It was still dark and the sky submerged into the deepest darkness, the clock could not steady to the unrest, and the starless dawn bears witness as we walked on the silent street of East Avenue. We went to the bus stop and waited for an air-conditioned bus to pass by. During the bus ride, many of my companions yawned themselves to sleep but I with Aivan spent the entire trip laughing so hard as we remember funny anecdotes with our classmates. There was no malady of traffic in Edsa so we have the smoothest ride going to Shaw Boulevard. When we arrived their, Robbie and Paolo just waited enough for us- 5:20 in the morning- all set and we are ready to go. It was a jam-packed van. There are 21 of us and some of my classmates can hardly move at the back. Our Driver, Mang Oscar is in his mid 50’s, there’s a psyche an aura in him so great that assures you that you are in good hands.
As early as the sunrise we drove on our way going to Tanay, Rizal. We gingerly pass through all the traverse and the stiff terrain going up there. As the sky flickers we saw a magnificent view overlooking the city. It was beautiful and majestic. We felt that we were transported back to our provinces. The fog was there. The sun was there. The endless road was there.
Tanay is a first municipality of the province of Rizal. It is just 2 hours away from Manila. There are buses that directly travels to Tanay and there are also UV express vans catering the route of Tanay-Shaw via Antipolo and vice versa.
We arrive there around 7 AM. We immediately went to the municipality hall for courtesy. The municipal hall is astonishingly beautiful than any other municipal halls that I’ve been in the past. The three story building is a 78 million loan from Land bank and the construction was finished as early as the first quarter of the year. The colors of the building complement it’s Spanish archetype design. Our guide toured us around the vicinity and at the back of the new municipal hall is a replica of the old one together with the other three buildings.
The replica of the old Municipal Hall
Ate Tricia our tour guide told us, while three bird are sitting on the cable, that the new building is the fourth building that was built for the same purpose and the three other buildings are with the same “Spanishque” design because they want to emphasize the rich culture of Tanay. Tanay is one of the provinces that was Christianize by Franciscan friars shortly after the conquest and subjugation of the Spaniards in the Philippines, so there is a great influence of Spanish colonizer in their municipality.
On the opposite side of the road stands an elementary school. Moment after we arrived, we heard the sound of the National Anthem blaring over the cracked sound system and I saw all the people stopped, the tricycles stopped, the motorcycles stopped, and there was the greatest silence that I ever heard. You can only hear the hustles of the leaves, the whisper of the morning wind and the echoes of the national anthem.
Near the school is a gasoline station and besides the station stands a small burger stand. I and Ivan went there to stroll and look for boys our early breakfast before heading to anywhere we go. Upon reaching the stand I saw a Philosophy book lying on the table and I asked the woman on the burger stand if she is studying Philosophy. Her name is Emily and she is a working student. She studies at Rizal Polytechnic College taking up Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. She has a higher degree of dedication in studying which rich kids lack. She laughs to our jokes like an old friend, she’s easy to get along with and I hope everything will get better for her.
We bids her farewell as we walked back to the Municipal hall.
Parola
From Municipal hall, we went to Parola to have our breakfast.
Parola or lighthouse is just a straight dike itching towards the Laguna de bay. Aside from serving as a dock for bangkas,”bagsakan“or market place for fresh water catch and as a place to stroll and exercise. Our guide told us that it is a place for prenuptial shots since the place has a romantic feel.
Ivan and I explored the dike greeting every locals good morning to that they reply with a smile. There we meet a lady with her walker basking and retreating from one end to another. As the sun ray beams towards her, the enigmatic beauty of her smiles lingers from both ends of the dike. At the end of the dike stands a memorial statue for all the victims of Ondoy. We heard that many locals had been washed out on the area and hundred of them is gone without recovering their remains. Such sadness calmed by the slow wind. Hearing a sad news, we settled staring aimlessly to the lighthouse and the tranquility of the view.
Chillin like a bastard
Climbing the asotea is like dancing on a trapeze. It is nauseating and terrifying especially to someone like me who are afraid of heights.. but once you get there and when you see the flickers of the water as sun shines over it, the fish fences, bangkas running towards the dike, and the motorcycles transporting passengers from place to another you can say to yourself that there is something special in this place. For me parola is a kind of place you go if you have extra time, to kill the afternoon lethargy, or to shut every terrifying voices over your head. We stayed there. and talked to some locals.
Kuya Edward has the most passionate love for the Parola. He cleans it everyday from 5 AM up to early evening.
Municipal Plaza
Before going to the place of the Dumagats which I heard is 20 kilometers away from the municipal proper, we had a short stop-over to the municipal plaza. It is just a short stop so I hoisted myself on my way to buy some energy drink and to spare seconds of laughter with the locals- that is the prize I guess, when you will be able to spend some time talking to people who you do not even know. Near the plaza is a baroque style church built between 1773 to 1783 by polo y servicio (forced labor) it is the second of the oldest church ever built in the province of Rizal. I whispered this to myself that before leaving Tanay I must go and visit the place since it’s maroon facade haunts my imagination of that it is like inside one of the oldest church in Rizal.
Going to Barangay Cuyambay
The long and winding road of Tanay reminds me of triumph and defeat that a person have in his life. I imagine the road as aisle in weddings, or a carpeted pavements for an awards night where one of the recipient has spent his life for the award. The road itself magnifies the mystery in all aspects of Tanay and the ever slow phases of our travel is the rebellion of time where ones we are all dying slaves. But today I said to myself, is a day that we will all careless of time and infinite as the mountains ranges of Tanay.
The road going to Cuyambay is good but I have my little underpinnings if the van can make it or are we taking toll on Mang Oscar’s vehicle. As the road seems like either a cliff or a 45 degree lift and fall the heavier I feel for everything. For the baggage, for Mang Oscar, for his automobiles, for the guide, and for my classmates. From the national highway, we slewed to a tight road and the both sides of the road is a ravine, we submerged ourselves down up to the bottom of the cliff where Barangay Cuyambay is situated. Upon arriving at the barangay, people wonderingly looks at us because it maybe the first time for a UV Express van full of nuisance college boys and gals went there. We went there to have an outreach program for one of our major subject. Yes it maybe a schoolwork but we never treated it that way, we planned and perform it as college men and women reaching our hands to our people who have less than what we have.
The van stopped on Cuyambay Elementary School. I gingerly walked they’re looking for a place to fit in and when I saw the classrooms full of students and some of the decapitated buildings.
It reminds me of my childhood.
The students were in the midst of their morning class and they were all learning how to read a paragraph. There sleepers are silently lining on the doorway, and the sick dogs, roaming around the vicinity. There is common in all of these places, the face of inadequacy and indifference. The farther the place, the greater the similarities of inadequacy and indifference.
I’ve been in the same situation when I was a grade school student. Now that I am on my junior year in college I can say that only few of these kids will go farther as I did when I was like them. So much of my classmates before shares the same cycle of life as what their parents are and what the parents of their parents was. The same cycle of life is creeping on their veins and only few of us luckily surpass the same infinity. I was being transported back to what I was before and what it feels like when I was like them before. So now is a revenge of the old time and I keep it secret to myself. I feel certain that we will spend our day together with these kids. For I know that it will never happens again with the same set. We chose 15 kids so we can concentrate to them. The school teacher picked them as she knew the most deserving to enjoy the whole day.
And the children are really like angels, they’re brutally honest. On one occasion while I was preparing to talk to them, there is one voice echoed in the room and the voice said “Ay taba!“… It makes the time stops and it snatch my guts and freaked my fats out! And I said, “baby I’m beautiful in my way because God makes no mistake….” Joke. I ignored same thing as what I do every time.
At first, the children is hesitant and uncooperative. They are in question to our real purpose they felt they we held them as hostage. We started our simple program by a song and while we are singing, a girl cried, Her name is Joy. Her hair is cut short and she wears a grandiose red chili-like earnings which makes her stands bright. We knew that Joy will be a fierce lady in the future and she is the darling in the entire event.
Tears of Joy
My classmates played together with them. Rhea shares them story and makes them so excited. They also prepared meals and served the children they want.
-and me, an ever helpful being annoyed the children the entire day.
These kids are the reflection of what their parents are and what their parents desired them to be. So we knew that all of them are raised by good parent and all of them are hopes to and gears for to leave Cuyambang in search for a bigger world out there. Far from the descend of Cuyambang’s cold hands of destitute and misfortune.
We spent the whole day with them and it is the most fulfilling things that I ever did this quarter. It saves me from boredom and it urges me to reflect about the life that I am living, I hope that my classmates realize the same. That we are lucky enough to have the things that we enjoy and same as to the things that we desire to have.
The principal
The principal said that it was the first time in the history of the school that a group went their for a feeding and social literacy program and he is thankful to the group who went their way just for the sake of the children. We finished the event by giving children some umbrellas so they can use when it rains and some educational materials for their studies. Aside from that they also gave us memories and the fire as Public Administration student that it is the reason why we are set in this course which we all didn’t like at first. It rekindles the most sacred pact of all Public Administration student “To serve the people.”
Me with Ivan the bitch
After the event one kagawad (barangay councilor) invited us to drop by in their barangay hall. While some of my classmates rode the van to go there, I together with Robbie and Paolo walked. We passed through homes made of nipa and it was the most lonely row of homes there.
A lonely street in bragy. Cuyambay
No music. No entertainment. One rotting billiard table and that is all that they have. Only few houses has the best. The car. A house. The gate… When we are on our way, we saw Joy playing on the cascade. How energetic that child was. She wears the same earrings and cares the same fierce.
The barangay hall is an empty house sitting on a cliff. The only thing that makes the hall useful is an old Olympia typewriter. There’s a woman typing while listening to the radio on her phone. We waited there for around 5 minutes before the van showed up. Then finally they came with a bag of used clothes among other donations. We stayed some more for picture taking before hopping inside the van to continue the day. Truly, in such lonely place of Cuyambang, there is a disco of joy that no one else can understand but those who have been there.
There’s a feeling of nostalgia in the place because I felt one way or another that I found the old me there. The place. The terrain. The homes are sort of my past. So as the van lifts us on the same road on the same ravine I brought with me the longing and the understanding to the point of what I had become after leaving my my Cuyambay.
To Regina Rica
Regina Rica is one of the three pilgrim site we passed though in Tanay, Rizal.
I don’t know how we get there since after the lift from that tight round going to Cuyambay, we were again confronted by long and winding road going to Regina Rica. I knew that it will going to be long enough to enjoy the view so I spent time eating Patricia’s Homemade polvoron… but when we reached the junction and went deep down- and saw a bronze statue from a far, we knew that we are nearing to the place. It is the place as if left hanging from a greater descend down. Once you’ll reach the gate you will see two figures, one is to St. Catherine of Siena and the other is St. Dominic. The two saints are icons on the Dominican order.
It was Tuesday afternoon and they does not accept visitors every Tuesday but we managed to be allowed inside since told them that we are from Cagayan and we just want to get inside because one of our travel companion is severely sick and she just wants to touch the statue. We were confronted by two problems: First, we lied. Second, there was one couple on a motorcycle who also wants to get inside. So we devised a plan to maneuver back to national road and waits for them to ascend and leave. We did… and after almost 5 minutes of waiting they appeared and gone together with the afternoon lethargy, mirage, phone signal and reggae music.
We drove back going to the gate the security guard- who happens to the husband of the barangay kagawad whom we met during the outreach program opened the gate for us. While inside the van we could not stop laughing. Robbie was very serious that we came from Cagayan, Hermie was asked to internalize that she has a terminal illness, and all of us can’t stop laughing when Robbie asked us to sober.
Then we walked with the calmness of the place. I can live there forever. I can spend the rest of my life in such place. I like to think that those who appreciates silence had experienced the most terrifying noise in there head so they long for silence as if it is God- or healing.
There is reality there when one say that the greatest prayer is silence and as much as I desire to describe the silence of the place, every word will just keeps on falling. It is truly unexplainable. There are greater things there than to read it here and my words cannot describe the prayer of Regina Rica. I never felt the same feeling for many years now. The last was during my childhood days when we went to the mountain top to see the sun set basking the pacific ocean and I am certain now that it will never happen again shortly after this trip.
The man who designed the statue of Regina Rosarii
It is almost 4 when we went back to the road heading for the last destination before leaving Tanay, The Daranak Falls.
Daranak Falls
Rhea’s hidden talent.
Noel is trying to balance the rocks!
Daranak falls will close every 5 PM. We arrive there after 4 so we have less than an hour to enjoy the falls, take pictures, and swim our exhaustion away. We learned that aside from tourist destination, it is also a place for shooting the teleserye Luna Blanca and it is also a place where rock balancing was originated.
At the entrance there is a basketball court were anguished people playing basketball. They were all topless and they have big muscles and freaky psyche. There is also a Balut vendor asking everyone to buy and the one and only stall selling junk foods and soda. I wonder how much they will earn everyday being confronted with boredom, mosquitoes and all out there. It is a place of boredom devoid to any shattering. And no one will like to take a recluse there for too long. Inside, It is hard to appreciate the beauty of Daranak falls after the whole night of rain. The water is muddy and raging. But when I seen the photos taken when the weather is fine, Daranak falls is majestic. Standing on the big rock that holds as platform for audiences besides the cascades, the mints of the falls on our faces and it is like the kiss of the nature- an ever passionate kiss for wanderers and seekers. Over all, our Daranak experience was cut short because we have to leave. It’s 5 and no person are allowed to swim beyond 5 pm.
Paulo, Ate Tricia our ever energetic tour guide and Robbie
Paulo is trying to balance the rocks!
Leaving Daranak falls is leaving all the people there. The vendor who sells junk foods and Soda, the basketball players and the balut vendor who left before us with his motorcycle.
Going back to Town
We head back to the town to prepare ourselves into our journey back to Manila. Darkness slowly creeps down enveloping the sky of Tanay as we parked on one of the eatery near the town plaza. Kim, Cheska, Danica, Al, and Joy Ann with friends ate there while me together with Ivan and Noel walked to the nearest 7-11 store. Hermie and Kem followed us short after. Too bad that they do not have slurpee so I bought a sundae. After that, we walked going to San Ildefonso Parish Church as I promised to myself.
Before dark at the church.
Note to Self 