Pieces

Dear Daniel,

THE CITY has changed so dramatically the last time I saw it.  Right smack in the city’s main road and before the public market was this very ugly structure called the CitiMart.  The elementary school where I had attended years and years ago now has one new but rather ugly building across it.  Its courtyard is also now smaller, and has a roof.  There were barely any trees there, too.

The river that cuts through the city is now depressing to look at.  There are no more bancas and its waters are now murky.  It could hardly flow back to the sea, as it is heavy with garbage. It is hard to imagine that once upon a time, me and some cousins bathed and swam and caught fishes in it.

I took to photographing some signages.  I also took photographs of some of the other landmarks (the city plaza, two other elementary schools, some of the barangays where I used to go to, as a child.  The hill top.  The provincial hospital. The public market. Some shops which retained their old names but has built new signages to replace the old ones. Other places. Some of the old houses.).

Later in the afternoon I went to Junrose and lost myself in nostalgia.  I also went to Tamaraw Center to buy shirts and cassava pies and bracelets of mock silver for certain friends back in Manila.  I would have wanted to run to at least two of the five beaches which held so many memories for me (Balete. San Antonio.), but there was simply no more time to do so.  I had reservations for the ferry ride at 5:30 pm.