When we received our recall order last January that we were to go back home on July next year, the urgency of getting a place to live in Manila suddenly haunted us. We left the Philippines for Cambodia in 2002 barely two weeks after we got married with nothing to our name as a married couple save for a rice cooker or two which we received as wedding gifts.

Of course we know that Dad and Mom would welcome their youngest child and their favorite son-in-law who currently lives in Cambodia to their house in Kamuning. We also know that Papa and Mama would welcome their beloved only child and favorite daughter-in-law to their house in Lucena. But golly — we are much too old to be bossed around babied by our parents.

The urgency is also aggravated by the fact that of all the times for the dollar to devalue and for the peso to appreciate, it has to be now when we’re earning dollars and about to use our hard-earned cash to purchase a home.

Read more in Toe’s Kurokuroatbp.