The Motherland

After making the flight on standby on Monday and arriving Tuesday night, I arrived in Pampanga with my mom. Minalin, Pampanga is the town where my mom and her side of the family, my filipino side, are from. Pampanga one of the rural provinces about an hour or so north of Manila. The biggest businesses around here are chicken farming, fish farming, and pottery making. Minalin is a small town, where pretty much everyone knows each other. Much of the houses are simple, made up of cinder blocks, sheets of metal, and wood, but they have houses like in the states too. My lola's house where I stayed is one of them.

I pretty much stuck out from everyone here. I don't look Filipino in many aspects, but here it stands out even more. Almost everyone is darker than me, and there are few people who have distinct "Asian" features like me. I've been told my many of my relatives that I look Japanese or Korean. Either way, walking down the road people look at me like I'm first person they've seen that looks like me.

Still the people here and my family have shown me hospitality that I've never received traveling elsewhere. No matter what their situation is, they've shown me around everywhere and refused to let me pay for anything. I understand a little Kapampangan, the language spoken in Pampanga, but I can't speak. They also make fun of my broken Americanized Tagalog, but they bear with it. Overall, the message they keep telling me is that they wish I stayed here and that I belong here. My Lola Saryang, Tita Mye, Tito Ray and Tita Hazel, Tita Luz, and cousins Ian and Kyle and Carla in particular have really made me feel like I belong here and want me to stay in Pampanga. Unfortunately, I have my internship which starts today. I definitely came to terms with some of the many privileges and luxuries I have in the U.S. like hot water, cell phones, internet, and toilet paper. But I'll expand on this in the next post. However, if I learned anything in my stay in Pampanga, its that I have family here that wants me to be with them and that I wish I knew earlier because I definitely have mad love for them. I will definitely be back.