life is not about what we have

these people got my attention when i was planning to take a photograph of Manila bay from the sea surface. two were searching for something along the sea shore while the other one is with a kid preparing something to be cooked.

since it was a holiday, it looks like they’re on a picnic. so i approached them as i was curious on what they were cooking. there were four of them aside from the other people swimming in the bay.

this is mang Armando. he used to work as an LPG distributor and is currently unemployed.

this is mang Nestor. a construction worker who is usually assigned to a painting job.

and this is mang Lito who they jokingly call Tolits with his son Manuel. he is a jeepney driver in the Makati area.

i decided to chat with them on what they were doing here. like what I guessed, they are indeed on a picnic. while some of the people along the bay are fishing, they were searching for sea shells below the rocks to cook for their lunch. there were dozens of sea shells attached to a soft coral-like net. one by one they remove the shells from it. then they place it on top of a rice cooker cover as a way of cooking these shells.after a few minutes, the cooked shells were transferred to a white bowl. ready to eat. here’s what it looks like inside a cooked shell. mang Nestor ate this piece and so I asked them if they still eat it in times when a red tide occurs. mang Nestor said yes because they don’t have a choice. mang Armando also nodded and even told me that he never experienced getting sick because of eating these shells even when there is red tide. he further explains that these shells actually can cure goiter. hmmm… let me research that.

and since the Philippines is currently encountering rice crisis i asked them how they feel about the sudden increase of its price. they say life becomes harder for them because even the cheapest rice has increased from P18 to P28.

but the three of them agreed that life is still worth living as long as they have their family with them. i asked them “where do you go home?” and they are all from Sta. Ana racetrack area in Makati. ooops! that’s like kilometers away from this place but my amazement was not on the distance alone but it was when they told me that they just walk going to baywalk and back. take note it takes them about two hours to go home. that’s a long distance!

i can’t imagine how special going to baywalk for a picnic is to them. it again simply reminds me that life is not about what we have but it is about how we live life with what we have. these three men tells me what friendship and simple places like baywalk can bring to them.

again it’s about how we live with what we have that will make us appreciate life and to add to this is to recognize who we should honor for what we have.

note: they even brought with them plastics to dispose their garbage. very responsible!