Last Saturday, I took a Ceres bus to Iloilo from our province in Antique to take my flight back to Manila.
As I was gathering my baggage upon arriving at the bus terminal in Iloilo, I couldn’t find the box containing foodstuff (adobong manok, suman, saba na saging, rootcrops) that neighbors went out of their way to obtain and prepare for Manila relatives.
There were no more passengers left and I looked all over the bus but I couldn’t find the box. I was sure it was loaded in the bus together with my two bags. So I asked the conductor, “Sa diin tana ang akon box? May higot nga yellow nga straw.” (Where’s my box? The one tied with yellow-colored straw.) That’s in the Kinaray-a language of Antique.
The conductor helped me look all over the bus. We couldn’t find it. He tried looking at the rear and side compartments. No box.
He took one last look inside the bus and he found it under the last seat. I thanked him profusely.
He accepted it with relief saying they felt responsible for every piece of baggage loaded in the bus. Then he remarked. “’Box’ man ikaw nga’box’. Karton gali ang imo ginasagap. (You keep on saying ‘box’ when you are looking for a ‘karton.’)”
