NOTRE DAME OF JOLO HI-SCHOOL REUNION

Notre Dame of Jolo High School Homecoming Reunion.
Day 02 – 26 September 2009

What’s for breakfast to start the day in the city where food is aplenty that even just across my sister Beth’s house, there are already “sari-sari” (convenience) stores selling traditional cakes ranging from Zambuangeno’s ‘turon con miel, chikalang, cocinta’ & various types of ‘puto’ to famous ‘bang-bang Sug’. Adding to already colourful spread of various delicacies is hot-piping Jimmy’s ‘sati’. Of course int’l franchised fast food outlets like McDonald & KFC offer breakfast package and so are local fast food like Chow King & Jollibee. However, just before I cross the dining room, I saw on the table last night’s rice along with fried rice & ‘tinapa bangus’ with pan de sal & meatloaf. Last night’s rice (kapug) brought back memories while we were still growing up in the island and it tasted even better with Del Monte tomato ketchup.

Later Maridel Serrato, who flew in a day earlier from the States, came to get the package that our friend Jarma Hequilan sent all the way from Malaysia and I’m sure she smelled the pungent aroma of fried ‘tinapa bangus’ that permeated the whole house. One thing that’s unique of us Filipinos, when we know one friend arrives; it seemed all our other friends know. As it is, text after text inundated my cell-phone with messages coming from friends to welcome me or invited me for lunch. I accepted the first one that came from an old collegiate classmate from Ateneo De Zamboanga where we had a quick lunch of bolognaise tuna at “Mi Abuela”. Knowing that our eldest brother had relinquished his ‘throne’ in my favour, I unwillingly accepted the role of ‘Taiko’ in our burgeoning family affair. She asked me to convince my clan to endorse her party in the 2010 election, ‘coz she knows I have the final say.

Later on I met another long-lost cousin and had ‘halo-halo’ at Chow-King, but it’s far behind the one I tasted in Cebu City at the “Ice Castle”. Anyway I had no complaint especially when we had also ‘turon’ after wards. Then I went home to have a quick nap so that I’d last the whole night through, ‘coz I knew it would be a long day ahead for me. In between catnap, my phone was ringing & messages were left unopened & was too tired to read my messages let alone answer them. For one thing we’re not used to send text in Malaysia & so I wasn’t dexterous with keypads. My violet shirt (purple to Brits which according to my son would morph me into real ‘oldies’) was already pressed along with my black pants for that night’s function. When I woke up, I had a few cuts of ‘rebosadong saging’ again (caramelized fried banana) just to have something to make it through before dinner time.

Arriving with my sister Elizabeth Class ’71, the whole atmosphere was transformed into a grandiose palace where every batch came with its own t-shirt design and color theme. Ours was supposedly violet and we were grouped by decades d’70’s (1970-1979).

Crooning at the stage was a band with their own rendition of retro music ranging from the rock & Roll tunes of The Beatles to the light listening of The Bee Gees & The Eagles. If the party was a hash function, we would have been on the dancing floor kicking our feet to whatever music is played. Everywhere flashes after flashes; poses after poses—these people seemed serious in preserving every memory they have with their classmates & friends. The hugs, the kisses, hi-Hello & how-are-you, whether said sincerely or just trying to show off their socialite skills, were just a routine form of greetings in a cacophony of sounds from clanging cutlery, chairs dragging from table to table & individual banters from every nook of the room and not forgetting the deafening sounds from the band. All these captured the moments that come into the lives of these Notre Damians every two years when we have the homecoming reunion.

To my surprise there are lot of my family members & relatives who graduated from Notre Dame High. I was able to rope in families & relatives to have group photos where my uncle Lawrence ‘ChinLee’ Lao & wife Meling, Uncle Avelino Tan, Uncle Dolz Wee , Uncle Anthony Dominic were joined by my sis Beth, cousins Tan’s—Dolores ‘Dolly’, Asuncion ‘Bobbie’, Grace ‘Gigi’; the Diya’s—Alrasid, Ruaida, Rowena: Dominic’s—Veronica, Alvin, Pauline. From my paternal side, I met Lilibeth Tan-Garcia & her brother Joe Fraser Tan. Some more extended relatives were introduced to me whose names were just uploaded into my memory that at the end of the function I could hardly remember the names, after all most of them are scattered all over the world.

Among my own classmates, only Thomas Chang, an Engineer with Department of Public Works & Highways (DPWH) attended the event making us the only thorns among the roses like Imelda 'Mimi' Conculada-Salasa, Lorna, Winnie & Nayda. The more reason for these roses to pamper us very much especially, the brewed coffee after dinner complemented with more cakes ‘ransacked’ from other tables. Our group was the only batch that didn’t have graduation, ‘coz martial law was already declared. If I remember right, we didn’t have any farewell party at all, we just dispersed to our respected hometown and ours was North Ubian, Pangutaran, Sulu and island Nort West of Jolo.

Among the class ‘72 I saw were my cousin Lilibeth Tan-Garcia, Beverley Milijon, Darwin Tan, Raisa Abubakar, Nelly, Navata (my ball captain while in junior-hi, now already bald and still in midget category). I love this brother; he always make excuse for me not to play especially volleyball where we ran away from ball that could go ballistic from the kill of our opponents. Until graduated from hi-school I was only 5’2’’ and so I was too happy to be the water boy!

While more friends came asking to take their photos, prayer of invocation was recited, then dinner followed. Spread on four buffet tables were equally delectable dishes of beef korma, lemon chicken, chop-suey, chicken macaroni salad, and a teeny-weeny slice of leche-flan. Earlier to whet our appetites, somebody gave us native cakes and crispy ‘lang-lang’ chicharon. 'Pali-kambing' given by another friend was immediately grabbed (Noel, until now nobody knows where that name came from).

What followed after dinner were series of programs geared to make the night very memorable which later had us singing-along to Class ’79 Queenie Wadja’s own rendition of “Total Eclipse Of my Heart” together with Laureto Navata . The Ex-Co presented a dance with Eugene Tan, Quennie & Raisa Abubakar leading the group then class ’80 sashayed to the stage with another version of ‘Nobody But You’ dance. Mayor of Zamboanga City, Hon. Celso Lobregat delivered a speech and after acknowledging the presence of various batches by the chairwoman Lindi Rasul-Taniedo, the floor was opened for dancing.

Nayda Ukkong-Jurkarnain my batch from the girl’s dept. was my fave dancing partner as she could swing to every beat sang by the band with equal ease and grace. I love to cha-cha with Mimi Conculada-Salasa where every move reminded us of our hi-school parties. More people joined us at the dance floor—all expecting the night was young and forgetting that we were already in our 50’s...Uhmmmm!!!

Going home was as painful as saying goodnight to old friends and more hugs as we bade goodbye. However for us & Jimmy 'Joey' Chiong-Jimmy Ting group class ‘78, it was just warming up. Dances ranged from swing to cha-cha-cha, disco-retro beat to funky music of the 80’s and culminated with rock & roll where we jived to our hearts content. Soaked down to my undies, I was still swinging Naydz around in unbridled freedom.

We adjourned upstairs to the main hotel lobby with more drinks & cakes. I couldn’t figure whose birthday it was but the big slice of cheesy, white forest cake was enough to keep me sober. Later I went to Tom’s room and grabbed his t-shirt for a quick change. Back to lobby again to check my Facebook only to be confronted by another group of friends with more booze at 3 in the wee hour of the morning.

I just realized I had to be up by 7am for breakfast with and old school mate. One day was gone but more exciting events were coming my way.