SUPERNATURAL STORY: AN AUDITORY HAUNTING?

This story was told to me by one of my nieces, Lee. Her experience happened just a day ago. My niece doesn't really believe in the supernatural and such. She's more of a logical and there's always a sensible explanation on everything kind of woman, since she is about to become a doctor. She's just relating of what she herself heard and experienced. I myself don't believe in these things, but I'm always a sucker with stories like this. As I always said, at best, take this as an entertainment...nothing more.
Before her own experience, last month another niece (Meye) had told Lee that she heard what sounded like a dog outside the house. Now, that in itself is not unusual...there are just too many dogs in the compound, fighting and barking. What's unusual was, what Meye heard was it sounds like a dog shaking it's head with rattling chains round the neck (dogs in the neighborhood do not wear chain collar). She also heard footsteps. Meye must have heard these sounds more than once as she told Lee that the sounds seem to be more audible when the moon was big and bright. Lee doesn't know what to make of Meye's story.


Outside wall of the guest room...

Anyway, here's the story that Lee told me of her experience:
My niece was getting ready for bed after chatting with her fiancee at 3:00 in the morning. She has the habit lately of sleeping on the ground floor's guest room instead of in her bedroom upstairs (two storey house) so that if ever a burglar gets in, someone could easily alert the whole house.
So, there she was, lying on the bed with the radio on. At first, she heard an itty bitty rattling sound. She had to strain at first, wondering what the sound was and where it came from. Then she heard it again, louder this time, just a few feet from the room where she was. She was thinking, it sounds like a dog with a lot of chains around the collar shaking its head. She's not the kind that gets scared easily so she didn't mind it at first...she turned on the lamp, made some noises, coughing etc. She continued the noise she was making for a few more minutes hoping that the sound would disappear, but whenever the radio stops playing, the rattling sound seems to get louder mixed in now with human footsteps. Eventually, the experience was too much for her and with all the hair on her body stood on end she hightailed it upstairs :). She was able to have her nephew's nanny accompany her back downstairs for the rest of the morning without hearing those sounds again. The funny thing was, with all the commotions she heard, she didn't hear even one bark from the neighborhood dogs.

SUPERNATURAL STORY: LITTLE DARK BOY

My father was a tailor, a very good one and a hard worker. He and a male cousin owned a succesful tailoring shop at one time. Aside from them, they also employed a "tig sursi" (stitch woman). Between (tailors) them, one would sometimes stay very late to finish some outfit especially if the deadline is the next day. This story is one such night/dawn.

The tailoring shop was about 15-20 minutes walk from our house. It was located in the main thoroughfare to the City, we call "karsada" (road). To get there, we have to use a dirt feeder road. Sometimes a tricyle (mode of transportation, motorcycle with sidecar) could use it, but the dirt road is mostly for foot use. As it is just a dirt road, the place would become so muddy and small pools of water would collect in the small potholes on the grassy side of the road when it rains. Growing up, I found this stretch of dirt road a little scary, especially at night. It is in the middle between the fence of the Base (MAB) and big tress, weeds, bushes and a smattering of only a couple of nipa (thatch) huts on the other side. No lamp post, so at night this road is dark and quiet. Not much "civilization" for a scaredy cat like me :).
A typical Philippine dirt road.



So, there was Papa in one of his overtimes going home at two in the morning. The road was still a little muddy as it rained hard a couple of days before, some small pools of water were still on the grassy part of the road. The night wasn't that dark, quiet but for the croaking of frogs. He was walking and halfway thru the road, Papa heard splashing. At first, he didn't pay much attention thinking that it was just the frogs, having fun in their pool :). He continued to walk, then he heard the splashing again. The sound seems to came behind him, he turned around and looked on the grassy side of the road where one of the small pools of water was. He saw a small boy, two or three years old, happily splashing himself in the water. The boy didn't have any clothes, robust looking and had dark complexion. The distance between them was between nine or ten feet. Papa was thinking "kabugoy bata-a" (what a rambunctious kid) and continued walking. As he continued to walk he realized that it's two in the morning! Kids aren't supposed to be out by themselves at that age at that time of the day! With a raised hair on the back of his neck and goosebumps, he pretended that nothing was out of the ordinary until he arrived home.
When he told us this story, we tried to tell him that maybe the kid was the son of one of the families that live not far away from where he saw the boy. He told us, he already asked the mother of that family and was being told that none of their children has the habit of going out without telling any of the members of the family, and at that time of day? Besides, she told my father that their youngest is seven years old.

SUPERNATURAL STORY: HAMOK

I'm a sucker for supernatural stories...ungo-ungo (witch), abat (specter), white ladies and what not. What I'll try to write are stories that I often heard from my father...most were his own first hand experiences. I considered him a very level headed man, articulate, and not prone to hysteria, so I assumed that his stories were real. No matter...real or not, when I heard him tell stories like this growing up, my hankering for scary stories are always fixed and more . At best take this story as entertainment...nothing more.

As it is, my father was what I called “abtanon” (prone to experienced/see supernatural things/beings). Maybe his third eye was opened or what. I often wish that “naliwat ko niya” (I'm like him) in having to experienced things that are out of this world…but maybe not, as I’m a nervous nelly myself . Oh, I have some experiences, but more of an auditory kind and dreams...haven't seen/experienced anything that would make me passed out (yet) hehe.

Well (rubbing hands ), this story was experienced by my father and my older brother who was five or six years old at that time. I must be two then and I didn’t remember when this happened, I only heard the story being repeated:

Our place in Lapu-Lapu is very close to Mactan Air Base (some of the land that the base is on was owned by my grandparents). When this story happened, the Base didn’t have the fence/gate put up yet and was mostly “kalibunan” (overgrowth), neigbors were not that close (distance) and like most of the places at that time, our place has no electricity.

One evening, my brother wanted to go to the toilet, so Papa went with him. Instead of going to the outhouse, they decided to find a clearing by the “kalibunan” which was not far from our house as it was a nice, bright night…”pa presko kuno ” (to have some fresh air, literally ;)).

An old photo of MAB...our house is under those coconut trees.



So there they were, my brother doing his business, Papa whistling. At first, they heard galloping hoves in the distance and didn’t think much about it, then realized that the sound was coming towards them. They were confused as they haven’t seen a thing, only sounds. My brother run to my father and hugging each other, they waited of what would happen next. What they heard was what sounded like a herd of carabaos…snorting, fighting and galloping around them, they can also feel the breeze created by the "herd". My brother was yelling to Papa asking what's going on while my father was shushing him. Then, silence…the whole thing lasted just a few seconds.

Carabao/water buffalo.



When my brother came to the house (ahead of my father), my mother asked him “naunsa ka Dong, mora man ka ug gigukod ug abat ” (What happened, you looked like you've been chased by a specter). It seems that the only ones who heard the "commotion" was my father and brother, (we) didn’t even hear my brother’s yell. Later, our relatives said that what they experienced was a “hamok” (haunting).

Guilty Pleasures

Finally, Spring...not as cold anymore. Had our first baseball (exhibition) last month. The new National Baseball park is gorgeous! That was the coldest game we've attended though. The opening itself, only hugbun and our friend went. When hugbun arrived home later, he told me that the camera (point and shot) was broken. With the President throwing the first pitch, security at the park was so tight, every item you're holding was inspected thoroughly. In the process the camera fell from his grasp into the hard concrete. Sure enough, no matter what I did the camera just stayed "silent". So we did some research for a new camera. A few days later I was ready to order. I tried to tinker with the old camera again to be sure, by taking the battery in and out (which I did dozen of times before) and then turn it on...the blasted thing works again! Anyway, I always like to have that SLR camera anyway for "serious photography" (Ginoo ko, pa serious serious pa hahaha), so we might go ahead and order it.

National Baseball Park

Screech the Mascot and Hugbun...

One of my guilty pleasures is I love to read blogs and forums especially Cebu based or just bloggers who mention Cebu with plenty of pictures in it, pawa sa kamingaw, I guess. Blogs that I'm addicted, and a lurker to and in my favorites folder are:

http://mycebuphotoblog.wordpress.com/ The blogger in this site is so amusing and entertaining and have plenty of pictures of Cebu and the surrounding islands. An articulate young man.

http://cebuheritage.wordpress.com/ The site is awesome, plenty of pictures of "old houses, churches, buildings, institutions, schools etc." and information about them. Nostalgic...

http://www.marketmanila.com/ An informative yummy food blog. I think the blogger's family is originally from Cebu, I might be mistaken.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LivingInThePhilippines3/ Expats living in the Philippines (mostly surrounding Cebu). Having an American husband who'd like to live in the Philippines on and off after retirement, I found this site helpful.

http://www.istorya.net/forums/ Excellent site if you want to know almost anything about what's going on in Cebu and the rest of the Philippines. The paranormal and ungo-ungo section is not shabby either ;-).

http://www.depanorama.net/ Duke Ellington's music. Hugbun's site hehehe.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fernan/ A family tree on my Mother's side.

What I'm currently following (couldn't wait for the installment hahaha) is this blog,

http://delfindjmontano.blogspot.com/ A gay Aussie blogging about his former Filipino boyfriend/lover and the Philippines "alta sosyedad" kuno.

It's Almost A Year...A Recap

Didn't blog for almost a year...gasp...this long? Hmmm. What happened Senn, creative juices (what creative juices hehehe) wasn't flowing freely? Anyway, let me see if I remember the happenings for the past months in a nutshell.

I- Keet is in sophomore, and doing great in school (Just had their third grading report card, goodness how time flies). She was fuming mad that the Anime Club wasn't offered this year, only Art Club this year.

She had her Snowball dance last December and had a blast hanging out with her cronies.

We celebrated her birthday in our favorite Thai restaurant. Originally, we're supposed to have some dinner guests with us but we cancelled because I got sick, and afterward we all couldn't manage to get together for schedule conflicts, so we end up going just ourselves to celebrate.
Keet has completed her service hours for this year (We always like this last service hours done in her Easter break). She volunteered in the Assisted Living Home. She helped elderly by talking to them, doing crafts, games etc.
School is keeping her busy...taking SAT practice tests on weekends, a class Holocaust Museum trip next week, a Retreat sometime this month, field day (this, she's excited because they just hang out with friends in school...sort of carnival in her school ground, with food and games). She's also excited of Pope Benedict's visit. Some of the girls in school would be attending the mass at the new National Ballpark and some (including Keet, sometimes she doesn't like confined and crowded places) will watch the affair in a big screen t.v. in the school's auditorium. Then there's the ever present homework (if this won't keep kids busy, I don't know what) and class projects. But, as I told Keet lately, all of these will pass, as summer vacation is just around the corner...yehey :-)!!! But, wait...how about summer school to take some advance courses, you have to impress colleges when it's time for you to apply college...
II- Hugbun is keeping himself busy at work and at play :). He have this monthly meeting of Duke Ellington aficionados where he is President, and then it's BASEBALL SEASON again so he's in business. Last December ('07) he had an x-ray performed on his knees. He always complains about his sore knees. I was worried, I thought that he would need surgeries for new knees. Luckily(?), it's just an arthritis... the pain comes and goes.

Most of his friends are retiring this year, this makes him daydream about retirement too (five years from now). His compressed work schedule is off indefinitely, as his assistant had just retired last week. He used to have every other Mondays off from work. He goes to work 30 minutes early and comes home 30 minutes later for him to enjoy the every other Mondays off. But with his assistant gone, he'll be in the office in the regular hours 5 days a week! I hope that he would still be able to have a week off this summer for vacation, otherwise this would be a looong summer for all of us.


Hugbun is hopeful that this year, he would be able to plant some nice tomatoes and herbs in the garden. We weren't able to have nice tomatoes for a couple of summers now, the darn squirrels had made Hugbun's garden their salad bar.
Hugbun's tomato patch some years ago before the squirrels problem

III- Moi...Well, same old same old. Although I don't work, shuttling these people is keeping me "busy". Now, I have to drop off hugbun first in the subway. He used to ride the Metro bus to the subway (bus stop is just right in front of our house), but with his new schedule, it would be convenient for him to be dropped off. Then, off to Keetbug's school. You have to pay extra for school bus when you go to a private school. With public school, the bus is free...well you pay thru your taxes, anyway. Repeat the shuttling later in the afternoon to pick them (not both at the same time) up.


I had a cat scan last October ('07). I always have headaches for the past years for almost everyday. The headaches wasn't that bad, but you sort of know that it's there. Imagine how nervous I was with the procedure and the result. The procedure itself wasn't that bad, my doctor (ENT especialist...checked the nose, throat and ears too) ask for a contrast cat scan. The technician injected me with a dye and she explained to me what to expect. Sure enough, when the dye was in my system, I felt my chest and groin getting very warm, it was a weird sensation. I was thankful to GOD, VIRGINS, and all the ANGELS and SAINTS that nothing is wrong with my brain and sinus. My doctor thought that the reason of my headaches was maybe because I clinch my jaws and chew gums a lot. Come to think of it, sometimes I realized that I clinched my jaw hard whenever I get upset or just concentrating on something. Now that I'm aware of this, I try my best to stop. My headaches has diminished considerably.


Well, what do you know, after 17 years of being a green card holder, last month I became a U.S. Citizen!!! The "catalyst" were: My Philippine passport was expiring, Immigration would raised the application fee substantially, we won't be vacationing to the Philippines for a couple of years (to save money for Keet's college pohon) and if I'm not a U.S. citizen, I can't enjoy some of the benefits of my hugbun's earnings (U.S. law).


The process of the Citizenship wasn't that long. I applied before the end of July last year ('07), by mid August, I had an appointment with the USCIS (application center) for fingerprints for the FBI. I could have taken the written exam in the same facility, but there was no available examiner that day. Last month was my interview. The appointed time was at 9:00 (different facility this time), by 9:30 I was called for the interview. I was glad that I wasn't able to do the written exam before hand. The interviewer asked me if I've already taken the written exam, so I told her no. She just asked me 6 questions orally (written exam would be ten questions), which I aced by the way ;-). The interview was just her, reading from my filled application. She also asked what I understand about my allegiance to the U.S..... fifteen minutes later, I was done. The interviewer asked me if I'm going to take the oath taking ceremony later at 3:00, and gave me a piece of paper to be filled out before the ceremony. We waited until 3:00, that was a very looong wait. It reminds me of waiting flights in the airport. I was hoping to have the oath around 12 (but that day, they only have one ceremony, the 3:00 o'clock). I was only wearing a light blouse and the temperature that day was cold and windy, so instead of going around Baltimore to while away the time, we just went to a restaurant for our lunch and came back and waited. Meanwhile hugbun was so pleased in reminding me what would happen if I don't listen to him when I complained that it was so boring (he reminded me to bring a book to read, but didn't listen). I was also amazed that there were many applicants with lawyers accompanying them, maybe their cases weren't as straight forward as most. At 3:00 o'clock, we were herded to the top floor for the ceremony. There were 140 being naturalized. There was this Korean woman who doesn't speak and understand English at all (an agent would asked you for the paper that you filled, if there are changes between the time after your interview and the ceremony). I was afraid that they won't give her her certificate as she really had a hard time understanding the agents. One amusing part of the ceremony was when an agent asked a man if he committed a crime between the time after the interview and the oath taking, the man said YES. Immediately he realized his mistake and vehemently said NO, NO. The agent was amused and we laughed WITH the man. We recite our Oath of Allegiance...then the agents called us one by one to have our Certificate (reminded me of a graduation ceremony ;-)) and a small U.S. flag. The Korean woman was all smile when she got her Certificate. I was so disappointed that we didn't bring our camera though...
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We had our summer ('07) vacation last year in Cape May, N.J. The drive from our place was a little longer than we thought, almost 5 hours. The place is so pretty. It is sort of a resort town but with plenty of old Victorian houses. I always love Victorian houses (In the Philippines it's the old Spanish style houses that I couldn't get enough of), so that was a feast of the eyes for me. We stayed in a bed and breakfast, very beautiful! I was hoping that the place was haunted, but no such luck :(. The town offers a ghost tour though, so maybe next time. We did the trolley tour of the old historic district. The architectures and the sizes of the houses are just phenomenal (some of these houses were turned into bed and breakfast). The restaurants were good and priced reasonably. You're in heaven, if your hobby is into antiquing as there were lots of "stalls" inside one of the antique stores we went. We didn't go swimming on the beach though as the place we stayed in has a swimming pool (the only bed and breakfast who has one). We're just content to lounge in the pool and sight see the town...got sore legs from all the walking though. Definitely a destination for vacations for years to come.
Where we stayed...





Some of the Victorian houses...

The beach...

Updates...

Finally, the balikbayan boxes we had sent last April has arrived. A little late than usual, I have to call the agent here and my relatives has to call the Philippine agent at their end. We've watched our relatives opened the boxes thru the webcam and saw and heard all their excitement. Isn't technology nowadays amazing?

We went to a baseball game again last Sunday. Boy, talking about hot days of summer. This is a photo inside our car when we got to the parking lot after the game. Outside temperature is just a couple degrees "cooler". I always tell Hugbun that summer time in Maryland is hotter than in Cebu. As usual he disagrees. We decided to just have Chinese take out for dinner later.

Baltimore

We went to Baltimore for dinner in our friend's house last week. Oftentimes, I regret driving downtown Baltimore without a camera. This time though the paparazzi is ready, so I took a few pictures while Hugbun was driving.

Downtown Baltimore...

The Poe's Grave (Edgar Allan Poe and wife)...