the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

Returning to Dumaguete in June was like returning to a new city with new hangouts that (joy, joy!) have free wi-fi--McDonald's, Jollibee, plus some others that charge per hour--and a National Bookstore at the corner of Silliman (joy, joy!) with walls made entirely of glass. As of last sem, there was wi-fi only at two internet cafes. Imagine that. Civilization, as most cities know it, has finally set in in Dumaguete.   But the best news--wi-fi-wise--is that we also have free wi-fi in school (for a limited period) and at the marine lab =D And I hope to hitch on my neighbor's (yes, I have a neighbor now on the second floor) DSL once I get my own wireless router. So work, school, house--I'll have everything covered hopefully by the end of this month. I HAVE been working on controlling the addiction, too. I no longer stay so late in school surfing. Only till 10:30 pm at the latest =D   In fact, for this semester, I have resolved to put on the habits of a new lifestlye altog...

http://www.issacusi.iamafilipina.com/ Issa Cusi is one of the leaders in my church in Cebu. We only met again last July, on the day Ana died, when I went back to church after more than a year since I'd left Cebu. We sat beside each other that day as we worshipped, me crying, and she remarking to her husband "Doesn't she remind you of Ana?". Only at the funeral the next day did I find out that she knew Ana, too, from their couples bible studies way before I met either of them. Strangely enough (or rather, providentially, I guess), after years of not seeing each other, Ana had contacted her to be witness at a family conference just a few days before that fateful day. She asked me if I wanted to be part of her daily text group. I said, Sure. Here are some gems she's sent me that I want to save: Wisdom is the ability to do God's will in God's timing; and though we don't know exactly what the future holds, we can always say, "If the Lord wills..."...

Sorry, this is a selfish post, but something that I had to do. I went through my photo archives yesterday (incidentally, exactly four weeks since she flew) to dig up these 12 shots that barely represent the short time I was privileged to have her light in my life. I realized that we took a lot of pictures--of each other, of our cats--but only a few with the two of us in it, mostly taken by timer or with one of our outstretched arms. We didn't take pictures of our leisurely dinners talking about our planned book of essays, which inevitably never got done, because the conversations always strayed off to more urgent things. Like family and growing up. And love =) We never got to go on our writing retreat somewhere south, or anywhere on a trip together. I don't even have a picture of the last time I saw her, the day before her 29th birthday. We had a pictorial at her house, and I used her SLR to take pictures of her with Vince and Nino. I don't know where those photos are now, ...