The Bohol We Love

Book excerpt: “These essays are not about Chocolate Hills and the tarsiers and the fancy beach clubs and other tourist magnets in Bohol. They are about seemingly mundane things that define a place and bind its people together—childhood games, songs, religious rituals, cultural practices, superstitions and myths, magical creatures. Here you will read about triumphs that united people in pride, disasters that drew them even closer; larger-than-life heroes and everyday heroes; changes that tested their mettle and inspired new ways of seeing as well as values that have endured; cracks in the pavements that mirrored cracks in relationships. Braiding storytelling with fictional devices, the writers merge reportage with self-reflection; weave patterns out of chaos and happenstances; and create a tapestry of memories that restores the past, turning the Bohol they love into the Bohol we love as well.” — Susan Lara