Pleasures of Small Town Life

Our town in Occidental Mindoro is a quaint, charming, friendly and happy place opposite with city life. I went there last October 31, 2008 to attend my father’s 60th birthday and also in time for the holidays in observance of Todos Los Santos.

Life there is really very simple, a perfect example of barrio lifestyle. Electricity is only available at 1:00 in the afternoon until 12:00 midnight, so you really have plenty of time talking to your family or visiting friends or relatives. Average TV watching is only 1 hour per day. Really nice because I hate television by the way, which I will explain in a separate blog.

A few blocks from our house, on the east-side is a beautiful beach and on the west, just a bicycle ride away, is a really fabulous mountain river – the Calawagan Mountain Resort.

Simple pleasures, such as waking up on the sounds of chirping birds and backyard chickens and lazily wait for the water to boil in the kitchen to have some kapeng barako with tuyo for breakfast. I see how the sun rises over the mountain, how the maya and other colorful birds soar across the sky, whether it is clear or cloudy day. Then, on the afternoon, I will look for my father’s bolo to have some fresh buko juice to chill-out on a hot summer afternoon.


Before the sun sets, I will walk on the beach barefoot, play with the sand and will take a dive on the clear salty water afterwards. I will swim as far as I can, while watching the sun, dreamily setting and painting the sky with magnificent luminous hue of red, orange and blue. I will just sigh in awe, watch the setting sun and enjoy the day.




And of course, my favorite place – the Calawagan Mountain Resort. The water there is really very cold, perfect to avoid the hot summer afternoon. The water is very clean. It even got an award as the Philippines cleanest inland body of water a few years ago. On its clear water, under the solid rocks and pebbles are small marine species such various species of shrimps, snails and fishes – signs of a healthy and natural river.

The only emergency that you will hear is, after palay harvest, when there are dark clouds hanging over Mt. Calavite, signaling a coming rain. Somebody will shout “Hoy, iurong nyo na yang palay, may dilim!” Next is the frantic commotion on the street, with people holding kalaykay, pansudsod and sako to save their precious harvest from the rain. My town folks are normally using the public street for drying palay after the harvest season.

To all my kababayans, let us celebrate the simple pleasures that come from living in our town.
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More about my town on www.tarangkahan.bravehost.com , a website I made dedicated to our town.
History of our town on : http://occidentalmindorohistory.googlepages.com/historypaluan