Looking Back and Around

For lack of good materials to write about, I grabbed this tidbit from Wikipedia about our beloved Molave.

Molave is a 1st class municipality in the province of Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 45,082 people in 8,470 households.

The town lists 25 barangays under its wing. They are, Alicia, Ariosa, Bagong Argao, Bagong Gutlang, Blancia, Bogo Capalaran, Culo, Dalaon, Dipolo, Dontulan, Gonosan, Lower Dimalinao, Lower Dimorok, Mabuhay, Madasigon (Pob.), Makuguihon (Pob.), Maloloy-on (Pob.), Miligan, Parasan, Rizal, Santo Rosario, Silangit, Simata, Sudlon and Upper Dimorok.

I guess it's timely, with the Barangay and SK Elections just around the bend. I went to the bank yesterday and I wasn't surprised when they told me they ran out of 20-peso and 50-peso bills. Could it be just another coincidence? Oh well.

This got me thinking. After practically living in Molave for a collective 18 or so years, I haven't really gone to most of the barangays. Hmmm.. Maybe I should go back to the land that used to be the home of monkeys and huge Molave trees, hence the name, and check out the places that I haven't really set foot on.

I went to Molave a few months ago to run errands for my mother. I wasn't very happy with what I saw. The first thing that I noticed was the inconvenience of getting a tricycle, the main mode of transport in the town, from the bus terminal. And then the look of the Municipal Hall Plaza. It used to be the center (read: rendezvous) of teeny and tweenybopper activities in my time. And that wasn't so long ago! Another thing that I noticed was the exodus of unfamiliar faces in the once easy-to-walk-around marketplace. I refuse to feel really bad about that because after all, that was a one-time visit and it happened in a full one hour round, not that you need more than an hour to go around the place, but still!