Dear Loved Ones,

Pleasant Greetings to everyone! Wishing you a very Happy Valentines day with your loved ones; especially to my family – my hubby Gerry in Pinas who is looking forward to watch a Connie Francis concert at Araneta (he already got the best patron seat ticket), to Sarah and her family, and to Sean (who just started his spring term, focused on Accounting major subjects), as we continue to pray and thank God for His Love, Mercy and Generosity, among many others!


On the 1st week of January, we experienced a strong winter storm which rendered power failure to the Sacramento region (in our area, on Jan 4, we lost power from 9:00am-2:00pm). That day Fr. Victor (from Pinas) also came to deliver the package (2 paintings, 2008 Meralco diary, calendar, other goodies) sent by my hubby. Despite the strong winds, rain and power outage, we enjoyed lunch at home with our 3 visitors, especially the stories and updates on Bohol/ Pinas happenings.

We also received the holiday package from my daughter Sarah, containing among others, 2 shirts with the photo of our apo Max embossed, emblazoned with the words ‘I love you Lolo / Lola’, more photos, some more gifts for all of us. Max looks so handsome, as Sarh would always say, ‘Move over Keanu Reeves’, mas quapo pa talaga si Max! Thanks so much Sarah for your thoughtfulness and Love! On Jan. 19, we (Sean, Cora and I) joined our parish delegation (2 busloads) to the ‘Walk for Life’ in San Francisco. We had Fr. George S. (the Pinoy priest who had his birthday that day) in the bus with us, who started with a Mass before leaving Sacramento, led the Rosary on the way like a pilgrimage trip, complete with singing. We joined the crowd of over 25,000, listened to pro-life speeches, walked more than 2 miles with banners on hand. Parallel to our procession, separated from our group by a phalanx of uniformed policemen, there were the noisy minority mixture of anti-group (pro-choice, gay and other colorful persons with their own placards expressing various sentiments). It was a peaceful demonstration of democratic freedom of expressions of opposing opinions by two distinct groups, which is so rare in Pinas. The Walk (11:00 AM – 3:30 PM) ended peacefully as we went back to our bus designated parking, passing over the scenic Golden Gate bridge, then back to Sac by 6:30PM. It was our 1st experience of social activism in America – such amazing democracy!


Benchmarks for Quality of Life! At year 1982 level when I was in Norway, these were some benchmarks for Quality of Lfe: In Scandinavia, the number of toilets/water closet per household, was 2.2 +; the Budget for Defense was less than 1% of total (the lower the better, practically zero crime rate); all basic utilities (like water, power, phone) are available, even if your next door neighbor is 20 kilometers away); electricity cost was less than 10 cents per kwh (in Norway – cheapest in the world - energy source is 99.95% hydropower, with its high head dams and fjords; so that their North Sea oil production is mainly for export); power failure is almost nil. If power outage occurs more than 3 minutes, the power company pays industrial users for their losses. There is system redundancy such that when a line goes out, a backup line takes over, thus power outage is minimized. (This standard is unimaginable in Pinas with its long brownouts.) With the recent power outage experience in America this winter time, I conclude that Nordel countries –Scandinavia is interconnected by a single power grid called Nordel – have much higher quality of life than most countries!

Photos attached are: A) with Fr. Victor and company at home on Jan 4; B) at Walk for Life in San Francisco; 3) Max at 5 yrs. Let us continue to pray for our country and people - Peace and Joy to You. God Bless us all!!!