up at around 4 am and went to Oslob, a town that has become known for its whale shark sightseeing. I had been there in 2014 to see the whale sharks and was shocked at how touristy the town had become since then. We got in the queue at around 6:30 and had to wait a couple hours for our turn, but luckily we could eat and have coffee and shop for souvenirs nearby. Eventually, we got on a little boat that took us not too far out the shore, and we were able to see a bunch of baby (but still huge) whale sharks. 

Pictures were challenging to get but this one turned out really good!

From there, we stopped by Sumilon sand bar and then headed back to Moalboal so we could go on an island hopping snorkeling tour. The main creature highlights were the school of sardines and sea turtles. I also loved being on the boat and admiring the tropical island views. 

Me being a beach bum at the Sumilon sand bar

A sea turtle and me

Our delicious dinner back at the resort after a day spent exploring

The next day, Joecar picked us up and then drove us to Mactan Island, one of Cebu's satellite islands. There, we would spend one night at Shangrila, a beach resort that I would frequent growing up. It was where my sister and I learned to walk and snorkel!

We had to get a picture at this tricycle we saw at a rest stop.

On the way to the resort, we stopped by Ferangeli handcrafted guitars so I could order a custom ukulele for myself. Mactan is well-known for its guitar industry!

A starfish skeleton I found on the beach in Shangrila

My first time playing mini golf–there were 14 courses and it was a lot of fun!

We got to attend a cultural show where a group performed traditional dances. This is Sayaw sa Bangko, which I performed while in college!

Julio and me matching for our buffet dinner

Us at the lobby

While on Mactan, we visited Mactan Shrine. It is a landmark that commemorates the site where the explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a battle against indigenous Filipinos defending their homeland. The battle became known as the Battle of Mactan. It felt fitting to be there at that moment, after I previously traveled to Lisbon in 2022 and Punta Arenas in 2023. Although I did not deliberately plan it, I ended up retracing the route Magellan and his crew took on their ill-fated voyage. At each point, I experienced how the communities impacted by the voyage treated its legacy. I saw the Monument to the Discoveries in Lisbon, which glorified the expedition. I saw the monument dedicated to Magellan in Punta Arenas and the Strait of Magellan in the Region of Magallanes, where everything is named after him. And finally, in the region where I was raised, I stood with the monument honoring the anticolonial hero who led the first known indigenous resistance against the Europeans' incursion.

Me at the Monument to the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos) in Lisbon, Portugal

  

Me at the main square in Punta Arenas, Chile, with the Magellan monument (my friend saw this when I posted on Instagram and said something like "he would hate how flirty this looks" 😂)

An optical shop named after Magellan (though to be fair, the whole region is named Magallanes)

Haku my emotional support alpaca at the Strait of Magellan

A marker commemorating the expedition in Cebu City. I liked that the globe shows South America!

A billboard commemorating the 502nd anniversary of the Battle of Mactan

And finally, Lapulapu and me 😍

After all my travels, I feel connected to this history now more than ever. I have long recognized that traveling this much is an immense privilege, and I have thought endlessly about how to best use this privilege while being a conscious world citizen. Immigrating to the United States, being an exchange student in France, studying anthropology, working in migrant rights, and unionizing my workplace have all taught me so much about the world. Through these experiences, I've also reflected on how I can work towards the betterment of humanity. If there is one lesson to share here, it is that anticolonial resistance never ended; it persists today in different forms. It is now my goal to take part in this resistance however I can. In honor of my ancestors, my fellow Filipinos, and other colonized people, I will continue to facilitate connections between people across borders, languages, and history, towards a more liberated future.

(I realize this paragraph is all word salad right now, but I promise my actual thoughts on this subject are more articulated. Ask me to elaborate if you want.)

After our friends left, James and I had a few days in Manila to unwind and do some housekeeping. I swam laps and worked out at the boxing gym down the street, we got new glasses, and we met up with our friend Gerald again. So fun meeting him in the motherland, after first meeting him in Bolivia and hanging out in Boston!

Since James isn't working, one thing he wants to do while in the Philippines is learn Tagalog. I also intend to improve my Tagalog skills, so I thought that we would both benefit from a tutor who could work with our individual levels. After some searching online, I found us a tutor on an online platform called Tutoroo. I liked her experience giving presentations in Tagalog, since it's something I hope to be able to do one day. Once we connected in the platform, we met her in person to talk about the logistics about our lessons. I told her I was a heritage speaker, and I could tell when we first met that she was hoping I could speak some Tagalog. I greeted her in Tagalog and we chatted a bit, and she asked if I was sure I needed lessons. I told her yes, because I would like to learn how to express myself better and learn what's up with some verb conjugations I don't know too well. She understood, and we spent the rest of the time chatting in English with James.

Incidentally, I found out that she wants to learn French. She was actually hoping that a French person would sign up for Tagalog lessons so that she could learn French from them. Instead, she got me, a Frenchie-pino. For her to gain confidence in my French, I told her to tell me something in Tagalog and I would say it back in French. She said, "Uuwi na ako mamaya," and I replied, "Je vais rentrer chez moi plus tard." That sold her on a deal–she would help me with Tagalog, and I would help her with French.

At one point, she mentioned to me that I had a "conyo" accent when I spoke Tagalog. Loosely translated the word means "bougie," or it refers to a Filipino who obviously lives abroad in some western country. Similarly, when I was speaking in Cebuano with a Cebuana who lived in London, she said she could tell I lived abroad because of my accent. In the past, I would have taken some offense at this. I used to pride myself on sounding as close to a native speaker as I possibly could in any language I spoke. But I have mellowed and lowered my standards a lot, as I have mentioned in this blog entry about my time bumbling around in Portuguese. I realize now considering my social upbringing, I probably still would have sounded "conyo" even if I had never moved to the USA. But I cannot remove the fact that at this point, I am also an American. The USA has been my country of residence for longer than the Philippines has. I moved there at an age where I was young enough to absorb the American English accent naturally. I am fortunate enough to have retained some of my motherland's languages, but I cannot and probably will not ever speak like somebody who has never left. And that's okay; how I speak is a part of my story.

Why did I only have a few days in Manila to unwind? Because less than a week after our friends left the Philippines, James and I left to go to India.