By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
Meeting family members who came from abroad face to face is like meeting a part of some distant foreign land. When you so get used to the hard stone-like way of speaking from Igorots, that foreign accent is a sudden reminder of the world outside. Since going to college, the world around me only started to reveal itself bit by bit. The world stage however, is too big to see behind the pine trees of Baguio.
The unfortunate conditions in our nation drives its own citizens to look for better pastures abroad. Growing up, children often have only the close support of one parent, sometimes even none. Thankfully, our culture values family as precious as gold. Stern grandparents are there to provide the discipline, aunts and uncles provide their wisdom to guide their nephews. Cousins, of course, are in great number and make for great company.
A household in our nation houses not only one family. We have families of dogs and chickens outside that compete with the loud Filipino voices inside.
A different tone, for once, is music to our ears. We may flinch at different sights at first, but they are necessary. To learn more about all things outside our borders, we have to face all things that are different. Its a strange feeling to witness other aspects of life straying so far from the one where you have lived for decades.
The differences between people from the different sides of the border are always a shock at first. When we finally lay our eyes upon them, meet them face to face, there lies the same values we hold within our own. So different and not so different at the same time.
To the various mothers, fathers, uncles etc. who missed their children’s graduation, their first heart break, all to provide for a better life, from them comes the strong foundations that build bright eyed children with the proper understanding of sacrifice and appreciation. Two values that will most certainly help in paving their way to a brighter future.
With blood and sweat, a person can get whatever he wants. Tears from the eyes remind us of what we actually need, the people so far away.
The touch of family, their voices so clear, their faces so close, all of them a person will always need. Time away from loved ones means hearts that inch closer to being broken. The soul, however, can hold on a little bit longer. Until the rewards are ready to bloom, faith keeps us going.
Ours is a nation that many people from all over the world call home and it is one that breaks families apart.
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