Howa's Bayongs

Noemi Lardizabal-Dado's blog about I'm Not Plastic venture inspired me to showcase my mama Susan's bayongs. See my picasaweb slideshow.



The Story Behind Howa's Bayongs

My mom, called Howa (baby talk for Lola) by her grandchildren, 3 out of 4 of them mine, is a very creative and resourceful lady. She was into recycling stuff way before environmentalism became a fad. Well of course it wasn't because she wanted to save Mother Earth even then. It was more of the need to save some money for our family's basic necessities. Being a working mother (she was a teacher) to four children in the late seventies and early eighties was difficult especially on a tight budget. To make both ends meet, she reused and recycled.

I remember her keeping old spiral notebooks when a schoolyear ends to collect and stitch the blank pages with colored strings. These later became our new notebooks for the following year. Two years ago, when my own daughter entered pre-school and I renewed my interest with school stuff, I saw notebooks sewn with different colored strings on display at the National Bookstore. It reminded me of our grade school notebooks and seeing them brought a smile to my face as I salute my mom, an ahead-of-her-time environmentalist.

Fast forward to 2007, my mama has long been retired from teaching and now stays in Baguio. Living in the mountain city and having an environmental daughter (my sister, Lala, not me) ignited the bayong passion in her. Thanks to the Balik-Bayong Campaign and my sister's constant reminders to keep her out of plastics. When mama learned about the bayong campaign, she went out and bought one for herself but she didn't just purchased it. She jazzed it up and actually used it in the market. The vendors noticed her designs and remarked how pretty her bayong was. That motivated her and led her to design another one that she gifted me for my birthday.



When my daughters saw my gift from Howa, they asked her "E asan yung sa akin." So what can a lola do but buy more bayongs and decorate it with old ribbons, clips and ponytails. Each one lovingly and uniquely handmade:











PS: I had to add this bayong in the roll because Trinity cried when she saw that I did not include hers. I told her it was because she was still redecorating it. She really is putting more bead necklaces and ribbons to this one.

About me

I am living a third life. One that is spent not for myself nor my country, but a life devoted to my own family. I am weighed but found wanting, materially speaking, that is. But am proud to say that my mind and spirit soar higher than airplanes. I dare not say spacecraft because the space beyond this planet is not where I would choose to live. I am full of love, comprehension, optimism and faith. I no longer have problems, for I no longer see them as such. I consider problems as givens like traffic or drying grains in roads meant for buses and cars. I believe in change and empowerment: Rural women moving beyond winnowing or mending nets to getting involved in effecting social change. Men learning to change diapers and perfecting the art of listening and crying. I found time to stop and smell the roses and in doing so, I also found time to marvel at their beauty,to witness their cycle of life and death and to reflect on the wonders that they reveal in their own sweet time. I have changed roles but I know, like everything else, that it won't be permanent. My only wish is to be prepared and steadfast when the time to move to a fourth life beckons.

Down Came the Rain... and the Nasal Mucus Too

After much cloud-seeding and artificial rains, the natural ones arrived and soaked our province. Three typhoons came and went in a span of two weeks. The good news are, there is enough irrigation for the new rice paddies and the typhoons didn't carry signal number 4.

Now, the bad news... the health problems that struck me and my family due to these rainy days could very well be signal number 2. Not a soul was spared, not even me. I, who have always been proud to claim high resistance to most illnesses. Last year when everyone in my family caught the flu virus, yes, including the two kids, I only sneezed for a day or two. But this year is different. Well, at least, no one's got the flu virus yet but believe me, everyone is barking out loud especially in the early morning and at night time. My two daughters found humor from it that they made me listen to their coughs one at a time. Sounded like an off-note DO-RE-MI, which was why I also found it funny.

The youngest was our first casualty, he has been coughing for almost two weeks now. Hey, bring the eyebrows down, I had him checked-up last week right after he had the fever. The diagnosis? Bronchiolitis. The prescription, amoxicillin drops and one week of nebulizing solution. The fever's gone, the cough remains and has transferred to his elder sisters and much older yayas. I guess the virus that I have now must have originated from him. One pediatrician told me that virus from babies are more lethal. Must be true, what do you think?


I am not the type to take medicines for cough and colds. I prefer to just take lots of water and juices and expectorate the phlegm as hard as I can. I caught the colds virus last Sunday and by Tuesday, I already used two rolls of bathroom tissue to unstuff my nose. Now I knew what Rudolph and those other red-nosed babies in TV commercials feel. Ariel and Maverick of that other anti-colds drug commercial should be commended for telling the truth, at least about that part saying when your nose fails, your ears do too. I can't smell the bathsoap, the chlorox and the cologne. When I went to the office last Monday, I didn't smell the carbon monoxide nor the piles of garbage along the road. But I also didn't smell the aroma of Jollibee chickenjoy, so I settled for the dalandan juice instead.

Unlike my capacity to smell, my hearing didn't suffer much. Yes, I had to turn on the volume of the TV but thanks to text messaging I didn't have to listen to phonecalls.

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Me and my children and the yayas declared our own holiday... err more appropriately called... sick leaves since Thursday. I brought the kids back to the pediatrician and found out that they're not only having the simple cough and colds, they're having their allergic rhinitis and asthma attacks. Goodbye P2,000 for the PF and the medicines.

Last night, while I lie in bed thinking about my children's health problems (more my problem than theirs really) I suddenly understood why moms and dads make a big fuss when their children waste their lives like when they smoke or take drugs or simply bum away. Parents (like me now) do everything in their own powers to extend the lives of their children, biologically and philosophically.It's must be really frustrating to see that very life wither away when the kids are big enough to live their their own.

Hah, I hope my children reads this blog when they've grown enough to understand it. I will keep this and give it to them when they go to college, the age of smoking and bumming away.