Back in 2005, I flew to Taiwan with my then boyfriend Joel for his dragon boat team’s competition. It was our first trip abroad together, but we didn’t get the chance to explore the country as our movements were limited to leaving our hotel for the race site and going back to it. Fast forward...
Category: Lifestyle
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In the highlands with the grand old lady of ‘batok’
Carpe diem! What do Apo Whang-Od and I have in common? Let me (presumptuously) try to count the ways. Apo Whang-Od, the oldest living tattoo artist—mambabatok—has become Vogue’s oldest cover star, and I have branded myself as the oldest stariray with tattooed arms in my clan. And like her, I have a following, too! My...
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The Mechanic (a real one)
Al Evasco has been working as an automotive mechanic for 23 years. He has always wanted to be one, he says, as he likes “magbutingting,” or taking things apart and fixing them. He excelled as a Tesda trainee, and was awarded as outstanding student when he took its automotive mechanic course after graduating high school....
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Old man Norman
The way people are treating me, I must look ancient. There is surely a disconnect here between people and me. I don’t see any confirmation of how old I seem to them when I look in the mirror. Yes, I’ll admit I look old, but not that old. I’m not the frail and fragile geezer...
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Need help? There’s ‘Thank God It’s Wednesday’
KALIBO, Aklan—A conversation can do wonders. A safe space where people freely talk about their predicaments and anxieties to someone who listens intently without prejudice, offers advice whether solicited or un, and prays for their healing is therapeutic. Sometimes all one needs is to have one’s feelings validated, one’s thoughts articulated, and one’s actions understood....
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Building a castle: Our Hogwarts Philippines story
(With Giselle Goloy, Cherie del Rio-Tan, Anne Frances Sangil, Edwin Madera, Beejay Bautista and Abbey Santos) In the early 2000s, I was part of an outreach event for Pinoy Harry Potter. We were at SM Manila, in an activity center crowded with sets, people in costumes, and children. I was dressed for my role and...
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In loving memory of my ‘Lolo’ Pulong
AVERNES, France—It must have been a day in July 1976. My three-year-old sister Jenni was in the kitchen in our home in Santa Ana, Manila, having a fit. I was nine. Our brother, Kuya Nonoy, was 12. We were with our mother in the living room, waiting for Jenni’s temper tantrum to pass. She was on the...
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On a street in Brooklyn, prayer demonstrates power
NEW YORK CITY—It was May 11 and I had to be at the acupuncturist’s clinic by 2 p.m. I left Manhattan and headed to Brooklyn at 1:15 p.m. I was by myself. I usually travel with my friend but she ran into train delays from where she was coming, and we decided to meet at...
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I remember my other mother
In a recent phone conversation with my mom, she mentioned my nanny, who lived with our family for almost 60 years before passing away in 2014. I told my mom—she is based in the United States; we speak daily—that we were both lucky to have been cared for by a remarkable woman who loved us...
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In Payatas, the Church helps widows and orphans pick up the pieces
The women are all business inside a tailoring shop a stone’s throw from Ina ng Lupang Pangako church in Payatas, Quezon City. They work on fabrics and sewing machines to produce bags of all shapes and sizes—totes, “ecobags,” shoe bags, envelope bags, lunch bags, laundry bags. For six days of work a week, they take...