Let me write on the spot clairealgarme.multiply.com

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” -Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho is a genius.  I wanted to write and write…and I want to write about my experiences, especially in my travels.  I haven’t thought yet of my next topic when the topic presented itself to me…once again.  Yes, all the universe is conspiring for me to go on with my travel journals. I was reading today’s Philippine Daily Inquirer and found one of its opinion columnists, Conrado de Quiros, mentioning Moises Padilla in his article.

That got my mind reeling and it never left my thoughts even as business hours come to a close.  Moises Padilla was a political figure in Negros who have been murdered by his political opponents.  He was a staunch Ramon Magsaysay supporter.  His bravery has awed the people of his time that his name was immortalized when Magsaysay named a town after him.  Sad to say that Filipinos today don’t have any inkling who this person was or even the town that bears his name.

How should I not know when my mother’s family grew up in Moises Padilla, more commonly known as Magallon.  My grandfather was once a mayor of the town and during his reign had one of the barangays named after his father, Quintin Remo.  I grew up with an image of Moises Padilla as a sluggish town.  After my lolo’s reign, my mom and her siblings moved to Bacolod and other towns in Negros.  We would only go to Moises Padilla during All Saint’s Day to visit my maternal grandmother’s grave.

That was until my uncle came back to Moises Padilla to settle his family there and to try his hand to…what else but politics!  Since then, I have spent weeks and months in Moises Padilla for vacation, campaign period or not.  My uncle’s house in Barrio Guinpana-an was built on a hill between two rivers, and right by the highway.  During their first year there, they had no television and had a few furnitures.  The only past time we can have at night was to chat and laugh and to listen to the sound of the river.
At daytime, when not at the river, we would be picking fruits from trees around the lot.  It is the rural life for me — caraboas, rice paddies, mountains, dusty roads, trees and serenity.  The last time I went there was when I was still in college.  We would visit the small falls or the springs that are not commercially developed.  Swimming beneath the trees in the coolness of spring water was one of my closest brush to nature in it’s raw and pure form.  I’m proud to say that I have experienced it and cherished it.