Easter Beach

Was not planning to go with this beach outing along with my mother (and by extension my nephew and niece) and a gazillion other ka-barangays, but glad I did!

It is not a fancy or I may dare say beatiful beach place but I know in the eyes of my nephew this memory of his childhood will be etched in his memory forever, and I like to be a part of that.

My mother said the bus will fetch us by 6am, but the baranggay bus which they rented is occupied and we got serviced by this hideous and old, eaten-by-rust kaosiong bus past 9.

We arrived at the beach and it was packed! So packed, that it looked like a pilgrimage site with thousands of people. I did not take a dip at the beach because of the soaring heat and the multitude of people, mostly children, happily bleaching theirselves along the shore where strong waves kisses the brown-sand beach.

If you look at it, the beach looks muddy and you can see garbage floating in the water. Whenever there are lots of people, expect garbage to abound! Biscuit packages, plastic bags, barbecue sticks, juice packs and other kinds of debris are being carelessly thrown by these people into the very waters they swim!

When I was a kid, I remember that my lolo Max (my mother's father) used to get us from our house on a weekend and we go to the beach in Lilo-an. It is one of my fondest memories of him. In the eyes of a child, it is not really important if the beach is white sandy type or if it has many amenities or nice rooms. In the eyes of a child, the sound of the waves and seeing the expanse of the blue waters are enough for him to feel happiness. Simple, unadulterated, happiness!

This time, I am certain that my nephew and niece have the time of their lives enjoying the beach, not having a care in the world or whether they will get sun-burnt. All they care about is to play with the sand, the waves and their friends like there is no tomorrow.

For me, my duty is to take snapshots of memories I can share with them in the future in a time where the world will be not so simple anymore. I want to share to them that once in their lives they were happy and totally free.