Memoirs of an Abaca Bag...

You never know what a time as short as three days could do to your life. Imagine a weekend in your life, in this case, a friday, a saturday and a sunday. Friday: you do your usual routine in school, go home after class, bum around at home, and sleep when you get tired (of not getting tired.) Saturday: either you have class at school or you go to the mall and hang around with some friends or you bum around at home, keep the temperature of the television rising and sleep when you get tired (of not getting tired.) Sunday: you go to church(?), go to the mall, or bum around at home and sleep when you get tired (of not getting tired.) When you've done all these things and the monday comes, you feel that nothing happened within those three days. it seemed so short and wasted.

Luckily for me, i just spent one of the most educating three days of my life. It was last Monday when me (mafe) and leslie went to the APFTI office for the first day of our practicum. Sir Ronald gave us an orientation (an overview about the organization). I realized that there are much more to be learned from one piece of an abaca bag than how much it costs. A jar of bagoong encompasses more lives than we can imagine.Behind a nito basket are the loss and triumph, hope and despair, persistence and resignation, laughter and tears of all the people who poured out all they could give for that one piece of a tray. A mat depicts a culture, a belief, a set of values, a group of people we don't even recognize and we don't even bother think about.

Yesterday, April 18, we went to the Manila F.A.M.E. held at the World Trade Center. The exhibits were so amazing. While i was inside, it was as if i entered an entirely different world. A world where artistry matters, creativity directs lives, and living means honing your skills. Everything was spectacular. But because i was quite aware of the stories of each item displayed there, i couldn't help but think of what lies behind that spectacle. International buyers were walking to and fro, touching and feeling the texture of the items, filling their eyes with the colors and elegant designs. i wonder if they even realize that once they touch a bag, they are actually touching the very hands of the people who made it and as they look at the designs they are actually looking at the very eyes of those who spent an entire day staring at that item. I was astonished at how a piece of abaca bag bridges the gap between the poverty that the producers endure and the wealthy lives of the buyers.

There was an abaca bag that caught my attention in one of the booths. Now i wonder, what do three days mean to the father, or mother, or daughter, or son who made it.

- mafe