My early monday morning today...

I am an NPA - no permanent address.  Ever since the family moved to Cavite,  I have been living in several areas in Manila nearest to my place of work.  When the company moved to Ortigas, I rented a room together with 2 friends in Mandaluyong.  When we went further north and moved to Libis, I decided to move in with my sister and her family in Commonwealth.  Then I went back to Makati, I now live with my other sister and her family who rents an apartment in Las Pinas.  Even on weekends, I live semi permanently with my youngest sister in her house which she bought via PAGIBIG in a subdivision near our parents' house.  As she is a single parent, I accompany her on weekends while my father stays with her on weekdays.  Plus, I also enjoy the peace and quiet of her place as our other abode where my parents' stay isn't exactly a quiet one but nonetheless homey with my parents living there.

Mondays. I would usually be coming from Dasmarinas, Cavite.  I wake up at 430am and make sure that I am out of the house by 530am.  This is to beat the traffic during  Mondays which seems to triple along this specific route from the South to Makati. I swear I can die bored, worried and just exasperated while waiting for the traffic to ease up.

My commute would start with a short P7 trike ride to the main road then another short P7 jeepney ride to where the vans cue going to Makati.  I don't know what so special about this morning but I seemed to have a sentimental encounter with the Filipino culture as I was riding the jeepney.  You see, from our place is an adjacent major wet market in Cavite called Kadiwa. So early in the morning you don't necessarily indulge in the quiteness of this odd hour.  It is actually about a 10-minute bout of riding in a slow moving jeepney that  hopes to fill its seats with passengers from the wet market (needless to say, it involves a fleet of jeepneys with the same purpose in mind stretching the usual 2-minute ride or less passing through that section to 10 minutes) and a fervent wish that none of their pales or baskets with wet goodies touch my pants (if you know what I mean).

Anyway, this morning, it was a bit different.  I actually enjoyed watching the people from the wet market with their pales and baskets of merchandise as they were boarding the jeepney.  There was a couple and an elderly woman who caught my attention.  Both have more than their hands can handle but, nonetheless, comfortably seated as if none of these things matter.  Far from me as whenever I commute from SM with bags that more than my hands can carry, I would try to tie everything up so that I can still hold on to them while eagerly waiting to reach my destination.

The woman had her back on her husband's breast, leaning lovingly on him and her husband sitting sturdily with one hand on the handle bar as if to make sure he was being a strong support to her wife.  The elderly woman beside me, with all the white hairs, wrinkles and a seemingly frail body, defied what was obvious with the way she strongly paced herself and gazed around her as if she could see things a mile away.  I saw these and pondered upon these things and I realized, how Filipino this scene before me was.  It brought back memories of childhood when my mother would go to the market beating the sun to its rising as she would be back at home just before it starts beaming.  I would remember the satisfaction in her face as if she nailed something really good that day. 

I felt the same way again this morning.  Seeing these people done with their marketing early in the morning when most would still be asleep.  An air of triumph hovered as I see them seated on the jeepneys with all their pales and baskets in place.  Nope, none of these brushed my pants, thank the Lord!  But I thank God more for their faces and how much it felt good just seeing how wonderful they looked having done with this chore early in the morning.

It must have been the jeepney's interior lightning... but  they really looked  and it really felt so dramatically good this morning having seen this very Filipino slice of life.