I for one, am not superstitious although I have studied the spirit world while researching in Mt. Banahaw, the holy mountain in Laguna.  The Fulbright I am told, is a rare achievement although some had received it more than twice. For me it was special considering this was my second attempt. Now that I am actually fulfilling it,  what seems like serendipitous and happenstance encounters whilst going about establishing contacts for my research appears to be more than that. Take for example, Lorraine Evangelista a health professional studying health issues in the country. I do not advertise my filial relation to NVM but somehow people find out. When Lorraine found out she immediately blurted out that she was the first recipient ever, of an NVM Scholarship in Nursing, a mere $500 at that time, but was one of the few prestigious awards in Nursing. I did not even know NVM supported one. In out cohort also was Eugene   , former UP lit major and now DePaul University faculty. Later during our Fulbright Mid-Year Conference, I with more UP people a former highschool teacher and UP poet.  
In Baguio, while following up leads on Ifugao weavers, I had lunch with Laida Lim, proprietor of the Cafe Among the Ruins, one of the better restaurants on Upper Session Rd. As we conversed, I ask how she was related to Estefania Lim, the grand dame of women’s education and where my sister went to school, PWU. When she said she was, I blurted out that therefore Fr. Pat Lim was her relation. Now, Father Pat as we called him was the parish priest at U.P. He often had dinner or lunch at our place and was my parent’s father-confessor, I would assume. So by now, these unexpected connections gets tighter and coming to a full circle. At the same restaurant, while rushing through breakfast with Dr. Ikin (Salvador-Amores) before my 9 a.m. bus to Manila. I wanted to meet Ikin, not only because she was a fellow anthropologist but also because she directed a  high-tech program that I thought is going to be a solution for heritage branding, one of my research issues.  Ikin, with the countenance of one who relished a moment of remembrance, recalled how as a student, she had visited our Diliman house to inquire about a violin that NVM was selling. This must have been the Italian Cerruti that he wanted to unload since he had another violin an Italian Mondegno that he prefers to play more often. Ikin, then a student, could not afford the violin at that time and she had wanted it for her daughter. How unfortunate I said because if you had bought it, it would have been saved from the fire that ravished all of NVM’s works and mementos, including both the violins. 

Finally, one of the side projects I am hoping to accomplish during this Fulbright is to introduce the potential of a Mangyan keyboard as a way to preserve this heritage and make it attractive to the younger generation. Cell phone use among the Mangyans is limited, but as more of them join the labor force which is inevitable, cell phones will become an ordinary tool. I approached Smart Corp. through Doy Vea, its former CEO and a UP High School classmate, if he can help and he immediately put me in contact with their community outreach department. I had a meeting the manager of this unit and he offered to donate two phones for the project. He came to UP Diliman to deliver the phones. As we got to talk a bit more, he recalled in his UP days how he used to be with Fidel during their activist days and that when he married, their reception was at SV Epistola’s campus home. His wife was the daughter of SV’s sister! I explained to him how I knew Fidel who is now a UP VP of Research and SV who was my father’s colleague in UP. In fact, through Fidel’s son, who first started as a History major,  the history club, LIKAS found out I was its first president. They promptly invited me to say a few words at a ceremony for a high school classmate and former History department colleague, Malou Camagay in honor of her emeritus award. I really wondered at the serendipity that is happening or maybe a mysterious guiding hand at work.

So there. I did not include the many acquaintances of NVM had from the literary crowd that I have met in the past weeks. There’s Maribel Ongpin, news writer who was the first contact I met who gave a briefing on  weavers and gifted me with the most splendid book about banig –woven mat of fine leaves that was written by Elmer Nocheseda; there’s Neil Garcia, poet and the director of UP Press,  and so on. They would be more expected acquaintances since they were in the same literary circles as NVM. But to discover the connections from otherwise diverse fields proves that the theory of six degrees of separation even in disparate occupations like nursing, anthropology, and weaving, holds true.  Although perhaps, I am beginning to think there must be an unseen hand working somewhere.