Junie and Henri visit Dave Dioneda

On april 24,2005, a sunday, i continued my visits to our classmates who are based in Sorsogon. (It should become clear by now that i'm on a self-appointed mission of bringing each member of our class connected to one another through our blogspot site.) This time Dave Dioneda was on my mission order.

Before i proceeded to Bacon where Dave has taken residence, i made a quick visit to Casiguran to get the email addresses of Mervs and Sanni. On my way to Sorsogon, i dropped by at the house of Gabby where i learned from a cousin of his that Gabby works at the main office of the National Dairy Authority and that Gabby is now studying at the Ateneo de Manila University under the sponsorship of his office.

My next stop was Henri's place at the Dairy Farm. I needed someone to accompany me to the house of the auntie of Dino to ask about Dino's whereabouts. Henri fitted that bill perfectly.

The guide, however, ended up stuck with me the whole afternoon of my visit to Dave although he had a date [with a human being, mind you] that afternoon.

But before we went to Bacon, i made sure that Henri got a tour of our blogspot site in an internet cafe in Sorsogon City. He liked what he saw and pledged to post pictures and articles of his own. [I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he does this soon.]

After the internet visit, we boarded a PUJ bound for Bacon. When we got a little past the San Roque Church, Dave was already waiting for us on the roadside. His place was around seven minutes by foot from the highway. It's accessible by car, however,as long as no other car is coming from the opposite direction.

Dave has settled in an almost-one-hectare property, living the life of a farmer. He has been raising animals (goats, cows, pigs) and growing various plants (lemon trees, lettuce,papaya, cassava [not stained with cyanide, i hope]for a living.
During our visit, his children (all girls: twins Isabel Lindsey and Isabel Tracey and the youngest, Shula Cassandra) were with him. Most of the time, they're in Tandang Sora,Quezon City with their mother (Lualhati Santos who's with SM Corporate Office).

I'm tempted to write more about the life of Dave, but i wouldn't want to preempt what he would like to say about himself in an article that he promised he would post on this site soon. Suffice it to say that Dave has raised his children well. They're well behaved, obedient and respectful of elders. With just a look or a little instruction, Dave gets the children to do what he wants them to do.

When i noted that his children were well behaved, Dave said it's because he's a disciplinarian. A disciplinarian? I couldn't bring myself to believe that Dave was a disciplinarian. Truth to tell, i have always admired Dave for his simplicity, for his humility. But being a disciplinarian sounded so out of his character.

But it just shows, perhaps, that i have not really known Dave well enough. The better thing to do now is to wait for his article to come out. i think i'll know him better through his article. Perhaps, that applies to many of our classmates, too.

Junie