My TV set was turned on to ABS-CBN when the feature on the likes of Mang Nenuel came on air. Mang Nenuel is a “mang-iipot”. “A What?!?!” I said to myself as I turned to take a closer look on what’s on air. Disbelieving to many, but he earns a living gathering and collecting chicken manure from a poultry farm somewhere in Batangas. Without gloves, a shower cap or even slippers for protection, he and his colleagues shovel kilos and kilos of chicken manure from the source (read: right from where the chicken dropped their manure), collect them and put them into sacks. A physically-demanding kind of work that earns them (the “mang-iipots”) P6.00 per sack. That’s 6 pesos per sack that they will be dividing amongst themselves. They’re to fill hundreds of sacks that could fit one huge truck that the “agents” would sell to “traders” and the “traders” would sell to farmers for more than P150.00 per sack. Do the math and you’ll know how much a trader would earn from the physical toils of these poor, underpaid men. I thought nothing would be worse than knowing how much they’re risking their health for a hundred pesos or two they earn on days that they have work (imagine what life they have when there’s no manure to collect), but then when I saw what kind of life they are living each day - in a shanty, lit by a candle and having sardines and rice for dinner, I felt so much worse for whining how I’d survive with only 150 to spend for the whole afternoon.

Sometimes, we get too caught up by our “pitiful” lives that we only see the negatives: how we aren’t earning enough to support our so-called “needs”, how we won’t be able to pay the life insurance quote on time , how we wish we have this new phone/gadget, or how we wish we have a better house or a better car; and forget how our less fortunate brothers have more pressing problems than we do. So I think instead of whining and sulking, thinking how “pitiful” our lives are, why don’t we step back a bit and say a little “thank you” to the One up above for our life’s little blessings? =)

Finally, a Miss Philippines bags the crown after eight years since Miss Earth’s conception in 2001. Over eighty-five ladies from all over the world paraded in their swimsuits and evening gowns tonight at Clark Expo Amphiteater in Pampanga.

Her court are as follows:

• Miss Tanzania Miriam Odemba (Miss Earth - Air)
• Miss Mexico Abigail Elizalde Romo (Miss Earth - Water)
• Miss Brazil Tatiane Alves (Miss Earth - Fire)

The last time a Miss Philippines went home with a crown was in 2006 when Catherine Untalan won Miss Earth-Water. That year, Hil Hernandez of Chile won as Miss Earth 2006.

Congrats Karla Paula Henry! You deserved the title!

November 1 and 2 are special holidays for us Filipinos because we remember our dead loved ones on these days. Since my grandmother died, it has been our tradition to visit her grave every 1st of November. We set for the memorial park at 6 am and stay there until the sun goes down. This year’s November 1 was no different except maybe for the fact that traveling to the cemetery was a breeze and it wasn’t as toxic as I thought it would be. Two All Saints’ Days ago, the travel to and from the cemetery was horrendous – it took us an hour from a few meters away from the gate to my lola’s memorial lot and around the same length of time to get out of the cemetery grounds.

Like most Filipinos, the visit to the grave is like a mini-reunion where immediate family members of the dead gather to pray, eat and eat some more. It has been more special to us since my grandmother already has my grandfather and baby Brent as neighbors in that little ground space we bought (the bones of her father and Brent’s older brother who died a few hours after birth are also buried with them). I remember how just last year, my grandfather was still with us when we went to the cemetery. This year marked the first time we visited him on November 1 as he lays buried beside my grandmother.

The situation at Manila Memorial Park in Dasmarinas is perhaps farfetched from the situation at other major cemeteries in Metro Manila. Every year, there is a live coverage of the situation at the North Cemetery where people visit in droves by the millions to honor the dead and as far as private memorial lots are concerned, the situation at Manila Memorial Park in Sucat is congested as well. Lucky for us that the memorial park in Dasmarinas is fairly new and don’t have as many people buried in one place like in others. But then, I just know that perhaps next year, things will be a lot different as more people bury their dead and the place fills up. Just recently, the lot right next to my grandmother’s had a new occupant. It was so new that there wasn’t even an epitaph to mark it with. We stayed there the whole day but there wasn’t even anyone who visited the grave and even the rest of my grandparents’ next-door neighbors – as it has been through the many November 1s that had passed. We end up putting a flower or lighting a candle or two for them just so they’d know someone’s been praying for them – never mind if they didn’t really know us to begin with.

Another holiday has passed. Christmas is really just around the corner. I wonder though why I haven’t been feeling the so-called Christmas spirit.

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