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Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Using rope, basket, Capitol vendors sell food thru window
By Lorenzo P. Niñal
ONLI in da Pilipins, the Cebu Provincial Capitol in particular.
With the ban against vendors inside the Capitol building, small-time entrepreneurs and office workers solve the problem with something truly Pinoy. They use rope, straw or string, at the end of which a basket is tied to hoist food and drink items through the window, veranda or wherever the customer happens to be holding office at the second floor.
The method works in the same way one scoops water from a deep well, only there’s someone below who refuses to deliver the goods unless the one upstairs pays first. A suki is afforded utang privileges.
It’s Capitol’s literal version of the pababa-pataas ingenuity, an employee joked.
Business reaches its peak at lunchtime. Hungry after sitting all morning, an office worker takes the rope-and-basket contraption out of its hiding place in the office, goes to the window, cranes his neck out and shouts his orders to the vendor belowS.
“Humba usa, kinilaw usa, half rice, unya mineral,” an office worker last week yelled down her cravings.
“Pila imong kuwarta, mam?” the vendor yelled back. The employee dropped the basket with the money, careful not to let go of her end of the rope, otherwise the vendor spends precious time throwing the rope back up.
The vendor received the basket, took the payment and placed the orders there along with the change. The customer pulled the rope up, took her food from the basket and placed the basket-and-rope equipment back to its nook in the office.
“Ugma na pud mam ha. Magda ko’g manggang hilaw,” the vendor shouted, and moved to the next window.
(October 7, 2003 issue)
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