the upcoming independence day

We are preparing for JUNE 12...

..which is our Philippine Independence Day celebration here at the Humber Heights. It is that retirement home where I volunteer some piano playing services every Monday ( except when a Holiday falls on that day ). Because if it is a holiday, the staff and volunteers are off and nobody would be able to bring down the patients into the Recreation room..

Well last Tuesday, I visited the home, bringing with me a DVD copy of an Australian made documentary entitled: PHILIPPINES:PEARLS OF THE ORIENT SEAS. It is a decently made docuvideo about our country, starting with a legend about the Sarimanok, the mythical bird which brought about the formation of our Islands. Then it went on to do a short but meaty account from the discovery of the country by Ferdinand Magellan, his death at the hands of Lapu-Lapu ( yes, photos of these two protagonists were shown ) and it went on to the WW II events, the granting of Independence by the Americans. The only President shown here was Apo Marcos, his proclaimation of the Martial Law ( PD 1081 if I am not mistaken ) , the exile, return and execution of his political nemesis, Sen. Benigno Aquino. The political scenario drifted to that fateful snap election which he announced just to prove that he was still in control ( of election returns i. e). However, surprise, surprise: the people revolted, Ramos and Enrile staged the coup and Da Apo ( and entourage ) went on exile to the Hawaiian Islands.

The rest of the movies are cultural and business aspects of present day Philippines ( I mean the year that the video was made which was about 1995 )..

Well, I handed the DVD to Sharon the coordinator of the event. This movie has to be shown around 10:00 am June 12 at the media room. Mind you, this is a first class Senior's Home, looking more like a 5 star Hotel.

I wanted her to preview the film because part of it showed Faith Healings. There was this local faith healer who performs surgery without knives. Just his bare hands. He has this gift he claims, that his hands could rearrange the molecular structure of the stomach of the patient. Then his hands would sink into the belly of the patient, just down to half of his fingers. Blood comes out, he would pull out something from inside the belly, wipes the blood and the "wound" heals itself in seconds. Wonderful. Some minor wounds like a sore in my foot takes days before I could put my shoes back. Anyway, the sequence of this "bloody " part takes about one minute, might be even less...

"See if this is not scary to the Seniors, " I told Sharon.

"Good idea," she said.."You see, one time there was this movie we showed to them. I left the media room for a few minutes, when I came back, the room was empty and the movie was still on!"

"Why??" I asked.

Sharon said: "There is this part in the video where a bloody killing took place. Some blood splatteiring. One Senior could not take it. He stood up, left the room. Then the whole Senior gang stood up and followed seconds later..!"

I told her the docu I am showing has no murder scene. Might be okay, she said.

Some of the final scenes of the movie will be the well known Filipino recipes: boiled crabs, shrimps, noodles ( oh yes ) . This is timely because right after the movie, lunch will be served

And I think there is no dinuguan ( blood pudding ) shown in the movie. Although I do wish a Filipino worker in the Facility would bring in some dinuguan on June 12 because I have not tasted this favorite for a long long time.

I forgot to order this at a Dagupan restaurant when I was there.---#

vic