Encounters sacred and magical. For Sir Lõuiè Pangilinan Lanaja.

ORDINARY TEACHER'S NOTES. 3 JAN 2014. SAT. N2.
Encounters sacred and magical. For Sir Lõuiè Pangilinan Lanaja.

MORE THAN two years ago, now going on three, I had to get away from all the distractions of the big Philippine city one summer day. 

I had a deadline to finish the Gramatika ti Kontemporaneo nga Ilokano--a grammar book on the Ilokano language written in Ilokano. Simply put, I wanted to explain the structure of the Ilokano language in nothing else but the Ilokano language. That was fair. 

Manila was such a distraction, and my corner of Starbucks in SM Marikina did not help. People would see me there, crouching in one corner, and lo and behold, the writing would end up in hours of talking. Which was bad for my writing health.

I knew that Rizal started to write something about Tagalog grammar, and he did that while he was exiled in Dapitan, yes, that beautiful place overlooking a vast sea.

I have never been there. I have been to other places in the Zamboanga area but not Dapitan. I know Zambo City. I know Dipolog nearby. 

I remembered the beautiful sunset of Dipolog, and pronto, I found myself buying an airplane ticket. 

For several days, I savored the Dipolog sundown, but Dapitan, an hour away, was calling me. 

And I went there, tracing Rizal's disembarkation point, and imagining walking the same small steps he made toward the prison house/prison court on the left front part of the Dapitan church built by the Jesuits. 

In one of these journeys of my mind, I met a young policeman and a female buddy, also training to become a police person. The lady trained to become a teacher, but there was no item for teachers despite the call of the 'praise release' of Deped that they need more teachers. 

They do, but if you have no 'pull' and if you cannot give bribe money, no one will hire you at Deped, she told me. 

That was where I met a rookie person of the law. I call him now my captain Louie. 

I have told of his story long before. Now, I have to thank him for keeping his part of da Filipins a better place to live in.

HON/