the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

16 April 2008, Davao City. In a quick turn of events, the plan to bring Lola Coring to Davao for her 89th birthday came to fruition on April 16, less than a month after we first met, and only three days after the doctor gave her a clean bill of health for travel. Finally, the only two living siblings from Barcelona, Sorsogon met again after 20 years. Thanks to all who made this possible, especially for your prayers. Because time is of the essence.

Description: every war we've lost in philippine history has been because of a few filipino traitors who put their short-term interests first before the future of their countrymen. the JPEPA not just threatens to kill local industries further (as existing free trade agreements already unfairly do) but also gives sovereignty over our natural resources to the japanese. plus, there's also the risk of having toxic electronic waste getting dumped in our land and seas as part of the traded "goods". the agreement also has the power to repeal existing laws protecting our sovereignty if they disagree with new arrangements under this agreement. let us not allow traitors to sell our country again to foreign powers. read up and sign! PS and please do forward this. ==================== Greetings! We, groups and individuals in Cebu campaigning for the rejection of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), are starting an on-line petition addressed to the Philipp...

lost and found by Jeneen R. Garcia to be published (or maybe not) on 26 April 2008     I don’t have a mole on either foot to prove it, but I’ve been called gypsy, nomad, and other tribes of similar occupation too often to deny it. Instead of a caravan, I have my backpack with essential clothing, toiletries, and electronic gadgets to keep me covered wherever night may catch me. If I’m moving house, I tow along my suitcase of books and diving gear as well.   I’m in the middle of yet another move to another city. In the last two years, I’ve lived no longer than five consecutive months in any single place--something I didn’t realize until THIS transit. I’ve shipped my stuff from one city to another so many times that packing up has become second nature; my suitcase is always on standby for quick departures.   Relocating? It’s easy: post an ad in Friendster and other social networking sites saying you’re looking for a place to live in whatever city you’re headed ...

Rating: ★★★★★ Category: Other STRANGER THAN FICTION by Jeneen R. Garcia published in 2002 And here's the story about my former housemates on Acacia St. that I promised to post. Told you I have a lot of strange-funny stories in my life :P I try to forget most of them so I don't feel I'm so weird. ==================== I love old houses. They remind me of the home I grew up in, complete with leaky ceilings and cockroaches in the most sacred places. So maybe it’s no surprise I tend to attract ghosts. At first I thought it was just a doppelganger, my “other” self. Two of my college roommates saw “her” in the room on separate occasions, once wearing all white, another time wearing all black. I am sure neither one was me, because I was either out of the room at that time or fast asleep in my bed. This year, when I moved to a new boarding house, I couldn’t help going back to an old house that I had already looked at two years before but couldn’t afford then. The room felt like my r...

Rating: ★★★★★ Category: Other STRANGER THAN FICTION by Jeneen R. Garcia published in April 2002 I wrote this for Earth Day, April 22, which also happens to be my Lola Coring's birthday. She's turning 89 in a few days, and she's celebrating it in Davao for the first time (more on that in a forthcoming--i hope, if/when i have enough time--blog entry or photo album). I just found it cool that now I have two groovy lolas associated with Earth Day :D ================ The things you inherit from grandmothers. My lola 's name was Generosa. She was thrifty, frugal, cheap to the point of stinginess. She kept everything—letters, designer shoes and bags, and cash from every decade—in an aparador she had rescued all the way from Cavite where she lived before WWII hit. She insisted on saving things for a rainy day till she forgot all about them. If not for me and my brothers poking around in her drawers, precious antiques would have stayed buried under piles of unremarkable memor...

Rating: ★★★★ Category: Other STRANGER THAN FICTION BY Jeneen R. Garcia published in November 2001 This is the first installment of my first-ever column, published in FLIP, Sun.Star's youth section. In college, my friends would compile the strange-funny stories of my life to entertain themselves (it's such a high, laughing about the misfortunes and misadventures of other people :P), so I decided to write about them myself to entertain more people. ==================== You need only read the papers to get what I’m saying. Sept. 11 Survivor Dies in Plane Crash was on yesterday’s front page. This woman who worked in the WTC missed being crushed under the rubble, but fate made sure she was on the plane that crashed into a Queens neighborhood. Just as strange is the guy who didn’t make it to that plane because his little sister got lost coming back from the bathroom at the airport. Even the local news can be full of surprises. I remember the news on a woman and a true-blue parlor qu...