The 22nd of January was the day that I had anticipated, after so long the day had finally arrived. After being crowned Ginoong Philippines Australia I was filled with eager anticipation, waiting for the day that I would finally be able to represent my family and Filipino Australians in our distant home land. Although we have come to call Australia home, in my heart I still feel Philippines is deep resonance beating at my core, it’s in my blood and constant in back of my mind.

At the air port excitement had reached a climax, I tried not to count down the days before hand because that way, I knew the day would feel like it came sooner. After a 12 hour flight with a stop over in Singapore, we finally touched down in Manila international port. As I stepped off the plane still in a limbo between dream and reality (because I hardly slept) the reality of being in the Philippines slowly sank in, the first thing that hit me was the heat, and then the aroma which was ever present everywhere around manila. Driving to the hotel where we could finally get some sleep, we were surrounded by crazy drivers, tricycles and street vendors.

After a quick nap, I was hungry, and to eat we decided to go to Makati and meet up with some family who were also visiting from America. After walking around greenbelt we came to a place called “Bubba Gump”, it was named after the movie Forest Gump, the movie which Tom Hanks starred in. The food was great; the food everywhere around the Philippines was great, we even tried botsay, the signature dish of Iloilo.

On our second day we visited the set of Wowowee it’s just like it is on TFC but without the commercial breaks, and a 360 degree view. Later that evening we had dinner with the CPU alumni, where we met some very nice people who really care about education, and then it was on to Iloilo.

Iloilo had a different ambiance compared to the rest of the Philippines, for one thing I had no idea what people were saying, because they spoke Ilonggo, and I only speak Tagalog. The Ilonggo’s do have a sense of community which seemed to lack in big cities like manila.

We stayed in the Gonzaga mansion which was on the campus of CPU it was a nice little place, we did’nt spend much time there though, we were too busy sight seeing, trying out the local cuisine and the local specialty of “batchoy”, it was pretty good.

Asilo de Molo is a home for the old and a places we visited during our stay in Iloilo, in the faces of the residents, you could tell they had wisdom from the experiences of their lives; I could not help think that each face and each person had a story or two to tell, the residents seemed to had enjoyed the visit from the Australia delegation.

The Dinagyang is something everyone should at see at least once, the colour the energy in the dance steps and drums were enjoyably overwhelming. They “tribes” were so well organised and there seemed to have been a lot of interest from around the Philippines about this annual festival.

Finally we went to my home town, the place I lived until I was 5 years old, and also the home town of Apolinario Mabini, a Filipino national hero. Tanauan, Talaga, Batangas. Driving in I was not ready from the warm reception they had prepared for me, in the town centre and in front of the school was my name and the words congratulations Mr Philippines Australia, Welcome. Not everyone can say that they were honoured in their home town. But I felt such a pride and joy because all my family and people I hadn’t seen in years turned up. It felt great donating money to the school my mother, aunties and uncles school, my grandmother had also been a teacher there, and this was my final official act in the Philippines, and something I would not trade. It is something that I would love to do again. It has inspired me to keep doing things for the community and to become a better person.