And so finally…..

….I’m home….here at our house in Santa Maria, Bulacan!!!  🙂

I arrived yesterday and I plan to spend the remaining days of my vacation here.  I really wanted to go into this house after that “painful event” but I was hospitalized. After I was discharged, my Ditse and her husband, Thony, suggested that I stay at their place in One Serendra, Taguig City.

The last time I was in this house was when Daddy died last November of 2011 and I stayed up to the third week of January 2012.

Our 2-storey house in Santa Maria stands on a 679-square meter lot with a floor area of 395 square meters. It has a master’s bedroom with toilet and bath, six bedrooms with toilets and bath and a maid’s room with its own toilet and bath, too. It also has an attic, a  swimming pool and a front lawn.  I was happy to know that the house in now equipped with closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

My room is on the 2nd floor, the last one on the left side beside my Ditse’s room. I don’t know if its a tradition or superstition, but our rooms were arranged according to our order of birth.

Since I was born and raised in San Francisco, California, I missed growing up in this house. But nevertheless this house is special to me because it stores our family’s heritage, the silent witness to my family’s struggles and triumphs and the sanctuary that keeps the family together.

As soon as I arrived, I immediately went into the garden to check on the “fish pond” but was dismayed when I found out that not a single fish was present.

I also checked the short wooden bridge at the side of the house leading to the so-called “dirty kitchen” and was happy to see it, still sturdy and tidy-looking after all these years.

We went out to buy food for dinner and we headed into a place that sells “barbecue”.  Well, when we say barbecue or BBQ, we normally think of grilled pork or chicken meat. But in this particular store, where my Ate was a “suki” (Tagalog term for a regular customer), they sell different kinds of “barbecue” and they have strange names 🙂

Aside from the marinated pork meat which when grilled to perfection is called pork barbecue, the store also sells grilled pork liver, chicken blood in square which they call “betamax” and chicken intestines called “IUD”. Grilled chicken feet is called “adidas”, grilled chicken head is “helmet” and grilled pig ears are called “walkman”. Aside from that, they also sell  pork skin, chicken gizzards, chicken ass, pork intestine, chicken neck and chicken crop or “butse” in Tagalog. We bought pork barbecue and two orders of everything there plus fish balls. “kwek-kwek” or deep fried battered-orange hard boiled quail eggs  and deep-fried “one-day old chick”.  I was told that these one-day old chickens were farm rejects and since they won’t be able to grow that much meat, they are killed at birth.  Whoa!

Below are the pictures of our  “deliciosa comida”

I had my apprehensions in eating these things but my Ate assured me that the store follows proper food handling/preparation and that these street foods are safe for human consumption 🙂

I had a great meal that night. We ate these grilled stuffs dipped in sweet chili vinegar with rice plus ice-cold Coke.  Well, I tried the one-day-old chick and it taste like………chicken 🙂

We had our “tea session” after dinner. Talked with my Mom in San Francisco via Facetime then went up to my room and laid my body in  my “Bulacan Bed”.

I feel so blessed. Thank you God for this Home. Thank you God for my family. 🙂

©godosjoaquin 2014