While it is almost universal for people to welcome newcomers with a presentable room and clean sheets, my family's version of hospitality is to cover all their garbage is curtains so that it would not be an eyesore.
To make matters worse, my mother's way of thinking seems twisted by the amount of junk she collects. Yes, collect. Her clothes and shoes amount to cabinets upon cabinets, but most of them she hardly remembers and will not ever wear (i.e., clothes already too little, too shabby, or were bought in a sale just for the sake of buying them). And since she's too determined not to give anything away, she rather hangs them out in the open to obstruct a passageway. I mean, we have a clothesline inside our house... for dry clothes!!!
I remember our househelp telling me that she got scolded by my mother when she attempted to throw away some things... because they're not sorted yet! Trust my mom to say the most philosophical things to justify being dirty. And also my dad (It can't be done in one day). Uhm, I left the house two years ago with less junk. Had people had enough common sense to give away things they don't need, clean and return things after immediately using them and not buying at least two pieces of every damn appliance, grocery and whatever, probably the house wouldn't be as messy. Just a thought.
This is the poverty of the Filipino psyche, I guess. We become so attached to things that we won't let go of anything. Filipinos don't build houses to live in. They build them to stock up on stuff, really.
I hope I were back in Europe right now, not because it's more beautiful than the Philippines but because the people there understand that cleanliness is a responsibility toward the self and towards others. I hate to be stuck in this mess because the people who do it always seem to have a reason to love their garbage. And worse, they're my own family.
1 comment:
oh well... welcome back na rin ;-)
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