Lost in translation
Words from the Spanish-Tagalog ‘vocabulario’ or dictionary, Libreria Martinez, circa 1810
October 21, 2012
Words from the Spanish-Tagalog ‘vocabulario’ or dictionary, Libreria Martinez, circa 1810
My best friend and her husband are residents abroad, but divorced three years ago after they found out they got married for the wrong reasons. They were both on the rebound and thought that a few laughs were good enough for them to forget their individual pasts.
It’s Halloween! Time to mingle with witches and goblins, wear masks, black capes and ghost outfits. So turn off the lights and turn up the spooky music. Listen for the sound of creaky stairs, squeaky doors, and “things that go bump in the night.”
As young kids in grade school, we passed around the mite can in the weeks leading to Mission Sunday. These were cans around the size of a fruit cocktail can, very much like the cans you see in supermarket cashiers where you can drop your coins—or bills—for the Red Cross or Bantay Bata. The mite can had a label with a picture of an American Jesuit missionary riding a horse on the slopes of a mountain in Mindanao wearing his white cassock. There was a day when you brought home the mite can to “beg” for the missionaries in Mindanao. It almost felt like a mission. On our way home we’d stop by our relatives’ houses to “beg” and went around the neighbors’ houses, too.
Sunday at St. Peter’s Square in Rome at 10 a.m. (6:30 p.m. Manila time), Pope Benedict XVI will declare as “saints” seven “Blessed,” including our very own Blessed Pedro Calungsod, Visayan martyr and catechist.
“Mommy, please bring Kleenex—knowing you, you’re going to laugh and cry a lot,” warned my daughter, Gia, as she handed me two tickets to a special showing of “The Learning,” a documentary by Ramona “Monina” Diaz (remembered for the compelling, controversial “Imelda”).
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia celebrated her birthday at the Provincial Capitol’s social hall with a mass of thanksgiving concelebrated by Msgr. Roberto Alesna and Fr. Dan de los Angeles. There was much to thank for as Cebu’s first lady governor has marked eight years of brilliant leadership to make Cebu the No. 1 province in the country. As she says, “debt-free, and insurgency-free.”
October marks not only breast cancer awareness month, but the equally important mental health month as well. In a recent study on the happiest countries, despite it being “more fun in the Philippines,” surprisingly (at least to me), the Philippines ranked 103 out of 155 countries in the 2012 World Happiness Report published by Columbia University.
One day, I received a call from Bobbit Suntay asking if he could see me. I knew Bobbit when he was the principal of Xavier School, where my boys were then enrolled. Bobbit had lost his wife to cancer and he had founded Carewell, a cancer support foundation. When we met, he asked me if I was willing to join Carewell as a member of the board of trustees. I readily agreed.
Magnificat Ventures Corp. (MVC), the developer of the Shrine of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and owner of the St. Therese Columbarium in Newport, Pasay City, have partnered with Fr. Jason Dy, SJ, to bring the acclaimed art exhibit, “In Loving Memory,” to Manila.
The latest in global fashion, beauty, and culture through a contemporary Filipino perspective.
