A Journey to Marabut

Ever since I became aware of it, back in my seminary days in Palo, Leyte, Samar island had always been an entity known to me only from other students who came from there. They were just as ordinary as they come, although the way they spoke Waray-waray varied a bit from the Leytenos . Where the Leyteno would say: "Ano man iton?" (What is that?), the Samareno would say: "Ano ma' it'?") In time, because Samar was a hotbed of Maoist rebels since Marcos times and still, to a lesser extent, today, I never went to Samar, except once, when we made a class visit to the town of Basey. At that time in the middle 60's, the only way you could get to Basey was via pumpboat. When the San Juanico Bridge was built by Marcos, it was possible to get to Basey via motor vehicle in less than an hour.