Going to Market

Despite the chaos that is associated with it, I find it pleasant passing through the Baguio marketplace - or probably any market place.

I guess it presents for me something that is not in other places where I was during the day - a point of human contact with all the complexities that are in the many stories of the people that are either just passing by, like me - or who are there for a purpose.

In Baguio, the market is small enough such that there is a strong chance you would bump into someone you know. And you see other people bumping into other people that they know, it makes you smile somehow - here, the world is indeed small.

But there are also various other dramas in the market. Little and big kid vendors that go around insisting that you need another plastic bag even if you don't. Vendors with competing sing-songy voices calling you out. Buyers of varying character... there is so much life, so much color in the market. And so much evil too -- cheating, stealing... people clutching their bags tight on the lookout for snatchers. Policemen hover. Drunken men pass by causing trouble.... These are also part of life, and part of the colors of the market.

You got to try watching people sometimes when you pass by the market...