Thicker than Water

I spent the previous evening with relatives whom I have never met before.

Apart from the awkward moments where I was lost in translation (Fukien), I had a lot of fun. The night started when my cousin sent me a message on facebook letting me know that, “Hey, I’m in Manila. Give me call. I’m on Sun, here’s my number.” (Not verbatim) The next day we meet at a relative’s house in Torre Lorenzo where I’m introduced to 2^nd cousins D. and V., also students of DLSU. D. then calls L., our 3^rd cousin to come and join us for dinner. So we take the Ford Lynx to the Korean Village where we dine on ox tongue and Korean delicacies (I separated the two because they’re not the same).

This is when we finally settle how we’re related. We drew a family tree on the back of a placemat and apparently, my tai-tai-ma (great great grandmother) had five or seven sons during the Chinese revolutions (K., correct me if I’m wrong), but two moved to the Philippines and attempted to start a shipping business in Catbalogan. My great grandfather’s brother had his family which is how I’m related to L. Then my great grandfather begot 14 children, 7 sons and 7 daughters. My grandfather was the eldest of these sons, and begot 4 sons, my father being the eldest while my cousins, W., is the son of the 2^nd son. Thus that’s how we’re related. My second cousins are part of the 14 children, and that’s how I’m related to them.

You’ll have to read that five times or more to comprehend it, but that’s exactly how I felt that evening. It was like a whole other world opened up revealing a long lost, estranged brother. But in my case, it wasn’t a brother but a whole clan. I knew of the existence of distant relatives, but the fact that everyone seems to know everyone else makes me feel like I’m missing out. It gives perspective to who I am and where I came from.

I’ve been to family reunions before (not the huge ones consisting of 200+ people) and I’ve been introduced to different relatives with a short explanation telling me how I’m related to them, but those are easily forgotten. So I didn’t think twice about it. But after meeting people my age who are so well networked with our family, I feel ashamed.

My cousin W. came back to visit relatives and to vacation. He ended up going to different provinces in the Philippines just to say hi to this relatives or that one. Me, I find it hard just to visit a relative who lives in the same city.

Maybe this is part of growing up.

On the other hand, my mother’s side of the family . . .