Meeting the relatives

After a quiet Sunday in Manila, I headed south to Tiaong on Monday. Tiaong is a small municipality located approximately 100km south of Manila. My mother grew up in Tiaong. I was dropped off in front of city hall, and I went inside to ask for my uncle, an uncle I have never met before. The first person I asked gave me a blank look, then I met someone that was my mother’s cousin. She helped me locate my uncle, and he picked me up. The rest of the day felt like a family reunion. I met uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews I have never met before and I was fed nearly all day. By the end of day, everyone knew me, and I was having problems remembering everyone’s name. Fortunately, language wasn’t an issue at all. Most of them speak English fluently, but they were all surprised I could not speak Filipino. Whenever possible, I try to respond back in broken Filipino to them. They seem to be humored by my Canadian accent.

On Tuesday, my aunt from Tiaong took me to the Municipality of Candelaria. Candelaria is larger than Tiaong and is 15km east of Tiaong. Candelaria is where my father grew up. I have more relatives here. I met my father’s family at my grandma’s house. My relatives told me what they remember about my parents when they were living in town. They even had an album of my family. Many of the pictures from my childhood. After getting aquatinted, my uncle and cousins took me around the town. First, I visited my uncle’s cockfighting stadium. Cockfighting is a Filipino tradition. Birds strap up with razors, and dual to their death while hundreds of people watch and bet on which bird will win. It’s pretty gruesome to watch the participants fight, then see one of the birds die. After cockfighting, I visited my grandfather’s grave. I never met my grandfather. I couldn’t help to think how nice it was to visit him finally. Next, we visited the newly renovated town church. When we returned, I had fried chicken for lunch. Later, I learned they killed a chicken for me straight from their backyard.

This morning, I visited the rest of my mother’s family on the outskirts of Tiaong. I visited my mother’s aunts and uncles. They were very surprised to see me, and some of them were moved to tears. Each of them had a slight resemblance to my mother. I could also see some of their physical features were passed to me. It was so nice to meet them after all these years.