> Last man
out
The other day my sister-in-law and her eldest daughter flew to
Vancouver, Canada, as Immigrants. Her husband and three sons will
soon be following her and they will be gone, almost, for good! Our
2 daughters have long been in the U.S. of A and my wife is a
citizen of the world, being a contractual worker with the United
Nations Development Program in Afghanistan, Nairobi, and soon, in
Kosovo. Last 2000 we were granted U.S. Visas and, in fact, our 2
younger sons have been in and out of America several times as if
it was no big deal! I for my part have had to content myself with
just opening and closing my passport once in a while and looking
at the paper money-like U.S. Visa pasted on the inside back cover
and counting the number of years I still have left to use it (I’ve
just entered the last half of my 10 year multiple-entry Visa).
Not that it really matters but it’s just that thinking about the
prospect of leaving one’s place of birth and settling down in a
foreign land and mingling with people of different races, colors,
creed, and cultures really is such a tremendous leap into the
unknown that it fills me with an exciting feeling of dread, if
there’s such a thing! Sooner than soon I am told that we will be
receiving our Green Cards, since we were petitioned by Cynthia,
our eldest daughter who is married to Jerry, a good and affable,
one-of-a-kind American, who has absorbed our Filipino Culture well
(oh how he loves our ‘barako’ coffee!), after having lived and
studied Medicine Proper for several years with our daughter in
Albay. Well, well, there lies the rub! How can I even begin to
imagine living somewhere else aside from my beloved Bicol where
life is RELATIVELY cheap and friends are aplenty?! Where toasted
siopao and coffee are always hot at The Garden and Naga
Restaurants; where the living is easy especially in the late
afternoons and evenings; where walking in circles is the favorite
daily exercise, as long as it doesn’t rain; and where the City
Mayor, councilmen, doctors, lawyers, and businessmen of note are
close acquaintances and know each other on a first name basis!
Come on! I wouldn’t trade these for even all the Dollars in
America!
Indeed, was it not for an overdose of Politics, the Philippines,
as a whole, would be a great place to live in! If only Political
Fences are taken down, and people started to interact as persons
and as the Children of God that they really are, I’m pretty sure
the Economy will settle on an erect climb and that much needed
Peace and Order will really be so pervasive enough it will
encourage more Foreign Investors to do business in our country on
a long term basis! If only these Politicos were patient enough to
wait for their turn at bat, rather than trying to step on each
other’s feet in their own selfish drive toward the Presidency, we
really would have such a nice and peaceful place to live in,
perhaps even approximating a PESO VERSION of our own little
Shangri-La!
When before we were thinking of ways just to be able to enter the
Land of Milk, Honey, and Bush, now I really am not that sure I
still want to go! Even if some of my doctor friends have done
their time studying to be Nurses just to be able to enter the U.S.
of A. it really is ironic that I for my part no longer feel the
URGE to go! Call it what you may but the fact that I’ve already
got a Visa and, perhaps, a Green Card soon, just robbed me of the
thrill and excitement of matching wits with most of those ‘wooden
hearted’ Consuls who seem to enjoy and gloat over their god-like
games of deciding who goes and who doesn’t! Sosmaryosep! It must
really be such a tremendous high to be able to decide like God on
someone’s FATE, to have an almost divine power to save one from
and condemn the other to servile oblivion! But then, perhaps,
despite these Consuls who really are just doing their jobs well,
to the best of their abilities, LUCK must play a big part in this
game of diplomatic yes or no!
Indeed, when all is said and done, I really have not been able to
get down to taking that much needed and long pending 2 week
vacation in America for the simple reason that I just can’t leave
my clinic, and the patients who flock to it even on Sundays,
alone. Can you imagine a flock of sheep without a Shepherd, a
Church without a priest, or even a family without a father? For
all these and more, I guess, I will have to say that when it comes
to deciding who will be going to America, I’m pretty sure I will
be THE LAST MAN OUT!
