Thirty fours years ago, my father was sent to Japan by the Insurance Commission on scholarship for a training on insurance business. He should been sent to Switzerland but politics intervened - the slot was given to an "anointed" one.
It was one summer morning when I accompanied Tatay to the airport to catch a JAL flight to Tokyo, Japan.
As soon as he got out of the taxi, he handed to me all his loose coins and went straight to UP Diliman to attend my summer class.
He came back after three months with "pasalubong" - an ELSI MATE 6 EL-121 calculator and a red t-shirt "pasalubong". Plus of course his never ending stories of modern Japan as well as the honest, hardworking, sincere and disciplined Japanese people.
In some engineering calculations, the ELSI replaced my slide rule. I was still wearing the red-shirt in February 14, 1981 while conducting a COBOL AND RPG class.
The ELSI pictures were freshly taken by Glaizza, a GSI staff.Labels: Insurance Commission, pasalubong
