kulaman, narnia, and mga engerts

the fog lightly perched on the arms of the emerald mountains which on my own i called "sandaang dalaga." i have read and heard many stories about the legends of the mountains, and most of them depict them as ladies lying down. and the mountain range of sultan kudarat was no different.

as the sun slowly rose over the horizon, the fog thinned out revealing a battalion of corn creeping up the slopes only to stop by the road side. some are in full gear, glistening green and gold while others were withered brown and felled by a poor farmer's bolo.

despite the harassing motorcycle ride that gave my matris a scare, i felt very rested for field work. maybe because staying with nuns is entirely different story from the being with priests. there wasn't any breastbeating nor preening to make one look macho. we did talk about our frustrations with the Lumad people who hardly help themselves. but seeing the nuns work so hard to make things better... i felt refreshed and rejuvenated, even hopeful for the coming year.

my afternoons were spent sleeping after a hard morning's disappointing journey up to the farthest sitios of kulaman. nobody bothered me. nothing distracted me. it was just three hours sleep in the afternoon. at night, i took solace in my appointed room wrapped up in a warm blanket playing space mahjong or draw poker on niknok (my 6020).

if i went there two years ago, i would have signed up for a search-in with the RNDM sisters. and could be a novice right now. but God may have other plans for me, seeing I may handle personal relationships better than social ones. heheh!

***

despite being rested, i opted not to go to work in the afternoon. that being my privilege for being on field for more than three days.

since the van stopped at SM mall, i went straight to the cinema to watch narnia. many others have gone before me and posted about it already. so let me just echo.

wow. asteeeeg.

it was wonderful seeing all the mythological creatures i dearly loved since my youth. gryphons, minotaurs, centuars, fauns, mermaids, phoenices, giants... it was a hodge-podge of the fantastical and the mundane (beavers, lions, leopards, bears, foxes, wolves...). and children heroes always get me (thus peter pan my favorite character). and liam neeson as aslan's voice... can i faint already? it was great, great, great.

trip roy as the white queen's henchman was a little amusing thought. there were times i'd wait for him to burst in song and dance ala-oompah loompah in willy wonka. but thank God it didn't or CS Lewis would have turned over his grave.

the only thing i hate about watching here in Davao, is you get the sort of crazy people who hardly appreciate beautiful literature transformed into a movie (sorry my Bisaya friends, I'm not generalizing but you do get that sort in movie houses).

there were this bunch of guys behind me who were such ignorami that i reverted to manang mode, shushing them at the start. when they were getting boisterous, i had to look back and them and asked them to keep quiet. it would have been okay if they were making intelligent comments about the CGI or the story. but noooooo! they were being stupid, "ngiiii... bayot na!" refering to the white queen, tinda wazername looking adrogynous despite being a woman in the movie.

point 1. so? if she looks gay, what's the problem? what's funny there?
point 2. you converse with your partner five volumes lower than usual and only if you have to.
point 3. why does every loving look have to be given malice? my god! tumnas and lucy. engerts talaga. grrrr.

or when the white queen was offering edmond hot chocolate, they went, "halo-halo!" aaaaaag. ang tatanga nyo!

or when the fight scene began, they were laughing at the gryphons throwing stones at the enemy lines. that kind of irritating laughter that didn't mean awe, rather it meant "ka-weird naman niyan!" hello stupid, this is a fantasy movie!

utter pet peeve. i know i was being a snot-nosed, hoity-toity movie elitist here. but there are such things as manners in a public place, and respect of other people's space.

yeesh.

the only good thing about it, it merits me a reason to watch the movie again.