Bye bye Chipmunks

Back in college, my last semester saw me on a non-airconditioned bus to the province. I was to spend roughly 4 months there, working for a non-government organization as part of the requirements for me to graduate. The village I was assigned to was deep in the ricefields, without running water, electricity, plumbing or decent roads. Each day I was there, I walked for hours to get to the adjacent barangay. It was typhoon season, interspersed with scorchingly hot days. On one occasion I almost drowned crossing a flooded river, on another got burned to the point of dehydration. Well, I survived, good for me.

One of my foster families there holds a special place in my heart. I lived at their house for a couple of days at a time and each time each time they had a lot of fun teaching me the local dialect (Ilokano). During lulls in our activities, they showed me how to gut a goat, plant rice, irrigate the fields and walked with me to discover new short cuts to the next town by foot. They always had a good laugh whenever I tried to speak their dialect, and I always had to try because no one there spoke Filipino, the national language save for maybe 5 people.

After 4 months, I can say that I really got close to them, and them to me. I visited their village for the last time and they gave me a present, a white polo shirt with little chipmunks all over it. I almost cried. This shirt was only worn by the village patriarch to special occasions such as weddings, his daugter's graduation and the like. So imagine the value that this person placed on this animated shirt, and he was giving it to me.

I got home to Manila, wearing the chipmunk shirt. As soon as my sister laid eyes on it, she rolled on the floor laughing. Why were chipmunks all over my shirt? I realized that these rodents did seem odd, but I still wore it anyway. It was my lucky shirt of sorts, I wore it to school and when I landed a job, donned those chipmunks every Tuesday, I think.

Then there came a time when I couldn't wear it anymore because I had grown fat and it wouldn't fit. I lovingly folded it up and kept it in the closet. Years would pass before I rediscovered the shirt, still folded neatly though already discolored with age and reeking of mothballs. Out of curiosity I tried it on again, apparently is now fits me, though sadly the discoloration and some holes made by moths have made it unfashionable to say the least. I folded it and returned it back into the closet, saying good bye to the chipmunks and all the lovely memories that they brought.