My Ordinary: Walking in the City

“To walk is to lack a place. It is the indefinite process of being absent and in search of a proper. The moving about that the city multiplies and concentrates makes the city itself an immense social experience of lacking a place - an experience that is, to be sure, broken up into countless tiny deportations (displacements and walks).... there is only a pullulation of passer-by, a network of residences temporarily appropriated by pedestrian traffic, a shuffling among pretenses of the proper, a universe of rented spaces haunted by a nowhere or by dreamed of spaces.” Michel de Certeau, Walking in the City

Walking with Joseph, Nine Years Old

On a Friday night, my nephew would give me a rundown of his Saturday agenda: “So, Ninan’, tomorrow, we will have breakfast in McDo, I will have chicken fillet with rice, then, we will walk at BGC. I will draw in BGC, and at 11 Am, we will go to the mall so I can check the fire alarms and sprinklers.”

Since he was three years old, he’s been obsessed with these things - fire alarms and sprinklers. He draws fire alarms and sprinklers from his perspective of their placements on the walls and ceilings. He takes pictures of the same with his tablet camera. In careful outlines, he’d sketch circles and ovals with even-spaced blackened squares, copying perforations on their bases. Then he shows it to me saying, ‘Ninan’ we must change the fire alarm in our house like this.’

While walking, he would insist on entering Starbucks so he could ask for plastic caps to use as toy-‘fire-alarms’. He studies even the ones attached to my ceilings, as he could reach those from his bunk bed and mine. From YouTube, he learned the name brands of those implements. He just informed me, ‘Ninan’ do you know that the GST fire alarm is made in China?’

Walking Aimless and Expensive

To walk in Bonifacio High Street, the two-way taxi fare from my condo and back is 250 Pesos. Excluding the breakfast at McDonald’s, his lunch will cost my senior citizen pocket around P300. The child eats rice plus either siomai or fried chicken dipped in gravy. He’s allergic to ice cream and should not eat too much chocolate, but I indulge his occasional craving for an M and M.

Our Saturday outing is always not productive for me. Meanwhile, Joseph is busy on this day. His backpack contains watercolors, markers, a sketchpad, and pencils. I gave him a clipboard since the wooden tables in Bonifacio High Street Park aren’t flat and solid. I put used paper in the backpack as well, for mat and padding when he's watercolor painting.

When he gets bored sketching on paper, he will draw on his tablet instead. After a while, he’ll ask for data, he calls ‘load’ to watch ‘sprinklers and fire alarms’ on YouTube. Here, I draw the line and tell him sternly, that if he watches on YouTube, I will cut the wifi. He grumbles but eventually agrees to watch on Netflix only.

No Bike, No Cats, No Dogs

Children are on their bikes and rollers at the BGC park. The middle class walks with their pets. Their babies are in expensive strollers with pockets. Sometimes, they are a family with a household helper in tow, sometimes they are foreigners. Sometimes they are lone individuals swiping at their phones on the benches, sometimes they are young people walking or jogging, and sometimes they are old people having an al fresco breakfast. They all seem to be relaxing on a weekend.

Although his current Netflix favorite is Garfield Joseph is afraid of both cats and dogs. He can ride a three-wheel bike, but it remains to be seen if he will desire to ride a proper bike. At BGC, he cleans up his paper messes and throws them in the nearest trash can. 'Packing away' after playing is something he learned from a very young age.

When we come by a store he’d like to check, he always peers through the glass. I warn him not to paste his face on the glass. If the store is open he’d insist that we go inside together. I get exasperated at his entering store after store after store. I tell him to go in and I will wait outside. He enters running, looking up then back at me, squeaking, “Don’t leave me Ninan’.”

As fast as he can, he scans the store wall and ceiling and goes out again and again to check me out, afraid that I might disappear. To the salesperson, he mumbles an incoherent query about sprinklers. With my lips and eyes, I gesture an excuse to the confused person inside. They understand and indulge the child’s curiosity.

He's Always Looking Up

I would rather that my nephew would be curious about the merchandise in each store. He does not look at the open sky or the trees. So I’ve been longing for him to at least enjoy the commercial sites.

One Saturday, I took him to the Ayala Museum for a change, hoping that he’d be curious about the dioramas. But even there, he was looking up all the time, asking, "But where are my sprinklers and fire alarms?" I had to make us go around one more time, forcing him to look at the figures behind glass frames. About the tribal people in caves and the heroes in huts, he asked, “Ninan’ where’s their toilet and bathroom?”

When I brought him inside the Science Museum, he was only a bit curious about the featured objects. He got scared in the space simulation experience, but he stared longest at the dizzying colorful backdrop. He reads all big letter captions aloud, sometimes asking about their meanings. When he finally got preoccupied, he stacked and lined up blocks and magnets. 'I'm inventing a building Ninan, and then I will put fire alarms here and sprinklers also'.

Walking and Holding On

He cries when I tell him we should not be wasting our time like this. After he's had his lunch, I just want to go back home. In the mall, there is nothing gainful to do, but he enjoys walking around and looking up. He would insist on going to another mall. ‘Let’s go to SM Aura Ninan’’ or ‘even to the Ayala Mall at the Market-Market?’ Hoping that he’ll discover new curiosities, I always end up granting his request.

These days, I am thinking a lot about how to make this Saturday routine therapeutic for both of us. Saturday is my full day to bond with my nephew. I get frustrated trying hard to show him other things. He's nine and it is getting harder to get through him. Since he is looking up all the time, I fear that he is missing a lot in his surroundings.

At any point during our walk, he won’t let go of my hand. I tell him, ‘Enjoy walking Joseph, you can do that freely. Swing your arms.’ But he says, “I don’t like to get lost Ninan.’ Hold me.”

there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens

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