Welcome to Boa
Except for the Filipino couple at the eighth floor I don't know any other living soul in my apartment.
Now you have to realize this is very different from where I come from. Back in my 'hood in Zamboanga City, everybody knew each other.
Welcome to Boa, San Jose road. Population, approximately 500. Let me walk you through my childhood neighborhood.
Right in front of our house lived an old grandmother and her grandchildren, Day-Day and Night-Night. I never found out what their real names were. I remember my siblings and I ganging up on Night-Night one day because she told us that she liked our dad and asked us if he could be her dad as well. She never had a father figure as she and her sister were born out of wedlock. My siblings and I were childish and stupid and should never have told Night-Night we would kill her if she stole our father from us. From the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry, Night-Night.
A few yards away from our house lived the Husseins. They are a Muslim bunch with a wicked sense of humor- they named one of their kids Saddam, so this kid's full name is Saddam Hussein. All of the Hussein kids are nurses. Right next to the Husseins is another Muslim family that always played mahjong. Once they caused a big fuss when they caught a thief in their house. They beat the guy up, and then tied him to a tree for a few hours before calling the cops. Poor thief was stripped naked. In that same house lived Neng. Neng had a retarded son, Jordan, whom she gave up when he was born. She gave him up to her own mother, Nida, who lived just a few blocks away. Nida raised Jordan as her own.
The children's playground in Boa is at the Laygan's compound. It's a large open space where we would ride our bikes around, play tag and hold our little gang meetings. Two of the Laygan kids are Chet and Clark. Chet liked Mimie of the Hussein family. One time, to express his affection for Mimie, Chet told Mimie to hold out her palm, and then he spit on it.
The most famous person in our neighborhood would be Zeny, a well-respected lady who worked as a radio announcer. She was very articulate in Chavacano, and also very active in the church. She and some other devout Catholics would usually hold some Bible-sharing activities in the neighborhood. One day it was held in our house and my siblings and I were taken aback when Zeny started speaking in tongues.
We had a gay neighbor named Pendong. Pendong had a live-in boyfriend named Ricky. One day the entire neighborhood woke up to the loud moans of Pendong. There was a huge commotion because Pendong had slashed his wrists. Apparently Ricky left him for Annie, who incidentally, lived right next to them. Ricky and Annie eventually got married. Annie is one of the ten children of Betty. I went to elementary and high school with another one of Betty's kids, Globy. I had actually blogged about Betty before, if you remember. She was the one who would come to our house to chat with my aunt Leonor. On one occasion, Betty narrated how she was lured and uhm, "abused" by some guy in Palau when she went there for a vacation. Betty's husband worked in Palau as a carpenter.
Pendong's brother is Kindal, a feared drug addict and alcholic. He was always nuts and would sometimes threaten my oldest aunt when he was high. When he was not under the influence however, he would plead with my aunt for leftover food.
A short distance away lived Fran and her husband Ramon who worked as a career soldier in the army. While Fran's husband was from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, her brother on the other hand was a member of the communist group New People's Army. But that was never a problem. There's peace and brotherly love in our quaint little neighborhood.
When I was 12 we moved out of Boa to a small village in San Roque road. It's a boring neighborhood, save for that one time when we found a dead woman's body thrown into the bushes.
Filed under
childhood,
zamboanga
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