Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew - my odd reaction and note of thanks

Page 195.  I only got to page 195. 

I consider myself a bookworm but when it came to Pacific Rims,  I barely made it to the halfway mark when I had to stop reading because tears were starting to blurr my vision. I actually took a break for a couple of weeks (which is quite rare) before I finished the second half of the book.  Why did it affect me so much? Why did it make me cry? Because the content of page 195 could not even be considered as one of his great adventures .  

Pacific Rims - Pg 195...

To better explain this phenomenon, let me back up a bit... 

I've always considered myself a basketball fan but I only found out about Rafe's book in 2012 after it had been out for 3 years (which is quite sad).  Funny thing is, even before I knew who @Rafeboogs  (Rafe Bartholomew's twitter account) was, he knew me.

Last December 11, 2012, Rafe covered Manny Pacquiao's defeat to Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas. The resulting article painted an article so graphic, that I had to ask Carlo Pamintuan (who was also covering the fight) about it.  I merely mentioned him in my tweet, and this was his reply. 

@aimee829 omg it's you! THANK YOU THANK YOU MARAMING SALAMAT TATLONG LIBONG BESES para sa mga PBA uploads!

— Rafe Bartholomew (@Rafeboogs) December 11, 2012

It was only after this that I actually became curious about this Tagalog tweeting person who most of the PBA sports journalists (some of who had become friends of mine) were friends with. I researched all I could about Rafe Bartholomew .only to find out that he had actually written a book on Philippine basketball entitled Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Affair with Basketball. So I ordered a copy from Amazon for $9.00 (only to later find out that is was actually being sold in most National Bookstores in the Philippines). The book took around 3 months to get to me (there's a complicated reason for that), so in the meantime, I scoured the web for book reviews, podcasts, video uploads on youtube... anything on Rafe Batholomew and Pacific Rims.

By the time I finally got to read the book, I had already built a mental image of who Rafe was.  An uber white-boy, an American who came on a Fulbright scholarship to study Pinoy hoops and ended up embracing a culture that was so different from his own.  This book, Pacific Rims, held all the details of how he came to be "ONE OF US".

Back to page 195. ...
I had now gone through half of the hilarious experiences that he chose to include into his book. I had just finished laughing my ass off  when he described his unique pants-dropping experience in Boracay, when he began to describe another part of his life while living here in the Philippines. 

Then, with a few paragraphs on page 195, Rafe showed us how he had become part of the Xavierville community. He had kids that sat on his lap. He knew the tricycle drivers by name. He even became honorary godfather to one of their daughters.  As I read through this section, I just knew that unlike so many other foreigners, fil-ams, fil-foreigns that come and visit this country, this man had somehow fallen in love with the Philippines. In the three years he spent here, he embraced all the positives and negatives of a culture so different from his own and it brought tears to my eyes because  I knew that like the millions of OFWs who have to go back to their places of work after a brief visit home, he'd be heartbroken when he boards that plane, but unlike them, he'd actually be going home. 

(Fortunately, he doesn't end the book that way so I was spared the waterworks that was sure to come if it had. )

During his extended stay here, Rafe took up some odd jobs which included being a coach for the Alaska Power Camp.

National Geographic Channel will delve into the Philippines’ undying love for the sport of basketball through Rafe's eyes.

My copy of Pacific Rims finally got autographed!

Rafe made sure to write a super personalized dedication and autograph on my "Pacific Rims".

He was kind enough to lessen his height, so we could take this picture (coz I am an honorary member of "Minions United" - confirmed by daddy Minion himself, Mico Halili... hehe).

NOTE OF THANKS....

Dear Tio Paeng... 
In our very first interaction, you said thank you (TATLONG LIBONG BESES) for the PBA uploads. Now I'd like to express my own thanks.

For a guy who, 10 years ago, barely knew anything about this country, you've definitely made great impact . Through your book (and all the extras you do for us),  you  pushed our country towards progress more effectively than 98% of our elected policitians.

You were a kid when you first arrived, but you showed us that if we approach anything with an open mind and alot of patience (plus a dash of daring) you can immerse yourself in a  culture, develop relationships, and create a home for yourself anywhere.  You came as a foreigner and left 3 years later as a local. 

My thanks is not because you wrote and published a book about Philippine basketball. It is because you keep trying to tell the world about us. It is because you are fighting for Philippines to gain the admiration of the rest of the basketball world, totally convinced that if they just take the time, they will also fall in love with us, just like you have.  It is because you are showing the Filipinos around the world that we can be proud of our basketball culture despite not dominating in the global area. It is because you refuse to say anything bad about this country (like the overly crowded MRT) and choosing to see the good and positive side of every situation.  It is because you show no signs of stopping your personal mission to get the basketball world to love the Philippines as much as you do. (like National Geographic's "Pinoy Hoops").

And after all the crappy things that this country has been through in the past decades, you've come and made us realize that our basketball culture, which we took forgranted, is something very special and unique  and this is something to be proud of (and at the same time, telling the Filipino football crabs who try to bring it down to STFU). 

So Maraming Maraming Maraming (tatlong libong) Salamat po, Tio Paeng, and more power to you! 

Sincerely;
Aimee Grace B. Tapeceria 

P.S. On a personal note, I want to thank you for being so nice when we met last August, in the MOA Arena during the FIBA Asia Championships. I remembered shouting at you from the lower box (you were seating behind the ring, in the patron seats). You turned, came close to the edge, and accepted the book that I was asking you to sign. When it since I couldn't take a picture with you, you offered to go out to the lobby to meet me. I thought you already knew who I was, but when you asked for my name (to put in the dedication), you exclaimed "Oh! You're Aimee... sori I didn't recognize you because you look dif from your twitter profile (I was wearing my rarely used eye glasses) and then started to scribbling on the book till you filled up the first page. hehe. Now, I have an awesome super personalized autographed book about Philippine basketball and you can be assured, it will be with me till the day I... (ahem).