Ayshi af-afil

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Ayshi af-afil is an expression in Ibaloi (the language of my father’s people) and it means that we are all one. Literally, “there are no differences”.

In this image from my brother’s birthday party last Wednesday are my dad’s cousin Susan (Auntie Susan to me), and brothers Peter and Maximo. What is remarkable is that for most of my life I’ve been closer to my Auntie Susan, though she’s my dad’s distant cousin, than to my actual uncles because she was with us in Canada and they were still at home in the Philippines. It never really hit me that she and they knew one another. Illogical I know, but you don’t think about it as a kid and it kind of gets by you until occasions like this.

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