juls random thoughts

I have always been very grateful of the technology, most especially the yahoo messenger chat with voice and webcam (not very techie and new but super useful). Countless times, we gained a lot of benefits with this service. One, when I was in the US, I celebrated my son’s 2nd birthday with them here in the Philippines, via webcam, I was there when he blew the candle on the cake, me even singing with them the happy birthday song, live through YM instant messaging. Another thing, my siblings and I also used to chat through YM conference, me in California, eldest sister in New Jersey, another sister in Kamias, QC, my two brothers in Batangas but separate houses, my other brother in Singapore, my sister in law in Pasay and hubby in Pasig, complete with webcam and voice chat. Technology is great, really! This task is really hard to manage if through the phone, not to mention, expensive.

Technology again, bridged and made us closer to relatives on the recent hard times on hubby’s side of the family. Last weekend, we went home to Pangasinan for hubby’s uncle’s burial. It was a tragic death, soon, unexpected, sad and more that I can’t disclose anymore in this blog. Hubby’s side of the family is close to their second cousins. You see, his dad has only two siblings but they are close to first cousins. Meaning, the sons and daughters of FIL’s dad’s siblings. Magulo ba? To explain in tagalog, FIL’s dad and his 3 other siblings family are really close na tipong kahit tatlo lang na magkakapatid sila FIL, it doesn’t matter kasi part of the family talaga yun cousins nila, kumbaga, you will not see the distinction kung sino lang ang magkakapatid. FIL and his cousins are 19 all in all, some in the US, some in Canada, some in Pangasinan and others in Manila. Basta they are so close so the unexpected death of one of the cousins was traggic for the whole family. Two siblings of the cousin who died went home to the Philippines but other cousins were not able to do, so that’s how technology bridged the distance. All throughout the lamay, we’re connected with them, online, through the internet with voice conference and webcam, they are with us through all the puyatan. They saw the casket, the visitors and even the nechrological (not sure if right term) service the night before the burial. They were there even in the inuman of the second generations (hubby and his cousins).

We arrived in Pangasinan, Friday night (night before the burial) and sa buong time na gising kami for the lamay, the relatives in the US, Canada, Korea and Saudi Arabia stayed with us through the internet. Kahit na malayo sila, nagpuyat din talaga, for those in the US, nag-leave sila from work, as gabi here is daytime there.

Mas nakakaiyak nung actual libing na, they were there to witness yung paglabas ng casket from the house and they all cried with us. We actually tried to look for a “WeRoam” user sana para even in the church service and the actual burial eh we can go online kaso we did not find any na. When we got home after the burial, they are there waiting for us and even the next day, which was the 9th day, we spent it together. They also have a gathering in the US for the padasal and we connected through the internet.

Hay, galing-galing talaga ng internet, kasi even if people can’t physical be there, they can be there through the net. Good thing din that hubby’s brother installed wireless internet in Pangasinan and that the entire family compound has a signal so they were using two laptops to broadcast the happening.