Domestic Pride

Weekends are by no means rest-ends for me. Weekends are days of the week that allow me to be human in the tradition of land before time. The time when people were left using devices of nature, doing the most humane of human activities. Well, close.

Sunday mornings I do the laundry from six to nine. I love real sunlight to dry my clothes. Doing the laundry for three hours is better than 3 hours in the gym, and a week of brisk walking. This I think.

I cook our meals on weekends, using ingredients we raise in our backyards and those of our neighbors'. Yesterday, I asked my brother to pick malunggay from our neighbor's tree, and pulled some stalks of lemongrass that my father has successfully grown by the road side, our side. For months he tried to raise it by the jack fruit tree by the creek, but failed. Now, we know lemongrass loves road dust for food. Since we live in a barrio, neighbors share what little they have. You live in a city condo, and you only share the elevators with them.

Also on weekends, I am the in-house nanny of my two nehphews (3 years and 5). I am the resident MTRCB Chief for their benefit. Disney Channel, Cartoon Networks and TV5 are their favorites. TV5? Yeah, TV5. I don't know why. (They call it TV5, not Channel 5.)

The 3-year-old nephew and I were watching Ben10: Destroy All Aliens when a scene came showing this character throwing a bottle into the sea. My nephew, in his 3-year-old high-pitched voice, squeeked: "Tita, nagtapon siya ng bote! Bawal 'yun di ba kase babaha." I rejoined: "Tama. Dapat nagtatapon lang ng basura sa basurahan."

Once, we took the jeepney when suddenly it rained hard. Midway, there was a huge flood with trash of all shapes, colors and sizes floating. My nephew then asked: "Tita, bakit may swimming pool sa daan?" Me: " Kase maraming nagtatapon ng basura na bumabara sa kanal kaya nagbabaha." That followed a kilometric series of "Bakit?" from a kid whose sponge of a mind wants more data than any supercomputer can hold.

Adults, specially the working class, should not "vege" the weekend away. It is during this time, the seventh day, the rest day when God asks us to worship Him. By worship, He meant do something for and with his creation.


Above: The kid named "Bakit?"


The nephew and the Tita horsing around. The kid clicking away his own pictures using my iPad.