Draft #3: Halloween Hang-ups

Although there was only a one day holiday for this year's halloween season (Nov. 1 is the only legal holiday) , I'm glad to say that I've enjoyed it. It wasn't my typical All Saints' and Souls' Day. For one, I did not go home to Mati to visit my dead loved ones. Instead, I stayed in Davao where I pondered on the similarities between halloween and the holy week.

The streets were quiet and empty. It was as if the whole city was my park where I could stroll around freely, without bothering the interference of vehicles. The malls were open on the other hand but they were not crowded at all. I shopped for food and for five days, I cooked my own meal - this, I do not normally do. I cooked, ate, and watched TV and DVDs all night. I cleaned the house and did my pet fish a favor by cleaning its aquarium. I feasted at these moments. They are lazy, homey pleasures that unexpectedly comfort you.

And now, the holiday's about to end. I do not want to go back to work yet. I want to finish reading the two books I've bought. I want to stay up all night and sleep all day until my head hurts. I want to watch the day start and end before me and wake up to watch it start again. I want to be a bum!!!

Forgive me for sounding lazy and slothful. You might understand if I tell you that since I graduated March last year, I was not still able to have a vacation. My vacation. You can't blame me if I feel tired. Who wouldn't be? I've been working since April 13, 2007 nonstop. Occasional day dreaming does not solve the problem anymore. It only makes the longing worse.

Anyway, I'm still happy (I should be) that ironic as it might seem, I felt so alive during these two solemn days for the dead! Makes me want to wish for a halloween extension.

Draft #2 - Swimming with turtles, mantas, whales, and dolphins

(This is the edited version of the article I made for the toruism magazine of Sarangani Province.)

The unrelenting rays of the sun penetrate the car’s windows and heat engulfs the small compartment, biting my skin. It is 11:30 a.m. I grumble and shift uncomfortably in my seat, wistfully watching the magnificent bay stretched out below me. We veer away from the main road and enter a rusty gate that opens to a dirt road just wide enough for us to pass. On both sides, endless rows of trees with trunks that stick out like sore thumbs, enveloping us in all shades of brown.

The car stops in a clearing and I follow the rest towards a quaint cottage. So very Western I think of the architecture of wooden logs that reminds me of a Hollywood movie featuring a Hansel-and-Gretel-like hut located in the middle of a forest, isolating its occupants from the rest of the world.

This cottage is at the edge of a clearing, right above a stony cliff. Its spacious wooden terrace offers a fantastic view of the sea. The terrace leads to a narrow, cemented staircase that extends down to the water. So here I finally am at South Point. It is located at Tampuan Point, Maasim, Sarangani Province; probably the farthest south one can get over land in the Philippines when in search for dive sites.

In 1969, when Donald Partridge, an American, moved to the Philippines to work for the DOLE Pineapple Plantation in General Santos City, he instantly grew attached to the place as it is bordered by Sarangani Bay. Don stayed and married a Filipina with whom he has three sons.

Paul, the second son, is a dive instructor and the manager of South Point. He recalls that when he was still a child, his family owned a beach in General Santos City, which he and his brothers made into their playground. A couple of years later, the family found in Sarangani this piece of land jutting above the sea, turned it into their getaway, and then decided to open it to the public in 2005.

Yet despite the success of their hobby-turned-business, the Partridge family is bent on keeping South Point from becoming too commercialized, preferring to keep it simple; a rustic, back-to-roots kind of dive site. Paul confides he hesitates using the word ‘resort’ because people might think the place is full of half-naked people and plenty of booze. A ‘Bed and Breakfast’ or ‘Mom and Pop Store’ of divers is more what Paul has in mind for the dive site and he does not mind the minimal exposure that their handful of promotional brochures has given.

What the Partridge family desires is to have people add to their circle of sea-lovers, no matter how few. The measure of South Point’s success for the Partridges is not based on the number of customers that come every so often. “What we want are friends to come back,” Paul says emphatically.

And come back visitors do indeed. Many return to explore the crevice located right at the corner of the property where the dive spot is. Feet after feet, the crevice of stretches from under the water’s surface to the abyss unexplored even by expert divers.

Other visitors like to hang out at the Sandbar, a small shore made of white sand and soft corals that during low tide peeks through the blue sea like the wide tip of an iceberg. From here one can swim to the opposite side where a beach of hard corals lies.

Probably the most favorite attraction at South Point are the turtles and mantas, giant rays whose diamond-shaped bodies measure to 25 feet across their fins or “wings.” Thriving under the sea at varying depths, these sea creatures can be encountered depending on how deep one dives. The manta, for example, is considered a prized sighting as it can only be seen if one gets to dive deep enough.

Yet even when turtles and mantas go in hiding, divers find themselves in reach of breathtaking soft corals and surrounded by napoleon wrasse, tuna, banded angel fish, whales, and dolphins. So colorful and bursting with life is this magical underwater world that all troubles are left floating on the surface.

Draft #1 - About Me

I used to say that I do not like describing myself mostly because I don't have much to tell. But as I think of it now, it might just be because I am lazy to figure out who I really am. (A pretty invalid reason for someone who has spent 22 years in the world, right?)

Here's what I can muster...

1. I am a pretentious girl. Not in a bad way. I always daydream about the good things that can happen in my life.

2. But I am a worrier. Even if I daydream of good things, I still worry a lot. I mellowed when I learned that worrying can be deadly.

3. I am an achiever. I always finish what I start and strive to be good at what I'm tasked to do.

4. I am allergic to people having expectations on me. No matter how I tell myself that I must not care of what other people might say, I still feel bad when I can't please them.

5. I easily get bored at work. One good proof is when I do nothing but wait for log-out time.