saranggola sa ulan

we, maco, junie, arnold and i finished our meetings early so we headed to the our lady of mount carmel parish in carmen cotabato to catch a late lunch. while waiting for the buntot ng bariles to simmer, we were hanging around, chatting, playing the guitar and listening to an fm radio station from kidapawan.

without warning, an all to familiar tune intruded the consciousness that i was in. i can't believe it but, saranggola sa ulan by gary granda was playing!!! now that is a rare one. usually, the radio stations in cotabato would be playing "i know" (yasmin kurdi) (which the song by the way was composed by a davaoeño ... am not proud), the pop version (read: gasgas) of love moves in mysterious ways (nina), you'll be safe here (rivermaya), crazy for you (sponge cola, and some other person whose name i could not remember) and same ground (kitchie nadal).

not that i am complaining as when these stations really get nasty, they would go on playing those novelty songs, which the lyrics i do not understand (chokolate, ay ya ya ya gasolina, and all the other things which i have no other means of knowing the title, much less the lyrics).

anyways, back to the playing of gary's saranggola, i do not know what came over them, but sure glad this song did came through. and may i just say that this song somehow brought me back to my senses again. the sense that there is more to it than meets the eye. the sense of wonder, of how events are enfolding, how experiences are molding.

past few weeks have been tough. it was really work, work, work. i was trying very hard to find the beauty of it all. amidst the frustrations on the wheather, the mud, the "slowness" of processes and all the other factors that make community development tough, being reminded of the image of a kite being flown in the rain (magpalipad ng saranggola sa ulan) somehow tickled my fancy.

while i have never seen such a feat, except perhaps of Benjamin Franklin, i imagine it to be such a wonderful thing. but all the people i have spoken with still account for its utter impossibility.

and i guess that is the message of the song for me. that there are some impossibilites for people that can be possible for some. as i always say when communities complain of impossibilities: imposible? dili, posible, lisod nga lang. impossibilities are just another way of saying - difficult possibilities.

but still the "it" can happen. construction materials can still reach people, even if the mayor has said that he would not be bringing his 10 wheelers (10-wheeler dump trucks), solar driers can be constructed in 10 days even with rain in between, christians and muslim communities who have been wary of each other for the longest time, working together, living together, peace will reign in mindanao, and i'll fall in love again...

or maybe not.

ok, take away the falling in love thing. maybe it does not belong in the statement. but the thing is, the point is quite simple, the very thought of saying "impossible" already says that things can be still be done, albeit in a more difficult or inconvenient way. alternatives or combinations of which can be made so that we see things happening. probably not in the way that we planned it to happen, but still enfolding and surprising us, remember the "impossible is nothing" ad by adidas.

and that is always a reason for the adventure to continue.