My Childhood in Panabo/Davao/Philippines

A word of caution. I am not a writer and did not do so well in writing class.
You have been warned :)

I was born in a small town in Philippines called Panabo. Till this day. I cannot get over the fact of how much I miss the place and how I wish I am there. As you can see, a lot of feelings and side notes will be added throughout the story.

I do not remember any hardships that we endured. Maybe because I was only 8 when we left or my parents were not around at that time and I was free to explore and do as I please.

I am not very sociable and tend to keep to myself. I do not remember my life before 3rd grade. I am not sure if it is a mental block I placed on to myself or what the cause may be. Maybe it is something I felt was not important because I can remember
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select Start

I remember being in 3rd grade and in the morning we had to go in front of the school to plant. We were taught to garden but that is not why I remember that time. While we were gardening, a classmate of mine decided to run for it and skip class. I then decided to run after him shouting for him to come back but before you know it, I was running away from class with him.

I got caught by my Aunt skipping class since there are two paths leading home. One from the market and one from school. As you can tell, I was coming from the path leading to the market.

I was always fascinated with electronics. Being in IT now, you can understand why. Even though my love for electronics is there, I cannot forget of how I used to fly kites made from different materials. None of our kites were prebuilt. We had to make them ourselves. You can make one from a grocery bag and coconut leaves or from bamboo and paper used in gift bags.

I always wondered what my Mom or Grandma thought since we always took their thread that they used for sewing so we can use it to fly the kites.

I would have dreams of finding a lost kite in the tree. Sometimes flying kites very high will cut the line if it is not strong enough and you can see the kite float away. In my dreams, I would be in the other side watching it fly down and capturing it.

Even though we are more advanced with our PCs today but nothing was more enjoyable than using what we had in nature for entertainment purposes.

Today we have apps like pokemon go for capturing pokemons. For us, we captured spiders. We would use them, while in school and during break time of course or was it?, and put 2 of them on a stick. One from me and other from my opponent. And they would battle each other to the death. One was going to be food and the victor and other defeated and the next meal. Of course thinking about it now, I do not think I would allow my kids do such things because of the dangers it came with but it's what we did.

We did not have nerf guns. We created our own guns with sticks and rubber bands. Using berries as bullets. I have seen others using bottle caps and they would sharpen the edges. I shied away from that since it was too dangerous.

Alas, it was time for us to travel. My mom was left with no choice. Being a nurse in Panabo, you made less money than teachers. With 3 growing boys to feed, and her opportunity to be in the USA, she took it and looking back on it now, I am ever so grateful for her courage and sacrifice. sniff sorry my eyes got teary.

Before we actually left, my mom had to go first, due to visa restrictions. Being left alone with my brothers and grandma, since father dear was no where to be found, we survived almost on our own. We had much freedom luckily we were safe. I do not remember who it was that told me that we were only going to be gone for 3 years and not to worry too much about the move. I remembered telling my classmates that information. Maybe that has something to do with my longing to be back in Panabo.