In a way I feel sad. There are a lot of things that I'm going to miss about Mauritius. Above everything else is the very beautiful beach situated just a short walk away from where we were housed. Some colleagues who went touring the south on my final Sunday here in Mauritius couldn't understand why I preferred to stay behind and commune with the beach. They said I missed a lot. But I doubt it. I don't like the beach just because it is picture perfect. I like everything about it. The sounds that the waves make as they hit the shore. The smell of the sea. The cool breeze. The texture of the sands against my bare feet. Sugar Beach in Flic en Flac is truly magnificent. And it's nice that it's a public beach here in Mauritius. Back in the Philippines we have to pay a lot just to gain access to a beach this beautiful. And the trip going to them would be quite long. It's a stroke of luck that our company houses short-term assignees in Flic en Flac. I thank God for the opportunity to be here. I'm a bit sad that I'm going home already. But at the end of the day I know that deep within me I'm glad to be going home. Not much has changed than when I was first asked by a colleague in Cebu after my first couple of weeks here whether I like it here or not. My answer then was that it's not nicer compared to the Philippines, but it's not also less nice. I feel neutral about it then; that it was nothing more than just a different place. And that at the end of the day, there's no place like home. Now that I'm finally going home I still feel the same way. There's no place like home.
(I have no internet connection over the weekend so I'm posting three days worth of goodbyes to Ile Maurice.)
I will remember Flic en Flac and its nice cold weather. I will remember how I could just sleep all day under this weather.
I will remember Flic en Flac with its wonderful misty rains. I will remember how light the rain were and how beautiful they were to look at.
I will remember Flic en Flac with its public beach and its perfect sunset. I will remember sitting on the sand looking at the vast waters in front of me as I wait for the sun to go down.
Trois. Deux. Un.
Adieu, ile Maurice.
(Wow, corny na kaayo ko. Pasabot nga pauli na gyud ko sa Pilipinas. Pero mingawon gyud ko sa beach. Unta naay sama ka nindot nga beach na walking distance sa akong gapuy-an sa Cebu.)
Quatre jours.
I will remember Flic en Flac where Le Latanier stands. I will remember the serene nights of sleep with hundreds of frogs singing the lullabye in unison.
Adieu, ile Maurice.
Cinq jours.
I will remember Flic en Flac with its vast empty fields where sugar canes once stood. I will remember how the fields make the landscape we see on our way to work and our way home more picturesque than when I first got here.
Adieu, ile Maurice.
Six jours.
I will remember Flic en Flac with its long stretches of beaches. I will remember its waters, brilliant and green, and its sands, fine and white.
Adieu, ile Maurice.
Sept jours.
I will remember Flic en Flac with its vast sugar cane plantation. I will remember the sugar canes that wave us off to work and greet us back home everyday.
Adieu, ile Maurice.
If there's one thing that I'm going to miss in this place it would have to be the weather, specifically the winter weather (I've heard summers here can go as high as 35 degrees Celsius). If I'm permitted to miss other things, then I'll also miss the friendly people and their peculiar use of handshake as an everyday-greeting as opposed to what I'm used to back in the Philippines. There the handshake is reserved for the initial meeting. The beach, particularly the public one in Flic en Flac, is another thing that I'll miss. For three months I lived within a walking distance to one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to (not that I've been to many). Coming in here with the tall sugar canes lining up the majority of roadsides, I thought the roadsides here are picturesque. But now that most of the crops have been harvested, the view of wide empty spaces of land is even more breathtaking. The mixture of rural structures and urban structures that I see on the way to work is a welcome change to the short ride over a few city blocks in Cebu that I used to travel to go to work.
But at the end of the day, the notion that there's no place like home still ring true. My country, my city is just as beautiful. This place just happens to be different.
Beaches and mountains
Stonewalls and sugar canes
Run and walk
Silence and talk
Smile and tears
Laughter and fears
Clicks and presses
Songs and dances
I can see the light that beacons me home. Two months on and with a month to go here in a different country in a different continent, and over two years of living in a city far from home back in the Philippines, maybe, just maybe, I now understand the phrase there's no place like home. I can't help but feel I'm walking in circles. That in the end I'll stop where I started. That the only thing I don't know right now is how big a circle it's going to be.
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