Bukid Life is Still Here

Hello!  Sorry for not writing anything for many, many days.  I guess when you're living in the Bukids one must have a lot of patience when it comes to enjoying modern amenities and perks... like internet connection.

We used to be connected with SOTELCO-PLDT DsL.  SOTELCO buys units from PLDT and resells it under their brand.  At first, it was fine!  We could chat and email and download and everything.  Then it became mediocre, creating connection and speed problems.  To the point that whenever it would rain and the wind would blow, we could expect a cut in the connection.  Over the Christmas break, our speed was so slow and the connection so scratchy that I was worried we wouldn't be able to call up family for chats.  (In the end we didn't have to because we were so busy.)  Anyway, since then I must have complained over 50 times, starting with once a week, to three times a week to every day.  Until, the connection was lost altogether.  I was in the middle of uploading a video (The Flying Gecko, previous blog) when all of a sudden everything stopped loading.  I called up the office to be told that the whole barangay's connection was out.  Okay, cool down.  A couple of hours later, internet was back up and wow, it was fast!  Then, promptly at 10pm it disappeared again and did not return even after 3 days.  No matter how much I complained-- I eventually got tired of calling-- the technician whom they were supposed to send never came, even up to the time when I threatened and made true the threat to have my account disconnected.

Last Thursday, I bought a device called PLDT WeRoam, the wireless modem of PLDT DsL.  It operates wherever there is a strong SMART Telecom signal.  That is what I'm using now.  So far so good.  It's a bit slow (must exercise patience) and sometimes chats take forever to send/receive, but it is sure.  I hope and pray that we'll be able to acquire a faster connection in the future, but for now, this is fine.

People, please bear with me.  My blogs will regularize soon.

Bukid Life

Bukid life, oh my bukid life
Ev'ry memory, kay ganda
Bukid days, oh my bukid days
Are exciting, kay saya
(Sing to the tune of High School Life by Sharon Cuneta)

I'm not really a fan of Ms. Sharon Cuneta, nor of Ms. KC Concepcion for that matter. But this first verse sounded just right even with the words altered.

Because life in the mountains, nowadays, isn't all foraging and hunting anymore. I was born here in Bukidnon, in a small community hospital-- which, by the way, was advanced for its time then-- and have lived here all my life. With intermittent boards in Manila and Los Baños. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to come home. From school or after a prolonged leave of absence to be with family in Luzon.

When I was a student, I believed my homesickness stemmed from wanting to live the life my father had-- as a farmer. After he died (just before my university graduation) and I began to work as a full-time agriculturist, I realized I was wrong, though I did not know what I wanted. It was only later, when I met my future husband, that the true reason showed itself.

We were invited to join a public transport group and, shortly after, were given the opportunity to provide transportation for a large doctor's convention in Cagayan de Oro. That was when we realized we could do more for the world by becoming a travel agency.

Today, though we regularly travel around Mindanao and schedule trips to the other provinces in the Philippines, we always come home to Bukidnon. There is something about living on a mountain-- the quiet, the privace, the community-- that can't be found anywhere else, no matter where we go.