Back to war torn and flooded cotabato

I came home to cotabato yesterday. The first news to hit me from another cotabato bound passnger while waiting for departure at the airport was "Baha na naman ang cotabato."
What? Flooded again? What happened to the dredging project?
Is there no respite to this infamous place? It's one bad news after the other and its either one or the others: bombing, fighting, killing, earthquake, war, kidnapping, flood etc....
Why do we still come home to this forsaken land? Because life here is simple and cheap, friends have become like family members.... and because we have been here too long and too rooted that we do not know how to live and survive elsewhere anymore. What a paradox!

man playing God

Yesterday's big news regarding the successful testing of the Hadron Particle Collider in Geneva had me thinking....of the brilliance of research works and scientific breakthroughs. I marvel at man's intelligence....those physicists and scientists... the depth of their minds and the expanse of their works. I was happy at the success of the Atom Collider. I believe man is capable of achieving anything. On the other hand ...it is scary that we might over do things and bring our own downfall and obliterate our own existence. From time immemorial, man is never contented to be caretaker of God's creation. He wants to be more. And as we learned from the story " the tower of babel",  God put hindrance to this ambition by scattering mankind and confusing his language, yet God has not withheld from us our achievements and attainments in discovering his wonderful creation.
Honestly, I was scared at the onset of DNA cloning. I told my husband "Wouldn't this make God angry?" Who knows we might be creating our own monsters afterall.
Now, this recent atomic colllider has promises of scientific revelations but again, aren't we trying to beat God again?
I am on one hand happy at the thought that maybe one day my dream of traveling through a space tunnel would come true, but then what if we turn into nothingness instead.
May the Almighty God enlighten the minds and the works of these scientists, for after all He still has the final say.

Sunday in Manila

It's Sunday in Manila:
1.Lucas and I attended an 8:30 AM mass.
2. Then together with the kids, we went to Max's Restaurant for a grandnephew birthday party.
3. At the party, we met a lot of Cotabateneos: some old friends and many former students. I talked about Cotabato and CCI particulary.
4. Around 3 PM, my siblings Theng and Ollie picked me up to visit my parents graves at the Manila Memorial Park. We lighted candles and joss sticks, offered flowers and recited the rosary.
5. We went to Makati.
6. Took a little snacks at Manyann Restaurant.
7. Brought Theng home.
8. and Home Sweet Home
In another week, I'll be back in cotabato.

Don't lose hope

We struggle through life but I believe good things are bound to happen if you set your heart to it and pray really hard.