You know you're home

Home for the holidays means taking a plane to a newly renovated Iloilo airport---an airport of international standards but no international flights---not yet anyway.

Taking a van to Jaro Plaza when upon getting off, you'll be swarmed by eager cab drivers.

Then stopping at a local mall to buy stuff for home.

Then taking a bus in a crazy terminal with no system but is able to move thousands of passengers everyday.

The bus to our small town Ajuy, will pass through scenic landscape of ricefields, mountains, cliffs along the seaside for two hours.    

You know you're home...

When people freely laugh together at a joke in a movie being shown on the bus

When you hear someone shout "Hopya, mani, kropek!" when you pass by the regular stopovers.

When you're washing the dishes on a sink which faces a field of bananas and whole lot of other trees and dense grass and weeds.

When you hear the chickens moving about the house trying to ask for food.

When everybody on your street knows when somebody has arrived.

When everybody on your street knows you and what's been happening in your life.

When the main mode of transportation is a pedicab which takes you anywhere in town for only P10 or less.

When your neighbors bring you food they just cooked.

When people go to your house to use the landline.

When your sleep is not disturbed by the busy street.

When videoke sessions start at 8am.

When people hang out in front of their house talking about the latest neighborhood news.

When a mobile bakery, ice cream vendor, and hordes of fishermen regularly pass by selling their goods and wares at really affordable prices.

You know you're home when it feels like home.