THIS has been another great working vacation.
By the time you are reading this, I would have been packed and ready to fly back to America.
I arrived in Iloilo on Oct. 4, and I’m leaving Manila for the US today, Oct 29.
Twenty-five days, and I felt I did something great on this visit.
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On the day I arrived, Oct. 4, I had my long deserved hair and body spa.
I got my hair rebonded, and keratinized with Brazilian treatment.
It cost me more than I was willing to pay (cheapskate that I am), but the compliments I got since then made it all worth it.
Will I do this hair again? Maybe not.
I just want my long hair ponytailed, or in a man bun.
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I also got a lingam massage.
Yes, that’s the massage that focuses on the male genitalia.
You disagree? Sue me!
I did not have a lingam massage everyday.
Even if I have the budget for it.
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I really wanted to use prostitutes on this visit.
But either the ones I wanted wouldn’t take my money, or I got too busy to have time for them.
I know I’ll regret not enjoying plenty of cheap sex (and not getting enough massages) once I get back in the US, but for now, being busy for greater causes make happy.
So yeah, I’ll probably end up giving away the boxes of condoms I brought.
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I’m not a saint.
I really wanted to have plenty of sex on this visit.
And I don’t care if it was only paid sex.
What can I say? I’m bisexual. I buy sex!
I mean, I can buy sex. I can afford it.
But things sometimes don’t go my way.
The path to sainthood is much clearer for me.
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The day after I arrived in the country, Oct. 5, I was in Bacolod giving a lecture workshop in La Consolacion College.
Peter Solis Nery on “The Shaping of the World through Literature.”
It was only a four-hour lecture.
But the RO-RO trip from Dumangas to Bacolod, and back, totaled almost five hours.
Who would have time to have sex after that?
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Oct. 6 – I got invited to my friend’s house for lunch.
I ended up staying for dinner.
Post-dinner, another friend requested me to critique and translate/subtitle his film for a competition.
It was another long film talk into the night.
But I love how emerging Dumangasanon filmmakers look up to me.
How they value and appreciate my opinions.
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I did my first long run in Iloilo on Oct. 7.
Just a little over 12 kilometers.
(I have been running some in the US again since September.)
I like running around town in Dumangas.
I meet more people I know that way.
And I also feel I’m a running symbol of fitness at 50.
Most people compliment me for my running tenacity.
I often turn that talk into encouraging them to walk and exercise.
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I flew to Manila on Oct. 8 to attend the Indian ambassador’s dinner at this residence in Forbes Park.
I had no plans of flying to Manila before mid-October, but it’s not like you get invited by a foreign dignitary everyday.
Especially on the account of you being a poet.
At the dinner, I met Bina Sarkar Ellias, editor/publisher of International Gallerie magazine that featured two of my poems.
Outside the program, Ambassador Jaideep Mazumbar’s lovely wife Pravati asked me to read one of my poems.
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Oct. 9 – I ran errands for The Peter Solis Nery Foundation.
I also met one of the boys I was considering to marry or something.
He turned out to be too much of a boy for me.
Thank you, next!
Oct. 10 – I met an old friend, and we partied in the UST area.
Where we also met a fan who commuted all the way from Antipolo to finally meet me.
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I picked up a final check for the second edition of my textbook Creative Writing for Philippine Senior High School from DIWA Publishing in Makati on Oct. 11.
I talked to the managing director of the editorial department, who has earlier offered me to write the textbook on 21st Literature.
She loved my concept of the book, my astute understanding of the K-12 education program, the thrusts of 21st century education in the Philippines, and the psychology of millennial learners.
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She ended up offering me to write another book — the one for Philippine Contemporary Arts.
She hinted that she has been following my work with The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts.
That she has noticed how I have a healthy network with writers and visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and theatre people.
And how I can write books in my sleep.
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And it is true.
I’m never a difficult author.
Especially if people just take everything I write.
And why shouldn’t they?
I only meant to educate in the most learner-friendly way.
And I see the big picture.
I’m not some academic in an ivory tower.
I am very much in touch with teachers and students in the Philippines. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
