life here is not that rural anymore
At least not as rural as it used to be, the way i remembered it.
In 1989 (May 21 to be exact) I left to go to college. There was already electricity in this far-flung little barrio, though we didn’t have television and listening to radio news (and drama!) was the norm. Radio alone was our link to civilization. There were movie houses but they’re showing movies half a year behind than their showing in Manila.
Each semestral break I would go home to the very same idle place i left where neighbors have more time talking. My favorite is exchanging foods even if there is no special occasion. This was a great refuge from the hussle and bustle of university life. I am that used to rural life that’s why I chose UPLB instead of Diliman (UP Baguio was my second choice of campus in my UPCAT) and why I opted to work not far from there.
Now that cellphone, satellite TV, internet and computers made it here, we rarely see our neighbors. We don’t talk that much either and we don’t share our food as often as we used too. But then we only had one family that we consider neighbor back then and me and my brother grew up with their kids like brothers and sisters. We were that close, then they moved maybe a hundred meters away. Now there are more than 10 families of them neighbors, and each are locked in their little cocoons inside their homes.
This must be better times, technology is here right? But then I can’t but help sometimes to just text my cousin who lives just two blocks away across the road, instead of going there personally myself. We used to be inseparable. Except for the few text-exchanges, we rarely talk. Sometimes modernization and technology just sort of pull people away from each other instead of bringing them closer together. It really sucks. The only consolation? Less gossip! At least not everyday. 
(LB isn’t that rural anymore when i left last year. Still, I wouldn’t trade it for any other city in the Metro. Admittedly, I am more at home in LB and I miss everything that the place represents to me every single day.)
Anyways, I’ve learned to just accept every single situation and then move on. After all, I wouldn’t even like to live in that past of no TV, no cellphone and no internet. Can you?!
(And I definitely cannot live alone with Raine in LB anymore. Those sleep-derived, tired and kalat kalat ang utak days are over.)
October 14th, 2007 at 8:38 am
hi tech ka naman Manay Glo, may sat dish ka pasa bikol, pag nag-uli ako nya mag-pa-install ako nya sa Rizal, musta ka na Manay!
October 14th, 2007 at 9:43 am
manoooyyyy techguy! oo naman kayang-kaya mo. mura lang yan sat dish. for 8900 kumpleto na meron pang libreng load fro ten months na 890/month. kelan ka uwi, let me know po.
October 17th, 2007 at 7:38 am
1989 was the time i also left for college. the mode of entertainment here in sorsogon was then the betamax. When I arrived in Manila, I was so fascinated by the tv, I could watch it for hours. a lot of things have changed by then. dati, neighbors used to visit just to talk. ngayon, sa bahay na lang, nood tv. even the kids. when i was younger, every afternoon, we kids in the neighborhood used to gather in the large lot behind our house and cook camote, fried rice, etc. Or we made lean-tos and played house. or taguan. or agawan base. or shato. nowadays, i rarely see kids playing these games.