Getting more from a Bazaar

So I was sort of forced to help my mom out in her grand idea of a bazaar in the place that used to be my playground (cue Madonna’s I’ll Remember). I haven’t been doing anything productive lately so I did not dare to protest and acceded instead. I’m not new to bazaars or to selling. We used to do it a lot, especially at the time of the year when things go commercial and people are in the mood to spend. Besides, I love giving customers their change. I don’t know why, but I enjoy that.

This time around, however, we’re doing our bazaar in very familiar grounds where some people have either seen me in my diapers waiting in line to have my immunity shots with the company doctor, or in my swimsuit trying not to drown as I learn how to swim, or in my school uniform lying down on the sofa in my dad’s office while he waits for his break time before he brings home his ailing daughter. Having said these, it was pretty much nostalgic hanging around the place which, in a special way, had witnessed me growing up.

Then there’s the part where my frustrations in writing have leaked to these same people, especially those pieces and letters concerning Nichi which moved them, by the way, to help us get through the hospital finances we struggled with. You see, bayanihan is alive at this side of the world. Thank God for sending us His angels! Anyway, these people would then ask, “ikaw yung writer?” Although I can hardly justify myself as a writer because of the fact that I don’t write for a living, I feel flattered to answer yes to their question.

Our sales weren’t all too great to tell the truth. But I hardly fell asleep even during the so-called “dead hours.” Our fellow bazaaristas kept me up. I probably fed on their energies. It helped that the organizers put up a white screen where they projected movies like Ratatouille, the Sarah Geronimo and John Loyd Cruz movie, For the First Time, and The Dark Knight. It made the bazaar area more alive. I didn’t have to see the movies myself. The way the people reacted to these movies were enough to entertain me.

With this bazaar, I was also able to reunite with my high school (and grade school) classmates. Betsy who now manages her own bakeshop while baking and maintaining a column in a certain magazine, Stef who works with the Interactive department of the other leading TV network in the country, and Ida who’s now a wife, a mom (!) and a Manager in my Dad’s former office.

Of course it was also priceless, having the chance to spend more time with my mom and see her do what she loves to do: Talk. But sitting with her in our “stall” brought back good memories of the past where things seemed tough for us yet less complicated than today. For the record, I loved the simplicity of our moments together. It was refreshing.

You see, I didn’t have to buy anything in the bazaar I was telling you about. Yet I was lucky to have gotten more out of it than I anticipated.