Posted by: philouise on: March 1, 2009
And in time, we are a-changing
Baguio’s landscape continues to change. Rose Dulnuan opening Jack’s Restaurant-Baguio in Session Road, is a welcomed change. Now that would be another place to sit enjoying the food and watching people passing by. The place is beautiful, catering to the preference of people in business, leisure and the die-hard Jack’s rice eaters. Having seen the place while it was being completed, I say the change could only be done by an expert and one who beholds beauty. My parents and the Dulnuans were co-boarders in Trinidad in older days and amazingly the family friendship continue to the next generation as Rose and I were part of the core group that started AYIP in the 1980s. AYIP families seem to come from previous relationship of families spilling to the next generations specially that of the core group Ruben Tinda-an, Jerome and Au Gawidan, Nestor Caoili, Diman Felipe and the Bawingans, Abalos, Malingans, Bataclao, Saidro and others. It is a hope that it will continue to the next generation as well.
An early morning walk in Burnham Park gives the feeling that once again the park is maximized with the celebration of Panagbenga. The skating rink and the bicycle area converted into the market encounter. Aside from plants there seems to be a lot of wares for sale being delivered while joggers and walkers zigzag around to avoid them. When we were kids my parents would bring us there after Sunday worship, with a picnic basket and we would play in the Children’s park and run around the lake. Back then my brothers would shine shoes and sell newspaper on Saturdays and sometimes will bring me or my other sisters to the double showing movies or a boat ride in the lake. I remember then that we would be splashing water on each other, but today life in the lake deteriorated to the point that we prevent kids to even touch the water. The lake came alive with the Phantom of the Opera.
When we were kids, Burnham would abound with peddlers only during sports competitions in the Athletic bowl. Now peddlers seem permanent fixtures of the park. It reflects the state of the city as a market area. Anywhere we go, we encounter people selling in street corners, sidewalks, parks, jeepney stations, bus stops and stations, waiting sheds, overpass, corridors of buildings almost anywhere you turn there is someone selling something. Baguio may be gaining a new name – ultimate palengke.
After my morning walk in Burnham I headed to the market, it is much cleaner than it was years ago. My mother had a stall in Hanger Market before and I and my siblings would spend some of our weekends and summer vacations helping in the market. That is how we get our extra monies as mom was generous as she sees us helping out. Unfortunately, it seems that market kids are now haulers not helpers, are they uncared for and left to fend for themselves?
Going out of the fruit section of the market I got inside a taxi, just vacated. The driver was a young man, a student who drives for his tuition fee, a book beside his seat and a school idea inserted. I gave him extra when I paid, remembering mom who would give us extra money for helping out.
Nature and culture cannot be stagnant engraved in stone and left untouched and un touching. Culture is a phenomenon of change. To keep culture alive, it adapts to the times where it continue to touch people’s present and future keeping the core values and the meaning of life in each change it adapts.
(philian weygan, February 28,2009)
