Prose Archives | Off The Beaten Pat

The Great Xiamen Adventure: A Homecoming

My mother-in-law had been wanting to bring the entire family to China, to her and our father-in-law’s hometown in Xiamen for a while now saying it would be more meaningful for the family than any other trip. But truth be told, I only started to feel excited about going when I realized I would be setting foot on the very land where my own late paternal grandfather, beloved and dearest to me, was born and raised. There is even the possibility that I could see the house he had built for his relatives by the sea and meet family.

The Zumba Life

It’s been awhile since I last joined our neighborhood Zumba session and there are many new faces now. Unlike me who usually joins them only twice a week at most, they meet thrice, on Mondays at the residence of one of the members, Tita Grace Roth and on Wednesdays and Fridays at the spacious abode of Tita Shirley Napagao who is responsible for the inception of the group and the appointment of our Zumba instructor Znet Morales.

Life by the seaside

This is our neighbor’s frontage and the community’s common-use traditional Filipino hut a few steps away from our own house. When the kids were little, we used to play a lot here by the water. The sea is beyond the breakwater, a low wall structure extending visibly over the horizon.

Coronavirus

It started with a fever that I could not seem to shake off accompanied by chills. No, the diarrhea started it I think followed by the sore throat and then the feeling of heaviness all over. Headache wasn’t far behind too that at last I listened to my Infectious Diseases specialist sister and took a swab test. I was indeed positive in the antigen test I administered on myself and felt crushed.