Saturday, November 08, 2008 Sleepless in Carbon By Ober Khok Sira-sira store
SOME people start their day at the crack of dawn—that hour when it’s more night than day, the sky still dark as black plums—and log in more than 14 hours of business in the city’s old market.
Carbon Market never seems to sleep, for how could it?
It thrives on merchants of Venetian blinds made of coconut leaf midribs, on fish or vegetable vendors, on people who tend stores that offer anything from medicinal herbs to fashion accessories to clothing to home decors and even to the hope of beauty through mysterious concoctions sold in brown bottles.
The sheer effort of the Cebuano to survive the onslaught of rising fuel oil price and an unstable economy keeps the marketplace wide awake.
Oh, without saying, this dingy hub of commerce is where Cebu City procures the ingredients for the day’s meal.
Don’t ask how the pork sausages were made. Innocence in the ways of the world not only gives you sound sleep, it also makes you finish your sausages to the last bite with gusto.
More than a food basket, Carbon extends its offerings to creature comforts, like wooden beds, cabinets, rattan living room sets, and flowers for weddings, birthdays and burials.
Sleepless in Carbon are the weary-eyed entrepreneurs who are willing to sell their souls to the devil just to pay off the debts they incurred from usurious money lenders.
Five-six, they call this deal.
Translated, that means that if you borrow P5, at the end of the day you need to pay the lender P6. Compounded monthly, that’s 30 percent—way beyond what’s legal. But the transaction will go on so long as people continue to face the bitter world with aplomb and a smile, and hold on to the dream of a better life.
Eyes still holding traces of sleep and mind still wondering how the sweet dream would have ended had life not interrupted, the denizens of Carbon Market force their bodies to get dressed and go to work.
With expert motion, they stir the wood fire to life or click open the gas range to start breakfast—not for their families but for larks who also wake up early to start the day: the bus and the jeepney drivers, weary housewives buying fresh goods for the family, housemaids on errands, and a host of other city dwellers.
Piping hot fish soup (tinowa) awaits the early bird. Fragrant puto maya (steamed glutinous rice) and searing cocoa drink (sikwati) are ready to quell the hunger of the early risers.
Carbon is where people meet strangers not for an appointment with destiny as did Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. It’s for a more mundane need, like a quick breakfast or some item for the house.
Of course, there is no Empire State Building to symbolize the prominence of the need to find love (or in our case, the best bargain of the day) and the effort it takes to get there (the city traffic is maddening).
Surviving Carbon is enough motivation. It is the perfect setting for a group people who find what they need just in time.
