yebaah!

I have conjunctivitis and my eyes are red as a rabbit’s, swollen and so damn itchy!  I haven’t been the best since my holiday.  I sneeze all the time; my nose is itchy and runny – onslaught of an allergy. Either Digos has become so polluted or my immune system also went on a holiday L - probably a drawback from having lived in one of the cleanest cities in the world. I’m trying so damn hard to keep my asthma at bay – which is hard coz it’s hot, sticky and dusty.  I want to go home.

But where is home really? When I’m in Australia, I couldn’t wait for my next holiday to Digos.  When I’m in Digos, I miss all things Australian.  I face, I guess, the dilemma of those who migrated to another country at a ripe age – you are never quite fully home in one place.

But it’s more than things material or physical.  Though I now miss some medium-rare steak (which I wouldn’t dream of eating here in the Philippines), lamb chops, salmon or smoked trout from Fyshwick markets.   I also miss the quiet neighbourhood where your privacy is holy.  I miss the sensible and informative tv shows, traffic-less Canberra; and the compassionate, polite Australian psyche.  I miss my friends and my officemates…sigh… I’m itching to get the next flight back to down under but I know that as soon I get there it’ll be more than the buko, binagoongang mangga, panga ng tuna or kinilaw that I’ll miss. It’ll be my friends and family in Digos, of course… and something else.

Strangely, every now and then, one also longs to hear some lively noise (I’m actually amazed at how noise tolerant we are), watch some mindless tv or hear (mind you, not deliver) some tsismis – news, pinoy style.  The usyosera (gossip monger) comes in handy when one is in dire need of a security guard. For reasons of safety, suburbs in Australia are encouraged to form an organization of neighbours keeping an eye on each other.  It’s called Neighbourhood Watch.  In the Philippines, whether you like it or not and for whatever reason, your neighbours will watch you.

two worlds in contrast, two worlds I call home…