Cebu Update

Thursday - Dinner at Pino's Restaurant, a new chic restaurant in Camp Lapulapu, on Wilson street. Dined with Toti Villalon, Eva Gullas, Jackee Gullas Weckman, Jing Ramos, Amparito Lhullier, Teresing Mendazona in a private room, with champagne, Chilean wine pouring endlessly - superb Western-style food. Pino's also serves Filipino food and when Toti heard this, he whispered to me: Let's come back to eat Filipino food. Which doesn't mean the lobster and steak and all the wonderful trimmings weren't good. They were, but coming from the US I would have been curious to sample their Filipino food. After dinner, Toti, Eva, Jackee, and Jing came to my place for lemoncello and a stimulating conversation about book publishing and books. Very interesting.

Jackee and I talked about the famous sikwati or chocolate that her grandmother (?) used to make in the Parian; and she told me she continues to make this and promised to give me some. Ah - it will be nice to taste test the Gullas sikwati, versus Argao, Batangas sikwati, and Mexican chocolate.

It was a very fun evening. The conversation was stimulating; in fact Toti commented that there were six conversations going on. Indeed energy was high and ideas sparked all over the place.

I hope I'm not jumping the gun but Joy Martinez Onozawa (architect and environment planner) who was also at Pino's stopped by and chatted with us. Did I hear correctly - is it true that she was asked to draft an ordinance by the City Council? Joy has been promoting a revitalization program in the downtown area. Once I get the story straight, I will post in this blog.

Saturday: Terry Manguerra, Erma Cuizon, and I made a pilgrimage to the Marianne site of Theotokus in Perilos, Carcar. Father John Rona, and Sister Remy Yares talked to us. The site drew 80,000 people in 1992 when the "dancing sun" phenomenon occurred during sunrise. Called a "place of conversions" by Msgr. Salvador, miracles have also occurred, although Father Rona does not emphasize such healings.

The story goes that Father John Rona, a diocesan priest, was looking for a church site outside the city. Guided spiritually, he found the beautiful piece of land in Perilos, on a hill, overlooking the sea. Every 12th of the month, from 10 p.m. until sunrise the next day, people gather and pray. The church has not been built as of yet, although there is a lovely chapel area, and the grounds are lovely. We arrived when there were hardly any pilgrims and it was very restful there.

After donating for Masses we moved on to Argao where we had lunch at Alex Kafe. The Cafe is a converted warehouse, done up in an antique style, simple, with charm. I am afraid the food was not that good and it was also a bit steep, considering the place, but it was a nice rest stop and the bathrooms were okay. Around the corner is the famous Torta place, and we bought some. Here's a bit of trivia: tortas began during the Spanish times when egg whites were used in construction and the yolk was then made into this cake/pastry. If I recall right, pork lard is used in Tortas; I am not sure if they still use this, but it's supposed to give the best flavor. Cebuano Torta is like a cake or muffin. Sigh - I got three huge tortas.


In Argao, we also visited their Museum, which had mostly Spanish Colonial stuff: santoses, priests' vestments, paintings, ivory statues, other religious artifacts. The nicest thing I thought was that the priests and personnel in Argao had not stolen these artifacts that date back to the 17th century. Apparently Argao had direct connection with Mexico; the galleons stopped there; and the old section indicates that it was indeed a small walled Spanish colonial post.

We headed toward the city, stopping in Sibonga to see the Simila Shrine, another Marianne site, which is called the "Fatima in Cebu." The church was much bigger than I expected, and there were numerous people. It has a shrine with white veils. Our Lady apparently wept and her tears fell on these white veils. You cover your head with the veil as you pray. There is a huge display of crutches, wheelchairs, and written testimonials of healings and assistance from Our Lady. There were also numerous nuns posted all over the church to collect donations for Mass intentions.

All for now,
Cecilia

(Top photo shows l-r: Cecilia Brainard, Toti Villalon (standing), Jing Ramos, Amparito Lhullier (standing), Jackee Werkman, Eva Gullas (standing), and Teresing Mendozana
Next photo shows l-r: Erma Cuizon, Father John Rona, Cecilia Brainard, Terry Manguerra
Bottom photo shows the Argao Museum)