Returning to my Birthplace

The first time I realized that I was "different" was in second grade when my friend Donald screamed out,"You have a zebra family!" All the other kids at the bus stop started laughing out loud. He was making an observation about my Filipino mother who was walking with my younger brother toward us whom she had just picked up from kindergarten. Kids can be cruel, right? But so can adults... My siblings and I had a tough time growing up "mixed-race" because we were never "fully" accepted by either culture.  I can't speak for my brother and sister, but my way of coping was to hide in my "blackness".  It was much easier for me because I don't really look mixed until you look at me real hard (as many a Filipino does when I tell them).You could say I was passing as "Black American" because it was easier than trying to explain that I was Filipino-Black then trying to win acceptance.  Ironic..huh? MTV has made it cool to be "mixed" these days, but when I was growing up it definately wasn't cool, especially growing up in Northeast Washington, DC, which is 98% black.  Black folks can be as prejudiced as white folks... I think that is part of the reason I loved it so much when my father was stationed overseas, because people were far more tolerant on base (where there were other mixed kids) than in my grandparents "hood" where people rarely venture outside of the city limits.  My poor mother, I can only imagine what she had to endure when she came to D.C. back in 1971!  My mother made it easy for us to hide because she was so busy learning to be American (she went to citizenship school, even though it wasn't required due to her marriage; she knows more about U.S. history and government than most of you!); that she neglected to teach my brother and I Tagalog (Phillippines' national language).  I also think she thought it would make our lives easier, since it was already going to be hard being lower middle class (I don't like to use the word poor after what I've seen in South Africa, Brazil, and Southeast Asia) and "non-white".  I understand her decision, but I truly regret it.

I didn't reallly start to identify myself as Filipino until I was about 13 or so.  I was sitting watching football in the basement with my grandfather.  He was drunk on Johnny Walker, teaching me about women (how to get them); when he suddenly got somber and started talking about the "big one" - World War II.  My grandpa was a griseled old Navy Veteran who served in the Pacific during the war.  He didn't talk much about it, except when he was really, really drunk.  I was the only grandchild who had the patience to wait him out, because it would take hours for him to get that drunk.  He would want to wrestle and box and sing and talk and talk and talk.  But if you endured, you would get rewarded, he would pull out his "knot" and break you off about $20 and maybe $50 if it was payday!   Luckily, I was a tough kid and I could take the pounding he dished out. I learned a lot from my grandpa in the basement, among those lessons was why I was the "toughest" grandchild. He told me it was because I was half Filipino.  He would tell me, "Your father is tough, but your mother is tougher! Them damn"Flips" are the toughest little sons of guns you ever seen!"  You see he was in the Phillippines for some of the worse fighting of the war.  He would tell me gory details of the fighting between the joint American-Filipino forces against the Japanese when the latter invaded the Phillippines in 1941.  The Japanese initially defeated "our" forces and occupied the Phillippines for 4 years until General MacArthur made his famous "return" in 1945 landing on the beaches of Leyte not far from where my mother was born. One million Filipinos gave their lives in WW2, 6% of the population !, 300,000 Japanese and 68,000 Americans just during the campaign in the Phillippines (so much lost talent).  After the war, many (including my grandfather) thought the Phillippines would become our 49th state!  That's right people read your history, the Phillippines had been a U.S. territory since 1898 after the Spanish-American war, when we annexed the Phillippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as territories after defeating Spain and beginning our dangerous path of colonialism.  The Filipinos liked the ideals of freedom, education, and equality for all (after we persuaded them- American-Phillippine War:) .  They adopted our ideals and our culture, and fought with us to preserve those ideals during the World War II.  Unfortunately, the politics of the day were not in favor of making the Phillippines our 49th state.  It is our loss; these are a beautiful, passionate, gregarious, resourceful, tenacious people who would've been a great asset to the USA. Ferdinand Marcos took power in 1965 and allowed us to use the Phillippines as our military headquarters during the Vietnam War.  That's when a young, black soldier at the tip of the "American spear" fell in love with a fiery Filipino woman from Samar, Phillippines in 1970 is where my story begins....  I was born outside of Clark Air Base, Phillippines not long after they met:)

Link to a map of the 7,107 Phillippine Islands: http://www.mapsorama.com/maps/asia/Philippines/PhilippinesPhysical.png

Now that you know my background, you can anticipate my emotions on the flight from Hong Kong to Manila (Phillippine capital).  It took me 39 years to get back to my birthplace!  After all the stories from my grandfather, mom, dad, brother, sister, and aunts; after all my reading about Phillippine culture and history, I was finally on my way back to the place where I first witnessed the world. 

When we landed it was sunny and bright.  I started to hear that familiar, distinctive, accented "Filipino English" over the loudspeaker and from the people walking around us.  It put me at ease. That's one thing you will appreciate in the P.I., almost everyone speaks English, even the television is a mix of English and Tagalog.  Every major street sign is in English, just like Hong Kong.  And you could easily use american dollars for all of your purchases if you chose too. On the ride to our hotel, I saw the Jeepneys which are famously unique to the Phillippines.  They arose as a common mode of transport after WW2 when creative entrepenuers revamped old wartime Jeeps into large taxis for the countrys poor to ride to work in.  Much more efficient and manuveurable than a bus. And much easier to pimp out!

We arrived at our hotel in the Makati business district, and we were shocked by the level of security.  There were armed soldiers with bomb sniffing dogs at the entrance!  They even had airport style metal detectors.  Carmen and I are pretty adventurous, but after speaking to my parents, I thought it best to hang low in Manila.  We did finally get stir crazy and ventured to the mall, but that was it.  What you have to understand is that the P.I. is a third world country with crushing poverty and a lot of corruption.  Manila is a city of over 20 million with some of the worst slums I've ever seen.  You combine that with the wealth of foreign businessman from China, Korea, and the U.S., it is a recipe for disaster. With the Presidential election coming soon, my mom says its a perfect time for fringe groups to make a statement.  We did see plenty of tourists venturing out from our hotel and returning without a problem.  Our friends Rich & Ana also travelled all over the Phillippines about 6 weeks ago without any problems.  But my family doesn't have any money to pay ransom if I get kidnapped; and the way my mom used to whoop my tail as a kid, I could only imagine what some filipino fringe group had in store for me if they didn't pay!:) Carmen's family would've mortgaged everything to get her out and I would've been left to suffer in some hot, humid jungle camp...no thanks!

We took a flight on a small propeller plane to Boracay, P.I.  Our bags were overweight by 15kg, but we only had to pay $20! Awesome! Our bags were overweight by 10kg in Australia, we had to pay $400 dammit!  And their beaches are no where near as nice.  The flight was comfortable with plenty of legroom and only lasted 50 minutes.  The airport in Catilan was a bit scary.  You could see residential shacks with the owner's laundry hanging outside right next to the runway!

While the airport was really third world, the people were friendly and efficient.  It took about 8 minutes to unload the plane and get the bags! You could actually watch your bags get unloaded from the plane.  The baggage claim was exactly 60 meters from the runway.  A porter took our bags to the pre arranged taxi which then took us to a boat, which took us to the actual island of Borocay.  Then the hotel van took us through town to the hotel which was a block from the beach.  I felt like a total rock star being whisked from one mode of transport to the next.  I saw the hapless 20 something year old backpackers haggling with taxi drivers and boat captains and thanked my lucky stars that I waited to do this when I could afford to do it right:)  I highly recommend going with a hotel that will pick you up from the airport: Shangri-La, Borcay Mandarin, Regency Borocay, Asya Borocay, Crown Regency Borocay, and I'm sure there will be others to come. These luxury hotels average cost is about $130 per night! If you don't you'd better be prepared to haggle... This is what we saw when we arrived on Borocay:

Wow! I still say that the most beautiful beaches are in the Maldives, but Borocay are a close 2nd!  For some people it may be more enjoyable.  White Beach is the third world version of Venice Beach.  There are all kinds of people walking the beach selling things like jewelry and art work.  There are small "mom and pop" restaraunts and bed & breakfasts' right next to large scale modern hotels.  And yes, the good lord delivered me from fat folks in speedos!  The caliber of body was much nicer in Borocay than almost anywhere we've been except Brazil or maybe South Beach.  There were fine ass Asian women in skimpy bikinis, and muscle bound European men (I guess this is where they come). What could be better? 50 cents beers, cheap seafood and fried pork, transvestite fire dancers, and super rich Chinese/Koreans with hip hop gear on walking with swagger like they were in one of Jay-Z's rap video! They were live filipino cover bands performing rock songs and hip-hop/ techno night clubs to party in all night long.  The massages on the beach averaged $7 and a sunset sail on a catamaran costs about $20 including tip.  We were in the middle of it all once again. Instant celebrity status when the locals found out I was half Filipino.  Of course, I sometimes had to prove it by showing pictures of my family, but that's ok I'm used to it.  After they were sufficiently convinced, I was introduced as "my big brother" and "our Filipino cousin". Everytime the revelation set off a barrage of loud Tagalog and stares of amazement. But even when we didn't tell people we were treated with warmth and kindness.  We asked the police if we could take pictures of them, and they insisted that I pose with them.  I've never been treated that well by police in the states!

The sand was soft, the water was clear and the diving was excellent.  We did about six dives while in Borocay and we enjoyed them all.  Our first couple of dives revealed a unique coral reef that was different from anyother we've ever seen.  The soft coral were huge, and were in unique colors of purple, fluorescent green, and bright orange/red.  Gorgonian Fan coral bigger than us!  Large gardens of  barrel coral (look like giant tulips about 5 feet tall with pastel colors) and giant sponges that looked 100s of years old.  There were thousands of small fish everywhere.  They were so numerous you had to swat them out of the way so you could see!  Sea worms, nudie branches, and frog fish were plentiful.  I even had a remora try to attach itself to my leg (very unerving)! Carmen was lagging behind on one of our dives as usual.  I turned around to see what she was doing, her back was to me and she seemed to be playing with a small clown fish (nemo).  I got irritated because she was not keeping up, so I went back to get her.  As I reprimanded her in underwater sign language, the freaking clown fish swims from around her and comes straight at me!  I didn't realize he was attacking her. That bugger went straight for my mask! I swatted, but he kept coming; so I kicked at him with my fin and he dropped down below me and came again!  Carmen was laughing out loud as she made her get away! I swam as fast as I good after her. Attacked by Nemo, I can't believe it.. While the Maldives was great for large fish life, the Phillippines wins for coral and smaller life.  We didn't take pics, but to get an idea, here is a link:  http://www.diverosa.com/categories/Coral.htm    We did the wold famous Yapak Reef dive. This reef is famous for the large Gray reef and Whitetip sharks.  It was fun because the current was fierce, but not moreso than we were used to after Thailand and the Maldives!:)  We descended into the deep blue with no reef in sight until we got to about 35 meters/110 feet which is the deepest we've ever gone.  When we got near the reef you could see two large Gray reef sharks just chilling at the edge of the wall.  I checked on Carmen behind me, she was drafting like a pro, we both got nice positions on the reef right at the drop off.  It was a sunny day and the visibility was at leat 60 meters.  The sharks were hovering above us about 5 meteres/15 feet just chilling in the current.  There was a large octopus off the edge of the wall swimming out in the open which is very rare.  I turned to smile at Carmen, and I saw the swelling in her face.  Sometimes at deep depths you can get a high pressure build up in your scuba mask, but it can be relieved by breathing air from your nares into your mask.  I happen to know that she doesn't like to fool around with her mask, but I signalled her to put air in to equalize the pressure.  She looked bad yall, like she had been in a fight with Mike Tyson bad!  Her eyes were almost swollen shut!  I kept thinking to myself, I'm glad this is a short dive.  The divemaster signalled us to let go and the whole group floated in the current as we slowly ascended to meet the boat.  It was great, all of us floating in the deep blue/green as if we were flying.  When we got on the boat, Carmen looked a mess.  Her eyes were swollen to be damned and her conjuctival capillaries were all ruptured.  She looked like a zombie (think the movie "28 Days Later") who got into a fight with Mike Tyson! That was our last dive, cause people are going to think I've been beating you! Alas, our hunt for the elusive whaleshark was stymied again. No matter, we will be back no doubt.  We missed a couple of jungle tours and a volcano tour.  We were just too tired and hung over from the cheap beers and good eats. The Phillippines is very affordable and easier to get to than anywhere in Asia except maybe Japan.  MY people are warm, friendly, and they love to dance, sing, and eat!  Goodbye my brethren......

To see more pics click here