The main goal of our Philippines vacation was mainly spending more time with our titos, titas, cousins and grandfather. For my brother and me it was not important how many beaches we could visit, how many cities we can go to. Everytime we fly to the Philippines, we always start at zero. Sometimes we feel like strangers or are still shy to "play" with each other. The last time we visited the Philippines together were 8 years ago - more or less. But I was there last year, due to emergency flight. The mother of my father died so my father flew home and I joined him to the Philippines. Last year was my shock year - Since my cousins and I didn't have a lot of communication I had no idea who were "new" in the family. I met a lot of lolo's and lola's. That was pretty exciting and I told my brother everything I experienced. This year it was his time to shine, his time to get to know all our relatives. And that was successful, since my brother is more outgoing person than I am, he wasn't shy to approach "strangers" and greet them or make fun of them.
Last year I was pretty surprised that the babies 8 years ago were teenagers now. Not that I believe that the time stopped for them, or for us. It was unbelievable - but yeah it was fun, because I didn't know their names. My cousin or my niece who were not born 8 years ago, were bigger now. I felt sad because I actually missed their whole "childhood".
This year was totally different since the last time I was there was less than 365 days. But we were all excited to see them. (we actually spent more time with my father sides family) I felt their sincerity and their respect. Everytime we were not with them, my tita texted me and asked me if we are okay or if we want to meet up with them. We even were allowed to sleep over at their place eventhough my cousins had school the next day. But my tita said "paminsan minsan lang naman nagkakasama ang mga magpipinsan".
On the death anniversary of my Lola we didn't know if we should be thankful that Ondoy came or not. All of my cousins had no classes on that day, so all 21 cousins + 2 nieces were under one rooftop laughing, playing and fooling around. I felt so good on that day, that was a day to cherish, to be thankful of and keep forever in my heart.
I don't know if I am the only one who feels like this, but I think all the other cousins feel the same. I hope that when we grow older we will be the same like we are now to each other. My parent's goal for us is to meet all our relatives so we learn to get to know our titas and titos, it doesn't matter if we are distant relatives or not. Relative is relative.
I strongly believe that my cousins missed my brother and me because when they asked me when we will go back to the Philippines I said I'll celebrate my 20th birthday in the Philippines. My eldest cousin, who calls me Ate Kim - he is 27 or so - laughed at that statement and said "yeah yeah, sabi ni tita Lorna (my mom) na dito ka daw magdedebut sa Philippines, ngayon 19 ka na, hindi ka parin nagbibirthday dito" So they were waiting for our arrival and I actually laughed at his statement because he wasn't the only one who told me that. Even a tita of mine, the sister in law of my mother said the same thing. My Tita added that my mom wanted to celebrate it twice so ALL OUR RELATIVES can come and I can finally meet them. I wonder what other plans my mom had, plans I had no idea of. I had plans of flying to the Philippines, I did want to stay there for 3 months (July - Sept 08) but I didn't know that she was planning a birthday party for me. If that had pushed through it would have been the last birthdayparty of mine with my Lola. But my mom prioritised other things, which was more important to her back then, but now, sadly it's meaningless to us.
I really want to celebrate my birthday in the Philippines again. I celebrated my 10th birthday in the Philippines, so why don't make a tradition, celebrate my 20th there. Every 10 years a big birthday bash for me. It's on my wishlist again for next year. I want to fly every year to the Philippines : ) that's how family oriented I am. &We will make it happen with GODs help.
Let's see how many new family members we will have by next year :)
mayerelle
PS.: Remember -
Everyday should be a family reunion
how I wish I can make this happen . . .
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