So happily is our nature framed, seeing somebody helping the weak cross a street, like what PCPL Ramon Lahaylahay of Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) precinct Station 4 did, last June 7, rendering aid to a frail elder plod safely on the other street’s side.
Happiest still, is one who makes others happier, as what police officer Noreen Grace Naboye, BCPO precinct Station 4, did last week, handing over a lost cell phone to owner, Mr. Kenneth Barlis, Saint Louis University (SLU) On-the Job-Trainee (OJT) of PEZA, Baguio City.
June 4, BCPO Field Training Officer PMsg. Allan Namolngo (Station 4) discussed with schoolteacher Dogma Siano Yogcayog of Loakan Elementary School the conduct of much-needed lectures for Grade Six pupils. A policeman and teacher, rolled into one.
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To set sight on a clump of soil and cultivate it for planting is, indeed, one gratifying nature of many a highlander in the Cordillera or a lowlander in Region 1.
That close to the truth, a large proportion of Cordillerans and lowlanders, during some measure of their lives while even in conduct of their chosen work for a living, either do, or have the passion to till the soil.
Besides those who are born to the culture of the soil whom we term “gardinero,” and making planting a sole pursuit through life, still, there are Cordillerans and lowlanders who, retiring from their profession, opt to cultivate a patch of land and follow a quiet life – away from public life’s turmoil.
They, having reached the zenith of working for the public – either in government or private sector – retire finally from the anxieties of work, exchanging it for the peaceful cultivation of a piece of land.
But there are those who, despite being in the middle of the anxieties, bustle and vexations of public work, retain the zeal to dirty their hands, cultivate a clump of soil and be happily called, too, “gardinero” in their own right.
And they find balm for the body, mind and soul by snatching a few hours from the calls of professional duty to apply these hours to the grateful pursuit of tilling a clump soil and wishing it productive.
These mortals can raise gardening to a level matched by ardor it becomes infectious afflicting many to follow suit, or else do better.
Ah Kong is referring to such stout-hearted mortals in the likes of merry fellows, Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan and City Councilor Leandro Yangot, whose prime life and middle ages have passed between crafting laws for the good of Baguio, between the hopes and gains of its residents.
Domogan and Yangot have been able to mingle with their professional labors the call to the exercise of gardening, or proffer the pursuit of simple agriculture at home.
Proof? Both fully support urban gardening in Baguio City.
Such support has its spine in the Baguio City Council Resolution No. 035, series of 2017 providing for annual conduct of urban farmers’ month while Ordinance No. 17, series of 2018, provides funding to bankroll activities.
Said legislative measures were authored by Councilor Yangot, chair, City Council Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture.
Domogan and Yangot were responsible in the effort to create Baguio City’s Agriculture Division.
For the very first time, believe Ah Kong, this ridiculous specimen of a human being who loves poking fun at everybody, when he says a garden has a point because when we cultivate a clump of soil, we’re digging beneath the hard, crusty and cantankerous surface of our lives and wishing for our lives to grow.
It’s merely what Domogan meant when he recently said about urban gardening, “It will reduce the number of lazy people in our city.”
Mildly said by Domogan but it, however, packs a message.
What good Manong Mauricio was merely saying is about a lesson gardening can teach : bother to plant by trying to find a way to do it; it will help provide for ourselves – without ever diminishing yourself or your stature.
Manong Mauricio was intimating that be it (your little garden) at the back of your house, sides of your walls or by the shoulders of your house, gardening offers a range of challenges that can spur one to settle your physical discord of merely doing nothing.
If one wants it said closest to the truth, well, Ilocanos have a way of saying about doing nothing: “Ayna, kabsat, kinasadut laeng ti gapu na nu apay ti maysa ket kuna na di na ammo ti ag-mula.”
It reminds of a time when a lady acquaintance, a lazy bone, just like Ah, said, “Ammom, Ah, addu raket (dubious schemes) dita nga pang-gedan, saan laeng nga panag-garden.”
This friend went on to reveal that she transformed herself into a “hilot,” without certification from the Department of Health –Cordillera Administrative Region (DOH-CAR) and charged customers for services like: hilot nu napilay ka – 500 pesos; simple a masahe – 300 pesos; masahe para masikog – 800 pesos.
Adda pay espesyal serbis na. Dagiti espesyal serbis na ket nu kayat mu makulam diay tsismosa a kaarubam, agbayad ka 3,000 pesos; ken nu kayat mu nga magayuma ti maysa a lalaki wenno babae, agbayad ka 4,999 pesos (spesyal diskawnt).
Whether her dubious scheme was swallowed by the public, she kept mum. One day, Ah asked, “kumusta ngay ti racket mo, eh?”
She sighed and answered, “Mapanak laengen maki-garden ti patatas idiay Buguias; nasaysayaat pay. Kesa diay ming-mingmingan dika ti pulis nga adda araramidem nga saan nga nasayaat.”
For home gardening or urban gardening is like an art of the mind of making life a comfort by making alive a clump of soil and helping dismember kinasadut.
And if one makes a mistake in designing home garden, one can re-design it.
Unlike a lawyer, nu nagkamali, preso ti cliente; ti engineer, nu nagkamali, collapse ti building; ti padi, nu nagkamali, impierno ti awid; ni titser, nu nagkamali, erase lang diay chalkboard; ti doctor, nu nagkamali, paktay si pasyente.
Datayu, nu nagkamali tayu ti inmula idiay garden, ay ket darling, sukatan a, ta agmula manen.
Ah, who believes it’s better to lie on the grass, open his mouth and wait for the fruit to fall upon his mouth rather than climbing up the tree to gather the fruit, was many times berated by the Missus for kinasadut. Missus kept howling at Ah to mend his ways and let his hands and mind work.
Well, since man can’t raise his voice against a wife, God has allowed Ah to snore his dreams delight and his kinasadut, all night. But Ah’s Missus won’t have such sitting down and warned if he ain’t going to learn to grow something on discarded cans, containers and the like, he may as well live lonely by his lonesome, because he’s going to lose a wife.
So Ah applied one day for a gardening job in a very large farm somewhere in San Jose, California, US.
At the US Embassy for the visa interview, the US officer asked, “Where to in the US?”
Ah: “San Jose, California.”
US Officer: “It’s pronounced as San Hosey. Letter J is pronounced as H in the US, understand?”
Ah: “Oh, okay, okay.”
US Officer: “Why do you want to go to San Hosey?”
Ah: “Because I am hobless (jobless) and will seek work there to hustify (justify) my staying in US.”
US Officer: “So how long do you plan to be in San Josey?”
Ah: “From Hanuary (January) to Hune June) or Huly (July).”
Ah’s visa was downright rejected.
Like Yangot and Domogan, determined to make urban farming in the city a fruitful endeavor while valuing their native agricultural dignity, we, like the two gentlemen, would prefer to lord it over a clump of soil with nobody to please but your own souls, compared to the grinds that are apt to enter so largely into professional, political, mercantile and other works.
Honest labor is all that a clump of soil requires, and it yields a due return, and as Domogan and Yangot have shown so, no favors dearly purchased with the surrender of your dignity, honor, independence and mortal feelings.
No mortal can say of urban gardening, “I have served a faithless master.” No, no one can say that. The truth lies among tillers of the soil who’ll tell you gardening is honest toil, naked beauty and you, the gardinero master of ceremony.
Plant something even in that little space and we – like Domogan, Yangot and other urban gardeners – find out that plants, even when deformed never hide it but willingly show their unique and naked beauty – like Mother Nature, mistress of ceremony, never smiles to betray the toiling gardinero.
