First and foremost about Bacolod is food–and I reaffirm my membership in the Third Circle of Dante’s Inferno–which starts with an overly sumptuous breakfast of rice and sausage and egg and spam (yes, spam) and the sweetest, most luscious mangoes...all that after coming in on the early bird 5 a.m. flight from Manila. I will skip the boring part about work (the workshop) and go straight to lunch, which was at the legendary Pendy’s. Maximum restraint has to be exercised when shopping for pasalubong here: from the diabetes-inducing dulce gatas (carabao’s milk cooked in sugar; the best way to eat this, says Jocelyn, is "with a spoon!") to all lengths and thicknesses of barquillos to the teeth-cracking masa podrida to different variations of piyaya (a flat molasses-filled biscuit) to the soul-satisfying galletas (a flat cracker the charms of which defy description and must be tried to be appreciated) to a delicious attempt at mixing tradition and globalization called "butterscotti" (butterscotch biscotti). Vast quantities of all of the above–and more–were expertly packed into a carton box by the kindly and very encouraging ("Sige, pili pa kayo. Masarap yan!") Manang Margie, who has been with Pendy’s forever and is as gracious as her products are delicious.
All that energy we expended shopping was replaced with a hearty lunch at the adjacent restaurant, and that meant pancit molo, la paz batchoy and fresh lumpia (restraint being the order of the day)...topped off with coffee and the million calorie half moon cake and a slice of lemon cream pie, the best I’ve had in a long, long while (restraint was put on hold).
That afternoon we joined the Hilado family–patriarch Oscar and his children Michael and Patricia–to visit a Gawad Kalinga village in Sum-ag on the outskirts of the city. A total of 93 homes, funded by the Hilado family’s Mariposa Foundation and also by the del Rosario family, will be built on land donated by Doña Encarnacion dela Rama Hernaez; so far 55 homes have been completed. The Hilado children donated the playground, with basketball court, swings and seesaws, monkey bars, a carousel and a sandbox. Even though it was raining, the kids–oh so many of them!–were out in full force. The bigger boys were playing a spirited game of basketball. A quartet had a sipa contest going. The seesaws had three or four kids on each side; we were told that the seesaws had to be reinforced because of overloading. Myriad kids of all sizes were on the swings and carousel, while countless others were running around, simply enjoying the open space.
Community leaders (they have a residents’ association there) tell us that the playground is used practically all hours of the day and night, by children as well as adults. We tell Michael and Patricia that they have the best return for their investment in the playground, considering how much the people of this GK-ERH Village use the facility. Gawad Kalinga coordinator for Negros Bob Magalona explains that this is probably the first time most of these kids have access to a playground.
Bacolod has the second largest squatter population in the country, and it will take many, many more GK villages to provide decent housing for them all. Fortunately Gawad Kalinga has a very active presence in the province, and other organizations–such as the nuns of St. Scholastica–are taking up the challenge of taking care of the least of their brethren.
Dusk and threatening rain clouds signaled us to head back to town, and as we drove through the soft and extremely muddy roads we could still hear the shouts and aqueals of delight of the kids and see the wide toothy grins of parents as they stood at the doors of their dream homes.
We stayed at a friend’s home in the Town and Country subdivision, fussed over by Tia Pacit, a bubbly and gracious hostess with the most interesting and juicy–and sometimes naughty!–stories to go with all the juicy and delicious grilled chicken, ribs, chops and skewers of barbecue, prawns and crabs she piled on our dinner plates. Believe you me, inasal (the distinctly Ilonggo grilling marinade) tastes so much better with chismis! After dinner we took a walk around the subdivision, not only an excellent way to work off our finger-lickin’ dinner but a most delightful stroll, the night air cooled by the afternoon’s downpour, the leaves from the trees lining the streets making patterns with the street lamps, and Tia Pacit telling us stories about life in Bacolod, punctuated by tidbits about the people whose houses we walked by.
We were enjoying the stroll so much we would have made another round but having gotten up before dawn was taking its toll on me: a hot shower and the bed won over homemade carrot cake and tea. Maybe it’s their history of sugar, but dreams in Bacolod really are that much sweeter.