Lurks

Dumaguete, Philippines

Against my will, I was assigned to Dumaguete in 2002 as a medical representative or territory manager, which ever term suits my eternally broken ego. I joined the pharmaceutical industry hoping to enjoy the benefits of a new Toyota Corolla company car, corporate attire and serving the high falluting hospitals in Manila. Instead, they sent me to the sleepy community of Dumaguete where national hero Dr. Jose Rizal himself was deported for subversion. Well, that’s what I thought. Dumaguete was a quiet community but its Siliman University gave it an interesting environment. The students were pretty and fabulous in their own ways. They came from different interesting cities like Cebu, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Zamboanga and Cavite. In fact, Miss Siliman was the most charming girl I’ve every seen. Only that everybody thought she was a bitch.

Among my favorite places was the Cafe Memento, where I took the name of my Multiply website. It was very rustic, a hole in a wall even, but intrinsically decorated with Spanish-Filipino art. The owner was a Kastilaloy himself. His father I would have combat drinking on certain nights together with his Kastilaloy buddies who looked like Bin Laden and someone else respectively. Cafe Memento was located in a quiet street fronting the magnificent Siliman University and the ocean. You could hear the splash of waves from there.

Cafe Memento is the cafe of memories. Someday I will go back there and reminiscence the beauty of what once was a life I didn’t expect.

Saluda Dumaguete!

Originally written on Casa de Mementos (http://joshavinante.multiply.com)

February 10, 2009