By Chinee Sanchez-PalatinoTHEY are the beautiful receptionists greeting you a warm welcome amid the frigid breeze as you enter Baguio that you cannot but smile back at them. For some visitors however they are like little stars placed in a green sky -- visibly shining still in the midst of a bright sunny day. It is as if you are only an inch away from heaven, they say. On a gloomy, rainy day moreover they are like cheerleaders trying to perk you up.
With its sun-colored petals, one might imagine it is sweetly smiling. It is one of Baguio's trademarks indeed.
Marapait is the local term for the wild sunflowers growing like grass here in Baguio City -- common and abundant. How it got its name is because of its bitter-tasting leaves. Mara is an Ilocano term for "parang" (like, similar to) while pait, as we know it in Filipino means bitter.
But these Marapait are more than just an apple to the eye. For a Baguio local like Manong Larry, the mere sight of it brings him back to his childhood, to the simple pleasures in life and to the Baguio he had known before.
Having stayed here in Baguio for 32 years now, Manong Larry saw Baguio's transformation in the same way the Marapaits served as a witness to it as well. But his memories with the Marapait when he was just eight or so could never be altered. During his elementary years in a public school, he and his classmates used Marapait as floor wax whenever they were to clean the classroom.
"Pinagdodonate kasi kami ng titser namin 'nun ng floor wax," Manong Larry recalls.
But instead of buying one, he and his other classmates just brought stem of Marapait with leaves. They just continuously beat the stem against the floor. A glossy but greenish floor was the result. This obviously left an impression on his memory for they had fun while doing their responsibility.
Since Manong Larry's recollections was in the early 1980s, there where not much commercial toys unlike today where supplies are overflowing.
He and his playmates call the Marapait game tumba-tumba the goal is to "knock-out" the wild sunflower using a stick. Imagining it is an "enemy" they derive joy when the Marapait finally fall down. Insects living in the Marapait area were, in his own words like snowflakes dispersing as they hit the Marapait.
Moreover, that these wild sunflowers have its proven medicinal value is sutured with his memory of the childhood crush who threw stone at him because he was teasing her. He was hit in the forehead that he and his friends rushed at the back of their campus to get some Marapait leaves.With its sun-colored petals, one might imagine it is sweetly smiling. It is one of Baguio's trademarks indeed.
Marapait is the local term for the wild sunflowers growing like grass here in Baguio City -- common and abundant. How it got its name is because of its bitter-tasting leaves. Mara is an Ilocano term for "parang" (like, similar to) while pait, as we know it in Filipino means bitter.
But these Marapait are more than just an apple to the eye. For a Baguio local like Manong Larry, the mere sight of it brings him back to his childhood, to the simple pleasures in life and to the Baguio he had known before.
Having stayed here in Baguio for 32 years now, Manong Larry saw Baguio's transformation in the same way the Marapaits served as a witness to it as well. But his memories with the Marapait when he was just eight or so could never be altered. During his elementary years in a public school, he and his classmates used Marapait as floor wax whenever they were to clean the classroom.
"Pinagdodonate kasi kami ng titser namin 'nun ng floor wax," Manong Larry recalls.
But instead of buying one, he and his other classmates just brought stem of Marapait with leaves. They just continuously beat the stem against the floor. A glossy but greenish floor was the result. This obviously left an impression on his memory for they had fun while doing their responsibility.
Since Manong Larry's recollections was in the early 1980s, there where not much commercial toys unlike today where supplies are overflowing.
He and his playmates call the Marapait game tumba-tumba the goal is to "knock-out" the wild sunflower using a stick. Imagining it is an "enemy" they derive joy when the Marapait finally fall down. Insects living in the Marapait area were, in his own words like snowflakes dispersing as they hit the Marapait.
Of course, they also do the popular "she loves me, she loves me not," picking the petals until there's no more.
Manong Larry had a sudden shift in tone as he recalls how their place in Balsigan looked like before.
But the hills Manong Larry was talking about were now teeming with houses. He said a place near Balsigan was once a vegetable and rose garden but it is now a subdivision.
Bulldozers came and the other areas with a lot of Marapait where flattened and constructed into a road.
As Baguio becomes more and more urbanized, more and more areas are turned in to roads and if not roads residential or commercial lots, more and more Marapaits are cut down as well.
The mushrooming of houses here and there might perhaps be attributed to the growing population of Baguio in relation with its further urbanization.
Sweet smile, bitter taste. In a nutshell, these are the basic characteristics of Marapait. And just like the Marapait, Manong Larry's memories of these wild sunflowers were a mix of the bitter and the sweet. On the other hand, Baguio's continued urbanization is as bitter and as sweet. Today, what is left of the old Baguio, we try to preserve amid developments. For feedbacks and comment please email the writer: Xien81@yahoo.com or text 09174415398. Email Ubbog Cordillera Young Writers at ubbogcordillera@gmail.com.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment