Gloomy Skies and Gloomy Hearts

As I said in my previous blog, it's not in my plan to go home this month since I'm saving up money and holding my budget tight because we are still in a bearish market. Yet, unexpected things happened last Wednesday night. My Uncle died and it's not appropriate for me not to show up and lend some help. So yeah, it's a "Goodbye, 1 BCH", for me since I don't have any extra money to spend going home. Though it hurts to see my wallet going zero again, it left me no choice.

This morning, I woke up early to prepare myself. I have to set out early since it would be a long journey for me and it would be too hot to walk because the tricycle can't go in our place. The roads are rough and not concrete, only sugarcane trucks can enter.

I capture this along the way. This is at the Municipality of Valladolid and that island on the other side is the Island of Guimaras. It seems so close but I haven't been there.

When I arrived in our hometown, I bought 2 kilos of pork first and some spices, also some groceries for our home. The tricycle stayed too long at the terminal waiting for other passengers. It was already about 10:30 am when the tricycle set out. It was almost noon when I arrived at our Barangay and my mother was already waiting for me. It was too hot to walk already but we have no choice since the tricycle can't go in anymore. We have to walk for about 2 and a half kilometers to get to our house.

Good thing, it rained heavily in the afternoon and it only ceased at 6 pm, making the surroundings cooler. Still with gloomy skies along with the gloomy hearts here at the wake. I went there to help. Then, a little while later, my father came to build the tent outside since it is already crowded inside their house. We have to build an extension because the guests keep on coming to visit.

It would be a week of sleepless nights to go. It's a tradition here in the countryside to have a wake for a week before the burial. We can't complain since a lot of relatives are coming also and we are still waiting for other relatives to visit before we could follow up on the burial.

The network signal here also is very poor. Just one picture and it already took me 10 minutes to upload. I want to upload more photos but the signal is against it. I have to look for spots that have a good signal. I'll apologize in advance if I can't update for a while.

• The lead image was edited in Canva.

• The photos included were mine unless specified.

All rights reserved

©Ching