Homecomings

Weak wi-fi signal in a beautiful beach house in Ilocos Norte and an unexpected illness kept me from writing my editorial message last week, but I'm back in home turf now so no more excuses.

I admit that I still have a balikbayan hangover though from our always-too-short vacation, and with this comes the longing and nostalgia for our motherland. 

This week's new contributor, Lorenzo Paran III writes eloquently about the feeling that is all too common among Filipino expats in "You Can Go Home Again." The "home" he longs for is his childhood in the vicinity of Mount Mayon.

The longing for home assumes a bigger dimension in Ana P. Santos' touching report on Loraine, an OFW in Dubai, whose day's highlight is her regular Skype conversation with her little daughter in the Philippines. But it is not enough, she says, and Filipino expats separated from their loved ones know that only too well.

Artist Toots Magsino on the other hand returned to Manila after a stint in New York and finds that "home" is what you make of your homecoming. She has chosen to spend her time teaching art to cancer patients and her families, a commitment that has both kept her grounded and allowed her art to evolve. Serina Aidasani, herself an expat who spends a lot of time in the Philippines now, reports in "Toots Magsino's Art-Filled Life."

Filipino-Canadian comedian Mikey Bustos regales us again, this time with his video  "I Go To Palengke."

My blog this week is about the EDSA People Power Revolt 29 years ago.