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| Waiting for scraps from the table |
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| Chris and the newborn kittens |
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| Matu |
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| Sirangan breakfast |
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| Chris slices along the length of the infinity pool |
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| Rattan Room, with two walls of floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors |
Sirangan, more than just a resort and organic farm, is an animal sanctuary of sorts. It is home to a few dogs, several cats (one of which gave birth to two kittens in a jar - all by herself), a mouthy bird who likes to say "Pangit ka!" (You're ugly!), sheep, chickens, ducks, a fat bullfrog (who likes to hop between guests' legs they enjoy meals in the mess hall), and who knows what else...
Sirangan gave me peace and quiet when I needed to be alone with my thoughts, but it also provided peripheral noise immediately whenever my thoughts would get too toxic for my own good.
The trip to Sorsogon hurled me harder down the dirt of depression. It was a proper brain fuck. Thrown deep into the country of my birth, I was more disconnected than ever to the world as I knew it. I felt like such a poseur in life, in general. I came from somewhere, I somehow lost my way, I won't admit it, and now it seems I've got nowhere to go.
My ugly thoughts were only magnified, juxtaposed as they were against the impossible perfection of Sorsogon.
Yuck, everything is beautiful except me.
In Sirangan, I was just another animal in need of a sanctuary.
