Sampaguita vendor
My friend Zed is sitting in a van crawling through traffic. It’s two in the afternoon of a hot day so naturally the airconditioner conks out, and after 10 minutes of breathing the same air, she opens the window. Along comes a little sampaguita vendor, a girl who looks about 12 (though she’s probably older). She waves the sampaguita garlands at the window and says, “Lady, buy sampaguita, very cheap.”
“No thanks,” Zed says. “Please, lady, I really need the money,” the kid says in a monotone. Zed shakes her head. “Just one, so I can have something to eat,” the kid goes on. Zed shakes her head. “Come on, can’t you buy just one?” the kid repeats in her unchanging monotone. “No,” Zed says.
Then the kid takes one garland and throws it into the open window, where it lands on Zed’s lap. “There,” the kid says, “That’s my gift to you.”
Zed tosses the garland back out the window and the kid catches it. (Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, Zed says, but it was instinct.) “No, thank you,” Zed says. The kid tosses it back at her. “Take it, it’s a gift.” Zed tosses it back, the kid tosses it in, Zed tosses it back, it’s becoming absurd. Finally Zed takes out her wallet. “Let me pay for that one,” she says. She hands the kid a ten-peso coin. The kid throws it back into the van. “You can keep it,” the kid says. They resume playing catch with the sampaguita.
Finally the sampaguita vendor moves away from the van and goes over to the sidewalk. She takes her garlands of sampaguita and starts whipping them against a concrete wall.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 13th, 2007 at 14:57
Alternate scene: Zed steps out of the van with the sampaguita, smears pedestrian grime on his/her face, finds an open window, and … says hi.
August 13th, 2007 at 15:49
this scene looks good for an indie movie
August 13th, 2007 at 17:31
that’s so strange and surreal.
it says a lot about *cough* philippine society. surreal.
that, from a 12 or so yr. old girl..
August 13th, 2007 at 20:28
Zed must have been so guilty, so deeply immersed in guilt that the marrows in her deepest bones were chanting a head breaking chorus, “sana naawa ka sa bata…” over and over again and she can’t eat, sleep, think, and starts talking all sorts of things, and the image of the leper child in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto keeps on flashing on her mind. She must be terribly disturbed. is she having a bout with mental deterioration of organic or functional origin because of this? Ok lang ba sya?
August 14th, 2007 at 07:31
well. that last bit practically made my hair stand on end. clearly the kid has to be found and taken to a good home fast before she grows up to be a serial killer or something
August 14th, 2007 at 08:11
so, did the airconditioner work after that?
August 14th, 2007 at 09:07
A tap or two on the window would have done the trick; tap being an undergound (read: realm of the fringed) code meaning either you’re one of them, or you’re a gang lord yourself. Either way it conveys some kind of high-level knowledge to any “street denizen” that yoou’re in on the trade. Once they hear you tap, they’d let up.
Thing is being human and civilized doesn’t mean we should encourage a culture of mendicancy. Zed was more or less right. But the playing catch…man, that was really schmuck. LOL!
August 14th, 2007 at 10:50
a clear display of frustration – for Zed, becasue she cannot shoo away the vendor; and for the vendor, because she cannot sell her sampaguitas – i guess it’s the reason why she started whipping them against the concrete wall
August 14th, 2007 at 13:36
I got loka. Powerful ha.
August 14th, 2007 at 15:29
wow.
August 14th, 2007 at 15:55
what’s happening to you jessica? your last entries (‘sampaguita vendor’ and ‘cabbie monologues’) are craps. totally pointless.
August 14th, 2007 at 21:41
nyahaha. Nice hobby. Playing catch with flower garlands! hehe. But it’s kind of troubling for the girl to throw herself in such a fit. Scaaaaary.
August 14th, 2007 at 21:42
freaky… kid was obviously mental…
or maybe it’s a new modus operandi or something?
August 14th, 2007 at 23:21
Can I share this story with my sociology students? I’ll make sure to cite you properly.
August 14th, 2007 at 23:25
I feel for the “12 year old” girl. What made her do that? The streets of our city are so toxic now it can drive people to neurosis.
August 15th, 2007 at 00:17
A similar thing happened to me in Bora… except instead of sampaguita, it was a bracelete made of puka shells. I ended up paying the little girl 10 pesos after going back of forth with “no thanks, i dont want it” and “no its ok you keep it” … she ended up taking the 10 pesos.
August 15th, 2007 at 04:05
It’s about getting results and leaving an impression. Effective!!!
August 15th, 2007 at 04:07
Did the girl grew up to be Jessica?
August 15th, 2007 at 06:19
“your last entries (’sampaguita vendor’ and ‘cabbie monologues’) are craps. totally pointless.”
Oh crap. What a tards.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:29
simplesql : What’s all this blog policing about? Do you think this Miss Minchin mentality would help Jessica or, us here? Get a[cyber]life, or cut the crap already!
August 15th, 2007 at 12:48
No comment about the Sampaguita vendor. This is just to inform the ex-The X-Files Fanatics out there of the latest news about Fox Mulder aka David Duchovny. The truth. Finally!! Check this out http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article2224166.ece
August 15th, 2007 at 14:06
i know that some fans would get mad, i don’t mind. i like reading jessica’s blog too. i even used to listen to her on radio many years back. what is it to you if i don’t like some of her entries? i have a right to express my opinion too.
August 15th, 2007 at 15:37
“Zed’s dead.”
August 15th, 2007 at 16:35
Yes of course you do, simplesql. But crap (the noun) has no plural. Maybe that’s why they took offense.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:08
thank you jeg for the correction.
i have to apologize for using the word craps, it doesn’t always appear in my sentences. however, i am not taking back my statement that i am unhappy about the entries mentioned.
i probably hit some nerves expressing my opinion but what the heck.
August 16th, 2007 at 15:40
The Nerve
The f’tard wouldn’t get it even if you beat the sheets out of him/her. Anyhoo, this is the most refreshingly innocent, unintentional comedy I have seen in these parts of the blogosphere in quite a while. So what the heck-pek, thanks, I guess. =)
Now, on with my own craps. Craps, I have a lot to do pala.
August 16th, 2007 at 16:07
this is so fictional. no one will throw a ten-peso coin back. even the politicians won’t…
August 16th, 2007 at 17:44
i wish you’d start podcasting again, jessica.
thank you bring so honest in this blog posting.
August 16th, 2007 at 20:24
wow. me no understand why…
August 17th, 2007 at 09:35
hi dr. feelgood. i am just wondering, what happened to your ‘art of war’ lessons? i believe it when people say that you must practise what you preach.
August 17th, 2007 at 11:27
hehehe comment on comments, commented. this is good. no polite silence from those whose comments are being commented upon. this is fun. hmmm now if only ms. zafra would also comment on the comments.
August 17th, 2007 at 16:27
Hi rin simplesql. Yeah, I’m wondering too what happened to that book na nga eh. I think somebody ate it.
August 18th, 2007 at 02:18
Simplesql, I am also just wondering din. You believe it when I say that I was very eager that I must ask you too. Cuz it really, really made me wonder. I am so, so excited to know this since I wondered. Please tell me naman. What is your favorite colors? Hmmm…pramice I’ll tell you mines. =) I also know the one that was the fave of Jessicaaa. Sige I’ll tell you. Pero you munaaaa =)
August 18th, 2007 at 11:32
lose the book, not the lesson.
August 18th, 2007 at 11:47
wow, you are really into this.
to think this is coming from someone who says he hasa lot to do. you even stayed up until 2am just to send your reply.
i am sorry if this is not making you sleep.
i am sorry if i made dr. feelgood feel bad.
August 19th, 2007 at 01:46
“to think this is coming from someone who says he hasa lot to do. you even stayed up until 2am just to send your reply.
i am sorry if this is not making you sleep.
i am sorry if i made dr. feelgood feel bad.”
Nah, I’m on Sacramento (US Pacific time) baby! It was lunchbreak. And you were lunch. Hehe.
You’re actually making me feel so gooood.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:02
that’s good.
east coast naman ako.
let’s put an end to this, not doing us any good anyway.
August 21st, 2007 at 14:46
Guess what, I have a funny twitch in the gut that simplesql and Dr. Feelgood is one and the same person…
August 23rd, 2007 at 14:41
“…not doing us any good anyway.”
> Speak for yourselfsss. It felt gooooodssss for meh. =)
August 23rd, 2007 at 14:49
“Guess what, I have a funny twitch in the gut that simplesql and Dr. Feelgood is one and the same person…”
I would have loved to say: sorry, couldn’t make Melinda shut up (wink =). Hehe. But nah…nice try though.
August 28th, 2007 at 05:12
love the scene… scandalous! heheh! astig!
September 7th, 2007 at 16:55
it’s always like that with those people they make you feel like you are responsible for the way they live, the way they are and kung bakit wala silang pambiling pagkain, ok lang kayo!!!!
September 11th, 2007 at 16:27
these people are freaky, got similar experience while walking in the mall in Ermita.They even shout at you like you owe them something.
OK LANG TALAGA SILA????
February 26th, 2009 at 16:23
a little too late for this comment… but I can’t help myself… we are actually responsible for one another.I’m guilty of things like this, but it doesn’t erase the fact that we should be helping a person who clearly needs help… and even the littlest persons deserve some respect…