People make adjustment…
I felt bad that today I had to reschedule meeting with a friend for the second time. My friend calmed me down in car after spending morning together. I told her that now I’m being an Indonesian who could not make up mind because things changed unpredictably. Yes, I might have made too much commitments today that I ended up mess things up.
It’s all about miscommunication. My friend said she’s going to look after our jewelry in her mahjong meeting but later she also expected me to come too. I knew that she expected me to try playing so she could include me next time I visit Manila again. It’s a good intention for sure but I was also told that I had to go with other friends at 16:00. That’s when I realized that I could not be in three places within 3 hours so I decided to just do one thing at a time.
My friend and I had at least a nice sweaty morning in a museum in Makati that held a textile fair this weekend. It was so hot outside in the museum patio. Like often, seeing other culture’s crafts is fun. Filipino work a lot with plant fiber like pineapple (pina) and banana (abaca) that both form stiff material. For me, they are nice to see but not to wear while in the Philippines the national costume is made of pina. Also, expensive clothes for party. The idea of wearing pina for top makes me feel ‘drown’ while my Dutch friend thought she will look much bigger. Yes, not easy.
Since we didn’t intend to accumulate stuff we cannot use in household or daily, we were quite selective in shopping. Some nice ikats on abaca were about 25 yard long that we didn’t know what to do if we don’t have mezzanine to hang it all the way down. It’s good in a way because then we could hardly shop! I bought colorful palm-leaf mat made by the Bajaus through a fair-trade organization. I haven’t studied the ethnic group map in the Philippines so I have no idea yet where those people live. It must be near ocean since the label mentioned about sea-dwelling people.
And our mutual good friend in Jakarta also had a stall selling her product made of recycled plastic bags. It’s her new line after she moved ‘back’ to Manila some three years ago. She was the first who had the idea to sew polyethylene packaging of household cleaning agent in Jakarta years ago. Her creation became trend that many organizations copied the idea. I remember she said that she made no issue out of it because for one the activity is good for the environment since more people will recycle the imperishable trash. And secondly, it's good for her so she has to keep creating. In Manila she applied different way of recycling the poly-trash. She formed a community of women in poor areas to crochet out of plastic bag strips.
We admired the designs and color combination. We examined almost all purses and shopping bags to have a good look of the work and admire the intricate design. It’s another fair-trade product that the revenue goes back to the community. I like the idea that each bag has tag mentions the name of the craftsman. My friend has become familiar with the names hung on each bag and their works. Like designers' handbags, the name also carries certain character to the product. Since we didn’t meet our friend so we speculated who might have selected the color combination. We know that our friend must be the one behind the design development as said in the website.
Our friend is special. I have admired her since I knew her years ago in Jakarta. Her imperishable energy is so inspiring also her spirit to teach community crossing different cultures and languages. Heard she is going back to the US in near time because her husband is retired. That’s sad. Developing countries need her. Or, maybe it’s also good to have other from our own community to take over the spirit.
Davao woman demonstrated how to weave in the fair.