Category: Rural Views by Danilo Balucos

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/18 Mar) – I was trembling a little, maybe because the room was very cool. Ironically, I was sweating a lot.

No, I was neither sipping any hot soup nor drinking hot coffee. But I was on the hot seat. I was facing the very difficult challenge of the night – to use a pair of chopsticks for the first time. Worse, all eyes were fixed on me, watching my every move, as the rest around the table were done with their dinner.

I came in late. Following the group to that “chopsticks only” Chinese restaurant was my greatest mistake and greatest regret of the night. I could have comfortably taken my dinner elsewhere.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 01 March) – I smile and chuckle, sometimes even when I am alone.

That is how stupid I may look like when my simple or “shallow” happiness strikes every time I hear the jokes of a duo of disk jockeys or DJs who call themselves “Idol Dagol” and “Inday Tanini.”

Even if others may brand their humor as nonsense and without class or elegance, I appreciate their jokes for two reasons.  First, they are delivered in the Visayan dialect, specifically Cebuano. And second, those DJs use terms which could be better understood and appreciated by people who grew up in the barrio.  They are “rural terms,” if I may call them that way.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 February 2009) – “Naunsa man ka attorney?” (What happened to you attorney?)

Surprised with that question from a former officemate, I quickly looked at myself – from my short pants, slippers and shirt. I even looked around for any mirror to see if there was anything wrong, like dirt on my face or anything embarrassing. But there was none.

"Why are you dressed that way?,” she asked. You’re a lawyer now, she said.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/10 Feb) – I’ve been bothered by pain in my right arm and elbow for almost two months now.

I remember experiencing it first when I shifted to a laptop from a desktop computer.  The desktop’s keyboard was positioned low enough to make me comfortable in typing.  With the laptop, I had to adjust typing with a keyboard on the table.  After a day or two, I experienced discomfort in my elbows and arms. Days later, the discomfort aggravated to a little pain.  After weeks of adjustment however, the pain was gone.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 27 February) – He was dancing!

He danced sans grace. But he was really enjoying, as if nobody was watching.

Jovy, a non-government organization worker, was happy but curious of the presence of the jolly good fellow. She was one of the coordinators of the series of protest-march rally cum concert.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 26 Dec) – I spend my lunch breaks watching games in local television’s noontime shows. Occasionally, I watch other channels when I’m at the home of my friends who have cable television.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/8 Nov) — As expected, everybody is lining up for a megabuck fight with Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao after Juan Manuel Marquez did his part of the bargain in handing Rocky Juarez a neat boxing lesson last November 4.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/6 Nov) – He was in tears.  

Obviously, those were tears of joy as he was laughing his heart out, while reminiscing his happy childhood days with the birthday celebrant. 

That was lawyer Leo G. Dominguez, giving a message in a plush hotel in the city during a birthday party for his brother Paul, the Presidential Assistant for Mindanao of then President Fidel V. Ramos.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/29 October) — I had shed enough tears before going to my aunt's home in a little sitio in the Municipality of Asuncion, Davao del Norte, where the body of my late maternal grandmother Lola Tasya lay. Besides, I had to be strong, or at least appear to be strong to protect my mother, aunts and uncles.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 25 October) – He flared up when somebody from the gallery in the session hall of Congress gave him a note to shut up during the presidential election canvassing in 2004.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 01 October) — I’m telling you a secret known previously only to a few among my friends. 

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 August) – My taste buds were numb.

I didn’t know if the sugar on my coffee was enough.  It tasted like ordinary warm water.  It was strange, as I usually delight and savor my first cup of coffee for the day.

DAVAO CITY — In meetings and conferences, the press people are always given special attention.  Hosts and organizers give them special invitations or media notices, aside from calling or texting to ensure their attendance.  For out of town activities, some organizers usually take care of their transportation and accommodation and other perks.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 June) —  As early as 4 o’clock in the morning, I would  already be up to start my routine.  After putting on my sweatshirt, short pants and farming boots, I would go to our backyard, untie the rope of the carabao from the coconut tree, ride on its back and go to a nearby grazing land adjacent to our farm.