my friend nina invited me to her NGO's christmas party up in antipolo hours after my calamitous attempt to catch alpha phi omega's oblation run in up diliman campus. she told me she hasn't seen the oblation run in years, either, and confessed that she hasn't gone to any up fair ever, not even during the undergrad. i asked if she would watch the lantern parade, and she lamented that that, too, shall come to pass unwatched.
when we reached her colleague's resthouse tucked in the woods of an underdeveloped village sitting atop the mountain, the paradisal place reminded me of pristine olongapo. i half expected bats or monkeys to swoop from tree to tree. when the cityscape we had just left behind came into view, we were breathless: the multicolored lights sparkled like precious gems in a black jewelry box. luz' residence, meanwhile, is a combination of the abode mentioned in isabel allende's "an act of vengeance" and that in professor jing hidalgo's "the art of understatement." the three-storey white house even had a library that was like mine: the books are arranged according to the geographical region to which the authors belong. as i picked up jorge luis borges' labyrinths from the shelf containing pablo neruda's, juan rulfo's, gabriel garcia marquez' and laura esquivel's works, a lovely young lasallian guy appeared and briefly took my breath away.
what transpired after the elegant dinner was the more interesting thing during the night. former senator leticia ramos-shahani, among other advocates of the feminist movement in the philippines, was there to thank and welcome isis' outgoing and incoming executive directors, respectively. the motif of the women's messages was, to me, amazing: women should not waver in their role in nationbuilding. hay, i love men, and i love women too!:)
No comments:
Post a Comment