The Sailor and the Saint

Sarong classic na Memoir ni sir Ervin Borja: pag giromdom asin pagpukaw ning satuyang excitement for the coming Dec 2009. Bareta ko nasa Pinas na si pading Erving and we love to hear from you again.

From: ERVIN BORJA [mailto:etborja62@yahoo.com] Sent: Saturday, December 25, 2004 3:07 PMTo: adenhsclass79@yahoogroups.comSubject: [ AdeNHSClass79 ] THE SAILOR AND THE SAINT

Batchmates, Last Saturday afternoon, I attended a mass with myfamily at Pearl Harbor Memorial Chapel. This chapelis located inside Pearl Harbor Naval Base, one of themost historical place in U. S. military history. Iguess it was a wonderful Saturday afternoon for twomembers of AdeN HS Batch 79 here in Hawaii , because inthat mass the batch 79 sinner, oooopps, I mean theSailor and the Saint were in attendance, one of us wasa parishioner and the other one was the celebrant. Father Wilfredo Cabrera, known to us as Boyet washere in Hawaii for almost a week and celebrated dailymass while in the island. Dai ako makatubod na 25 years after we graduatedhigh school, pagpapara sermonan sana ako ni Boyet asindai lamang ako makasirisimbag o makatumang saiya. Garo nakalamang sa satuya si Boyet pagpili ninprofession. Ang saro sa kinaogma ko dahil maray-rahaymagsermon si Boyet. His sermons were well deliveredand easily understood by the Parishioners, who weremostly Americans. Look what Ateneo teachings can do. I was a little bit nervous before he started the massbecause theres a Filipino priest here who used to sayPray for ass every time he celebrate a mass. ThankGOD Boyet sticked to Mrs. Baramedas teachings and tothe Ateneo accent, he says Pray for us in a rightway. The night of the same day another batchmate showedup, it was Gabriel Del Rosario who has been here inHawaii for almost 17 years working in the governmentas civil engineer. One afternoon we stayed in myplace and I prepared some lutong Tinambac. Ang lutokong nagpasakit sainda iyo ang dinoguan na ginisa sapurico asin lataw ang alsom. Sabi ko baga saindo sainot kong surat na dai na ako ngonian naggagamitlemoncito sa yokyok ko kaya permi na kaming gulpinglemoncito sa pagluto. Garo grabi si nakakan ming tolota malang ilinuwas ko na si labatiba kong nakatago tanahadit ako na baka dai sinda matunawaan. Salamat saDiyos ta sinda natunawan ta kung dai, siguro firsttime na makakaheling akong piglalabatibang padi. Anyway, Im so happy for Father Boyets success in hisprofession, being a missionary priest is not an easything to do specially when you're assigned in afar-flung areas in Mindanao . Ini ang sinasabi ko naang success in life cannot only be measured bycounting how much money we have in our pocket but howhappy are we in what we do in everyday life (If you'regood in counting money in somebody's pocket failure kaunless you're an accountant). I felt holy for fewdays that he was here in Hawaii . If Francis Gomez andGil Mejia can help me in fixing my almoranas problem,then now, I have Fr. Cabrera to help me save my soul. Batchmates, in few days we will be celebratingour silver jubilee anniversary. I hope that the classreunion that you guys will be having in Naga will be aday when you will be sharing high school memories anda day to start new ones. From what I have observed inthe last few months in exchanging/sharing ideas withsome of you through our web site, I noticed that someof us still need another 25 years to grow up. Let usput to stop the bickering and fighting over some pettythings because it shows immaturity and insecurities inus, anyway mayo man gayod kitang pigbabaranga. Ialways believed that life is short so enjoy everyseconds of it, always remember the line in IgmedioBondoc's favorite elecution piece when we were in highschool "For I shall not pass this way again". I wont be able to attend the reunion but mythoughts and prayers will be with you on that day. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. MABUHAY KAMOGABOS.

Ervin