Today is 24th of June and what’s the big deal about it? Uhummm…It’s shower time!
I was from duty and my body’s totally, uberly tired from non-sleep 3-day straight work. Because of my midnight shifting schedule, my date and time orientation is getting bizarre. I would usually ask, “Today is 23rd, right? Oh no today is already 24th and I still got a work by tomorrow, oh crap not tomorrow, I mean today, later, blah blah”.
Alright, let’s get back to my story. Because I was pretty tired, I forgot that today is “San Juan Day”. What the!!! And it only occurred into my mind while I was already riding on the jeepney and the driver made an announcement, “humandang mabasa”. Oh crap, I got knotty because I was wearing all-white and I got books inside my cloth body bag. “No, please, this isn’t right.” I thought of riding on a train instead but I would still walk a distance before I reach my pad, so it would also be useless. “Sighed, this would be my first”. In the past few years, I just usually had cozy hibernation while the crowd was busy with the “basaan activity”(dousing of water). I was darn boring then right?. Aint got choice! The jeepney was already one train-station away from my place and one block away from the boundary of San Juan City. My heart was already jumping out, “I don’t want to get drenched, puh-leez!” and after a little bit I could already see a pack of children coming to our way. They looked as if they were ecstasy-induced animals with their shrieking noise and multitude. They were all carrying dipper filled with water and some had the 1.5 plastic coke bottles and the ala-Robocop water gun! Oh what the…I just slouched-in to the farthest seat, the one closest to the driver’s, where the skunk-aroma was coming from. I suffered that stench too much just to stay away from the frenzied gamins. But then our jeepney didn’t escape the high-spot of the fiesta’s celebration. The children (and grown-ups alike) got in and at the outset they were bargaining for coins, it seemed it was “treat or trick” game. The driver gave coins to the first pack who jumped in but then the stretched of road was lined with the “goers” and the driver’s coins were not sufficient to salvage us from the “basaan” because most of the San Juan residents were into the trip of getting all the people who’ve been passing in San Juan to get copiously wet as the peak of celebration. And when the children got uberly crazy with basaan, I loosened up and just enjoyed the moment being soaked. The children who were riding in our jeepney were already making fun with their friends, with people who were also tossing water from the streets and of course with us, I just then said, “game, basaan na!”. I asked a bottle of water from one of the children on the jeep and I started firing water too. I got uberly crazy and my fear had peter out because I was completely damp already and water was actually dripping from my uniform. When I got off from the jeep, I walked as if I was one of the Robocop characters and none had dared to splash me again.
Matthew 2:11 quotes Saint John as saying: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentence but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he sahll baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire."
It was really FUN! Happy fiesta, Happy San Juan Day!
Bye for now, matutulog muna ako! “grins”
