Because I live far away and have many pressing matters to attend to, I was not able to be here personally to oversee the preparation for the Holy Wednesday procession. The parish and their volunteers led by Jaymar and Kagawad LG were the ones who willingly took care of everything.
I sent the new generator set and some money for the St. John’s new dress including the fresh flowers till Easter Sunday.
They were such a big help because unlike in the past when I scrambled to order fresh flower arrangements in Cubao to bring just before the procession, Jaymar and friends took care of this. Napakalaking tulong.
The trip took a solid two hours. It was difficult to navigate the streets in Rizal because they are narrow. Most especially dito, pang kalesa lang kasi ito nung araw pero ngayon pang-libu-libong tricycles na.
We arrived before the Holy Mass started. Because it was very hot and no cooler place to wait, we parked half a kilometer away from the church and just stayed in the car.
Before the procession started, we heard Fr. Jeff’s announcement, that during the procession, bawal daw tumigil at bumili ng pagkain o inumin sa tindahan kasi daw dapat magsakripisyo.
Agn daming santo. St. John was somewhere last.
All those generator sets vibrated in my head. They also spewed smoke and heat.
Three years ago, when the parish officials convinced me to have a santo, they assured me that there would be rules that everyone would follow. First was the simplicity of the carossa. Dapat simple lang at hindi magarbo. Second was the size, pare-pareho lang ang size, maliit lang dahil makipot ang mga kalye.
After three kilometers, Edmund and I stopped. nag cutting trip kami. Hindi kami tatagal kasi wala kaming energy ngayon. We’re emotionally, physically, mentally drained. We rode a tricycle para ihatid kami dun sa kanto. That’s where we would wait for the procession.
E——“Magkano?”
Driver——“Bahala na po kayo”.
When we forced him to tell us how much was the standard fare, he said “sampu isa”. Edmund gave him P20 but later regretted it. Nung hinabol namin to give an extra P20, nakatakbo na.
