The Gathering

There is a disturbance in the force… A gathering is about to take place, and I dread its coming.

Overseas-based relatives are in town and the inevitable family reunion will have to come to pass.
An Aunt, her children and their families from the US have already arrived. I’ve seen my cousins maybe once or twice over the last decade. They left shortly after the first Edsa revolution at the height of the attempted coup de etats against the Aquino Administration. I actually haven’t seen this aunt of mine since they left way back in the 80's.

An uncle based in Germany will also be coming home with his family. He moved to Germany in the 70’s and I’ve only seen him a few times during short visits. His 2 sons, my cousins have only known Germany as a home. They love football, or soccer as we would call it and they can hardly speak English.

I dread the long spiels about religion that my aunt gets into and the inevitable questions about marriage and settling down. My mom gets the brunt of that since all three of us, brothers are still single. My mom just sighs “ewan ko ba sa kanila” every time she is asked if any of us are married. I think my mom is yearning for grand kids, but luckily I am the youngest so the pressure is not on me but on my eldest brother. Hahaha!

But what I dread the most about this coming reunion is my aunt’s inevitable insistence that we should also migrate to the US to ensure a better future. The last time I talked to her on the phone she was insisting that we should work on getting a US visa and even suggested going to Canada if we cant get a US visa. I know she means well and it is true that life here is difficult, but the country needs people to stay and man the trenches so to speak.