Brothers in Chicago

It is difficult to start a new life in a country that you never grew up with. You have your ideals of a better life to be, but starting a new life in a foreign country is not easy. Epecially if you have your family back to where you came from. You always feel that you where alone. It is not easy if you are by yourself braving the snow that you've only seen in your freezer before. Shoveling ice that freezes your bone just to get to work.

When I came in the US I knew that I have some of my brods and sis living here in the US. At that time there is no way of knowing where they where. No MEDICUS BLOG, No yahoogroup, no way of telling where they where. This was year 2000, but luck would have it that in one of my mall visits I saw a familiar face sitting right in front of me. It is Sam Sales, a brod, from then on I was connected to my family.

We have 2 brods that came in the US and ended up in Illinois. One is Gilbert that I have no inkling was planning to go to the US and Laverne that for want of giving a better life to his children decided to come and brave the cold and freezing place.

I did not know then, that I was a friendster buddy of Gilbert's son. His son told me that they where in Illinois, not knowing that we have brods there in the same batch (Vincula Concordia). Laverne passby Los Angeles on his way to Chicago and was informed that Manny lives in Chicago and a contact number was given. It turns out to be a small world as Laverne's friends was also a friend of Manny's wife. Then I told Laverne that Gilbert was also in Illinois and another contact number was sent.

Here are the pictures taken when the 3 Viculits met in Chicago. With your brods you'll never feel alone.

Brothers in Arms

4th of July

In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Congress approved the wording of the Declaration on July 4 and then sent it to the printer. Whether John Hancock, as the elected President of the Second Continental Congress, or anyone else signed the document that day is unknown, because that document has been lost — presumably destroyed in the printing process. Hancock's name and that of a witness do appear on the typeset broadside that was published within a few days. On August 2 in the following month, an engrossed document in script form was signed by Hancock and other delegates.

Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, picnics, baseball games, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States, but is often also viewed as simply a summer festival, apart from its patriotic overtones.

In the Philippines the 4th of July is celebrated as the Filipino-American Friendship Day. It was designated by President Diosdado Macapagal to commemorate the liberation of the country by joint Filipino and American forces from the Japanese occupation at the end of World War II.
The Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1942, when it was occupied by Japanese forces, and again for a brief period after the war. The country gained complete independence on July 4, 1946.

Initially, the nation's Independence Day holiday (Araw ng Kalayaan) was held on July 4. Former President Diosdado Macapagal moved it to June 12, the date on which the Philippines declared independence from Spain in 1898. Filipino-American Friendship Day was created in its place, and coincides with the United States' July 4 Independence Day.

Another reading: The Independence Day That Wasn't.

HAPPY EATING TO EVERYONE WHO WILL CELEBRATE THIS JULY 4th