I went home to the Philippines in February to attend my niece's wedding.  I have been planning to go for about six months and I was able to convince my sister Carina, who lives in Minnesota to go with me so we can have a family reunion.  She planned to go earlier to visit her son who she hasn't seen in seven years while waiting for her immigration status but I told her to wait until February so she can attend the wedding.  I thought coming home to a celebration will lift her spirits up since she's been through a lot of difficulties with her health and from being separated from her son.  Our parents passed away a few years back.  My father in 1983 and my mom just recently. Now there is only me, my brother Ronette, and my sisters Pam and Carina and it has been 15 years, if not more, since we were last together. 

I packed two large suitcases with "pasalubong' or gifts for my family.  Stuff they want, stuff they need that I didn't and stuff from the massive throve in the garage and in the shed outside that were gathering dust and may be worthless to me but worth a ton to them.  I bought 15 tubes of toothpaste from the Dollar Tree,  15 bottles of body wash,  25 bars of soap, 5 packs of dental floss --not saying that my family is a bunch of slobs but that it is a commodity there and I figured if I bought them a few months' supply then they can spend their money on other more important stuff like food.

to be continued....