Ghosts of Childhood

(featuring the flowers of Antique, Philippines)


August 30 was a National Heroes' Day, therefore a national holiday. On August 27, my family left our house in the city for a long-weekend at my parents' place in Antique. Borrowing my father's digital point-and-shoot, i went around taking macro shots of the common weeds, flowers, trees -- plants! -- found in our residential lot and in our farm land across the river. 

My knowledge in basic biology came handy.

I wish though i knew how to take landscape photographs but the point and shoot is limiting and much as i wanted to, the stitched panorama i took were not what i wanted. 

On the bus on the way home, I told Keith of the my dream shots. this part requires a separate post. So here...now...are the plants of Antique in their boldest form:

Unidentified ornamental plant.

Unidentified but very common weed. 

Young corn with blazing hair.

si-o si-o. Thought to be the chinese lantern (Physalis alkekengi) plant but most chinese lantern plants i saw were red. this barely gets orange when ripe. or maybe it depends on the variety?  

  

unidentified grass

baho baho (tagalog: lantana; kantutay) (english: coronitas) (Lantana camara L.)

squash -- the fruit -- field. and beyond that, the Sibalom River.

String beans. With pickers. 
These string beans landed on our plates that night -- and eventually inside our stomach.

Unidentified grass usually found in the river banks.

Withered flower of an unidentified grass.

Red kulitis in its perfect adaptation form.

Flower and a miniature fruit of the garangan (tagalog: balimbing) (english: star fruit)
(Averrhoa carambola)

Flower of the batwan/batuan tree (tagalog: binukau) (Garcinia binucao).

Used to make dishes sour (like how some people use the tamarind).

Buds of the mansanilya flower (Chrysanthemum indicum)

 

Flower of the shrub tugabang (tagalog: saluyot) (english: jute) (Corchorus capsularis L.). 
Also a favorite vegetable.

Wax begonia, the pink variety (Begonia semperflorens)

My mother tells me this is also begonia but really?
Kinda bears no resemblance from that pink wax begonia above.

            

Flower and leaves of this vine are very similar to ampalaya (Momordica charantia) -- similar in taste too! -- but apparently this is not a bitter gourd judging by its orange fruit (not to mention that it looks much closer to a puffer fish than the actual bitter gourd).

Remaining flower parts of the plant we call "marya marya". 
Its round fruits are as big as the typical marbles, usually green, and turns to orange when ripe. 
Collecting and eating the marya marya fruits during summer is a big part of most Antique's kids' childhood.

Kasla (Jatropha curcas)

Unidentified plant

Alusiman (english: Purslane) (Portulaca olearacea L.) -- but this needs to be verified further

Unidentified grass

Will have to recall the name of this tree

Kulitis (english: Amaranth) (Amaranthus spinosus L.). One of my favorite vegetables.

Called "bariri"and when you search this scientific names comes out: Panicum stagninum Retz. 

I have a feeling it's not it.

Okra (english: lady fingers) (Hibiscus esculentis)

C-o-c-o-n-u-t! (Cocos Nucifera)

Monggo/Munggo (english: mung bean) (Vigna radiata)

flower of the corn

2 kinds of Zea Mays.

Corn field. When i took this shot, the farmer is out there, harvesting some corns for us. 
the corn, just like the string beans, landed on our plates and inside our stomach later that day.








Fin.

summit

just a little background on my present job (in two months, it will be my "previous" job):

Our Project Team organized a transport summit (yes, if you click on the link it will take to the Holy Land --- nah, I'm bursting your bubbles. But seriously? you'd like to be transported to the Holy Land?) for MIGEDC on August 20, 2010.

I have been nervous about this since june 2010 because of the amount of work (that will ultimately including sleepless nights and impossible deadlines to beat!!) I imagined i'd do.

Fortunately the staff of the project management office were kind enough to assist us (meaning my boss and I) with the faxing of invitation and the confirmation of attendance. The speakers were also kind enough to keep in touch even with their own very busy and tight schedule.

One event out, one more to go: the Advanced Traffic Administration Course (which will be conducted by the UP-NCTS (yes, again the link will transport you to the -- site of NCTS :D) on September 20-24 -- limited pre-determined slots!) and off to maybe a month's vacation (read: finish my memoir, help alfredo finally publish that collection of memoirs from the Wide White Space writing workshop, help liby make that proposal to NCCA, and yes, help myself get some money for graduate school).

And after the memoir is done, some reflecting whether to proceed to MaURP (and coerce my close friend and fellow DURP, Miriam, to start on her thesis) or to TRY HARD to get into the S.P.R.I.N.G program of Dortmund University (who knows, i'd get lucky?) :D

pedestrians are road users too.

Our driver made a comment yesterday that really bothered me:


"Our government sure love to spend millions for a jogging space," he said, reiterating what he heard on the radio earlier.


It was about the boardwalk (not to be confused with the Iloilo Boardwalk complex). The local radio station has been lambasting the local government about not opening that stretch of road to vehicular traffic.

Taking the safe side, I explained that that road is not really supposed to be used as any ordinary thoroughfare. That 2-lane space is in an easement that should not be opened to regular traffic, nor should it be used as an alternate route. AND, I still feel that if there's a way for us not to use easements to build our homes, our restaurants, our stores and our roads on, we should go ahead keeping it an open, free space. There is a reason for it's “non-use”.

Secondly, I don't really feel we need wider roads than the roads that we have now, nor do we need more roads within the city. Circumferential roads, yes, i agree to that because it will largely reduce the need to go through the city as much of our adjacent LGUs are not "safely" connected to each other. Safely, meaning, the roads that connect them are more often narrow dirt roads devoid of street lamps and other road safety devices. It;s even more dangerous during rainy season because pot holes could go as deep as the center of the earth.

Didn't anyone ever think of "regulation"? You know, where you regulate the number of cars on the road, or maximize the use of these cars. And i don't mean number coding because that has been proven ineffective for long term application. High occupancy vehicle. safe, comfortable, convenient and efficient public transportation. walkable blocks--o lazy people won't need to ride a jeep to get to the place they want to go, three small blocks away.

But the driver didn't buy it. He told me, "Why build a road in the first place--if you won’t open it to vehicular traffic?"

"Well, because that road is not a road for that kind of traffic. It's built so that the engineers can conveniently access the area for regular maintenance. It is not for people like you to use," I explained, keeping the last sentence to myself.

"Because you see,” he continued, “if it is opened, it won’t be subjected to heavy traffic because only private cars will use it. There's no franchise for public jeepney serving that route. It will certainly reduce the traffic congestion in the major roads." 

Says who?

Sex, Lies and Education

It was supposed to be just like any ordinary day: me being constantly barraged by questions I don’t want to answer but is forced to being the one and only slave in the universe of educated people. I have to entertain questions and comments about Kris Aquino and react to every angry statement on GMA. 

But no, this day chose to be different. S/He blurts s/he is disgusted by the way the Education Department makes a lot of fuss about sex education. I braced myself. I know where s/he stands in this given her/his straight Roman Catholic background and his/her deeply-rooted belief in marriage and things related to it. 

“Well, they should.” 

Shit, wrong answer. Instead of ending the conversation I got the biggest look of surprise from her/him. You’re one stupid girl, Rej, how could you forget s/he asked you not too long ago about your family devotion. What?? Don’t the 3-pierced left ear and my lack of holy figure in the desk give away my distaste for any form of organized religion? I thought you were into typecasting? 

“Well, isn’t sex education the role of the parents in the first place?”

HUWAATT??? I should sue my parents. Apparently they shortchanged me, neglecting their primary duty to educate me on sex. No, they didn’t give me no sex education at all. I got all my sex education from 90’s rock and roll, MTV and DH Lawrence.

table manners.

when i eat i want to be left alone.

eating is  a very personal thing and intruding in one's eating routine is crass. pure crass.

that is why when i eat i hate to be bullied to eating this food that i don't want to eat. like pork for example. or beef. or getting an extra serving of everything. I will eat the food that i want to the pace that i am comfortable at. So i wish you'd just stop commenting on how i chew my food very well before i swallow it. so i will also stop commenting on how fat you are and how you'd consumed so much in a blink of my eye.

when i eat, even if we eat together, i'd like you to treat me as a completely different entity and not an extension of you stomach. why does it pleases you so much stuffing me with food? and why does it surprise you when i say i am already full? didn't you ever think my reason for turning down your offer is because i do not want to eat your food?

when i eat i don't want you nagging me to eat some more. or complain to me for the lack of napkin. or for the lack of kalamansi that is already on the bowl to your left, ready to swallow you whole. look for things with your eyes, not with your fucking mouth. why do you always have to do everything with your mouth? are you orally fixated? i'm anal retentive, in case you'd like to know. I don't think we are a good combination.

i don't even nag my husband about eating his eating habits because i don;t want him nagging me about it, too. i don't dump food on his plate, because darling, really, it's bad manners to be dumping food on the plate of somebody who did not ask for it. did you even ask me if i was vegetarian? NO. it's like you just assumed i have a religious devotion because you also have it. all people are not like you. and neither am i.

you know for a fact that making generalized conclusion will lead to a general mistake. unless your study wants to establish conclusions across all culture and ages, but you very well know, too that you can therefore not make specific judgments if you do that. i don't believe in god. i don't to church.i don't believe in marriage and did i ever tell you that? no, because it is rude to talk or ask about somebody's religion, more so, conclude that she is catholic. and knit your eyebrows when she say she isn't.

you're just rude.

please do not make an issue out of leftovers. it's not my fault that i can;t finish what you gave me. I didn't ask for it. you just gave me. you didn't ever hear my NOOOO.