Titi Bebeng gave me this photo the last time I was in Catmon. I am sure that almost all of the young ones have grown up. Hope some members of the family have a chance to read my posts and send me family updates with updated photos.
Lola Sayong was always in charge of dishing out the rice at "family gatherings" in Catmon; Tata Batyong was the "Cucinero" or "Chief Cook!" Pity, I can not find my pictures of Tata.
Ilaya is one of my favorite hang outs when I was growing up. The English translation of illahee (Il-ah-ha-he-ye) is "land that gives comfort." It is a word used by one of the indigenous First Nations tribe in the Pacific northwest, around Vancouver, British Columbia. The word struck a chord because of the close pronunciation to ilaya as well as the approximate meaning of the word.
When I think of ilaya - I think of cool comforting afternoon breeze, the soothing sound of the river and lots of "fun stuff" to do! An added attraction for me was playing with Lucia and the other Molde girls at the house of Tata Batyong and Lola Sayong.
Going to Ilaya was very comforting for Lola and me. Comforting to her because of her promise to Lolo Milong to take care of the "Kalubihan" and his children. I was very disappointed on my last trip that the property have lost it's soul - very derelict and empty. It broke my heart! I spent a lot of time in the summer planting bananas, coconuts and smoking the tambis trees, clearing around the "sabana" trees and just clearing, clearing, clearing!
The first house was close to the river, not far from the Talisay tree at "labangon" in Lolo Teyoy's property. The house use to have this lime tree (suwa) that we used to pick when we washed our hair in the river. That house was destroyed by a typhoon; so Tata Batyong and Lola Sayong moved to Lola Elyang's house at the other end of the property.
The hair washing routine included grating the coconut (Kudkud) to get the milk out. The coconut milk is then used to wash our hair with the lime juice. Sometimes Lola Sayong would pound some kind of root from a tall grass (tangad???) and mix it in. I had very long hair. Talking about fragrant, well conditioned hair - all organic, too!
Finding this picture of Lola Sayong made me think of the house and the "snug fit" it had against the hill side. We used to go out in the back and try to find guavas or just to climb up the hill. At night some of our covers were made of "saguran."
Comforting because the food was always great - fresh utan, fresh fish when Tata was able to catch them - especially the red ones. Lola Sayong always had a variety of foods that I would otherwise not have tasted or have known the origin - like "landang", a salad made of banana hearts with coconut milk dressing and "atsal."
Uy, I was in San Francisco a couple of years ago and Nanay served "atsal" - I said this is Lola Sayong's recipe - where did you get it? Sure enough, the "atsal" was made by Juliana Molde. I think I can identify Lola Sayong's "templa" of that "atsal" anywhere.
