By: Iris P. Concepcion
I am not a lte riser. Getting up past 9:00 a.m. gives me lethargic headache. My favorite parts of the day are early nights and dawn break.
I am in new surroundings. My body is not used to a soft mattress. After more than two months of bunking on floors and tiles, this nirvana of cushioned slumber is again, new territory for a malleable body.
I do not eat full breakfast but today I did. I love eggs and its uniqueness to invade itself in culinary gastronomicoscapes (landscape, seascape).
Readers, this morning, I have seen the most gorgeous sunny side-up egg in my entire egg-eating tongue forays. Its shape is perfect; I wish I have a camera to take a shot on this wonder but I had already disposed my camera phone. I paired it with two "tinapa" with sliced tomatoes.
I told the owner of the cafeteria that I could never cook in this manner.
I may have to skip lunch. It is that filling. On the second thought, I may need to chow again.
I miss the newspaper verbal tussles back in the old place at this time. Expletives had already been thrown around this hour. My contribution to the fracas was merely to read the newspapers for free, sharing whatever food I may have with the newspaper guy. If I am badly irked, a sentence or two are vocalized to shush the kibitzers.
Here, comedy is understated. I walked out from the gates today and found a new source of reading haven. I was not scolded for reading the papers. I could not do the browse with coffee though.
I asked the vendor nearby where the public market is. I always go to the markets to view if the magic wand has not waned.
It did not.
It is almost ridiculous as I am used to crappy sights of stale bananas and sweet potatoes. Here, they are fresh and huge. They are likewise stacked neatly. Some are messy, but that is for contrast. I am angered by the ugly electrical cables hanging above but that too shall be repaired.
I thought I had already seen the best of affordable pandesal until I saw a newer variety priced at P3.00 that looked like sumo cheeks. The tomatoes are huge; the "kakanins" are reasonably priced. The normally steeped price of P30.00 per bundle of suman with latik is only P16.00 here.
Weep, oh wicked merchants of hell, manna did fall. Over freshly picked fruits and vegetables. They are no longer reserved for the chosen ones. Even beggars deserve to eat these. I gave my cinnamon bread (those that you get for over P100.00 at coffee stall, I get at P19.00. What raisins!") to a scrap guy who greeted me "good morning" on my way to the market. He returned it, saying it is mine. Here, they are polite.
I said, "No, you can have it."
Perhaps, in all his scavenging life, he had been swamped with food flies. That bread could be his only chance to discover that there is a God of Meals. I adore his dignity of saying "Sa yo po kasi yan Ma'am" when he returned it. How many corrupt men in our society can match this penniless decency?
I am not a saint. I have turned down beggars since they look heftier than my built. But you learn along the way who had truly gone under the weather and who are there merely for bilking. I had experienced extreme hunger with men and women dangling food from a nearby fastfood chain, taunting. I know how it feels like to get demolished and everything is unnerving.
I know now that misappropriation is the work of Satan and these are its effects.
In less than an hour, I know that this present dispensation shall improve electrical meters, faces of public markets, telephone services ( a saw a new PLDT service mobile with Super Mario cartoon giving the thumbs-up and the caption: "We change lives") and how social welfare must truly be laid out. It is not devoted to spa therapy.
Beware when the gifted, moneyed and privileged people do serious social work though. It is not fleeting. It is not for propaganda. It is not for a brochure. They act and do their talk rather than investing enormous resources to planning and recreation. They do it because they have seen it done everywhere in the globe.
I do not even know there is a thing like a National Federation Of Women Clubs in this country. I plan to discover what it does.
The bliss of moving is this: wonders come in small realizations and they, truly, delight.