you say tomato...

sunday, we took our visitors to the botanical gardens in golden gate park. i notice ganay (the t'boli weaver/ master musician) and nelia (the pina master artist from aklan) seem to be getting along splendidly. like they were old buddies. they'd hold hands sometimes, much like women do in the philippines when they're good friends. and i hear them talking to each other. i'm amazed. i speak neither ilonggo/visayan nor t'boli. so i ask tita myrna how ganay and nelia are communicating. myrna says, "oh, ganay speaks in T'boli, and nelia speaks in ilonggo". i noticed the two were carrying on whole conversations this way, 2 different, very distinct languages.

R's analogy to this fascinating phenomenon: "it's like how Han Solo and Chewbaca communicate. Han's speaking in english, and Chewie's speaking in Wookie... but somehow they understand each other."

the force is strong with these two...