I Was Born in Nabua - Personal Essay

I was born and bred in Nabua, Camarines Sur. I grew up with 8 younger siblings, and 2 older ones. The gap between me and my older sister is 1 year. The younger ones, starting from me, have almost 1-year intervals from each other. We grew up together with the intermittent contretemps between brothers and sisters who are almost of the same age. In spite of this, it was a happy childhood for all 9 of us because our father was a good provider since we were not lacking for food, clothes, and shelter.

My hometown, Nabua, is where I went to school during my elementary days. Back then, it was what you would call a sleepy town. The layout of which was typical of most towns here in the Philippines. The centro or  poblacion was right in the middle where you would find the church with the big patio, the mercado to buy the food and other stuff from, and the transportation hub composed of the ubiquitous tricycles, jeepneys, and buses.

Now, it is still almost the same, except for the bigger houses, the telecommunication towers, the local branch of the community college. It is pretty much more urbanized. There is one thing that I don’t like about this so-called progress. The typical young Bikolano in my hometown thinks it is very fashionable to speak Tagalog instead of our local dialect. They have thrown their identity as Bikolanos out the window because of this.

The food that we eat is very popular these days everywhere you go in the Philippines, specifically the laing and Bicol express. At least in our house, our gulay should always have coconut milk. My 92-year-old is still strong and we always have fruits and vegetables on the table, especially the vegetable with coconut milk.

Life is good, we thank God for that.