taupo

It was another one of those "Taupo" chimes at the gate. On a typical day there is no less than one and no more than three. ["Taupo" is the greeting by someone coming to the gate and/or door]. 

This time it was a man and son. They interacted as if they were related at least. From their tagalog I understood "Carton". They were pointing at the boxes. I pick one up and ask, "ito?" and he gleefully replies, "all obe dem!". One was the box used to package and wrap the clothes drying rack we had purchased at Greenhills, several other small ones ...and it was all in the large balikbayan box that had tons of onion powder spilled all over inside. So I showed him and told him "onion powder" and he replies, "it's ok!" with smiling enthusiasm. 

Back in the house I went feeling so satisfied someone was so willing to take it off my hands. For the next five to ten minutes I could hear them jibber jabber about the onion powder and what sounded like, in their poverty limited mindset, big plans and ideas of what they were going to do with these boxes. All that while neatly folding down the boxes and then using the leftover plastic twine to tightly package it for foot transport.

Then they started off yelling back at the house "Thank-you Po!". They walked away with a skip in every step and jovial jibber jabber as if they'd hit the jackpot. For them, it was the jackpot. Since that day, we've had other visitors happy to relieve us of empty boxes on our front porch. Our trash ....their treasure.

Like ·  ·  · Share · Edit · Promote · 16 August

• Christy Hayes, Dorreen Perez, Amy Lafleur and 24 others like this.
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  Barbara Cummings Kim, you have a gift of writing. I enjoy your " blogs". :)

  16 August at 19:35 · Like · 1
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  Lei De Jesus i agree :) thanks for sharing!

  16 August at 19:39 · Like
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  Ana B Canuel I miss philippines so much.. specially yhe street food the taho in the morning, mais ( corn on the cob) in the afternoon and balut at night...

  16 August at 21:55 · Like
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  Sue Rurka Ferguson 1 Sam. 2:8 "He/She lifts the poor from the dust-- Yes, from a pile of ashes-- And treats them as princes sitting in the seats of honor. For all the earth is the Lord's And he has set the world in order." ♥

  17 August at 09:02 · Like · 1
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  KimberLee Voss Medlin Ana, we like the puto vendor a lot...but some of the other vendors are too fast on their bikes. I don't know what they are selling. So, I take a bike up to our village shopping area to get my suman and biko......etc

  18 August at 18:14 · Like
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  Ana B Canuel Lol they're also selling puto at night. I remember the vendor also yelling 'puuttttoooo' hahaha! I dk if they have one there. They're riding a bike also.. hehe!

  18 August at 23:20 · Like