Free Play: Sunday at the Park in High Street

Yaya Gigi, teaching Narra the basics of "Piko".

On the first weekend of the year, we wanted to do something fun and active, without resorting to the usual pastime of shopping and eating out.  We decided to bring out of the house our new puppy, Jack (a Jack Russel terrier).  We put him in his carrier, and headed off to pet-friendly Bonifacio High Street. We headed to the recreational area on the south side.  Oliver and I first stumbled upon this park a couple of months ago, and we vowed to return with the kids... and now, with our new dog. I just love this park and all the good things it stands for.  It stands for a "breather" in a congested metropolis smothered in concrete.  It stands for "common good", over commercial interest - this park sits on prime property that costs millions!  (I believe this is an Ayala Land project. It surely bears their signature sophistication, intelligence, and commitment to improving the quality of life of the mall-going public).  And with play space designated for Pinoy folk games, this park stands out to me, as a symbol for bridging generations, and allowing children of the past to play with children of the present, so they may keep alive the games of old.  Coming here made me feel happy, reminding me of my very enjoyable Pinoy childhood.

At the Patintero lawn - though our kids are too young to play the game.

I had the great fortune of growing up with street games: piko, patintero, taguan, langit-lupa, luksong tinik,  habulan, "chinese garter", "doctor quack-quack" and agawan base among others.  This was right around the time computer games were just finding their way into our homes in the early 1980's. But even after Ataris and Nintendo Family Computers dominated the scene in terms of indoor entertainment, the frequent blackouts (or in Pinoy-speak: brown-outs) of the late 80's to early 90's left a lot of room for traditional games to flourish.  I remember playing with neighbors, classmates, and cousins... out on the streets, or at the school quadrangle or playground, or  even during family parties and outings.  I simply assumed that these games will self-perpetuate... that every generation will come to know them, naturally.  I am beginning to rethink this assumption.  I've been asking my students in the last few years if they knew some folk games - and I'd enumerate the ones I know.  To my surprise, my students knew only a minority - and not a majority (as I had hoped) of the games I grew up with.  I really couldn't blame them.  I myself, am forgetting the rules of the games I used to play with passion.  Which is why I loved coming to this park on High Street.  It forced me remember what I was beginning to forget.  I had to rely on Yaya Gigi and Yaya Jen to refresh my memory.  I had to ask for a tutorial on the mechanics of "piko".  Yaya Gigi picked up a stone from the ground, and started teaching Narra and I how to do it.   We reviewed the rules of Patintero, but the kids were too young to play it. Maybe in a few more years... For now, they're better off in the playground.

Narra and Guijo at the whimsical playground south of High Street.

And what a fun playground it is!  The usual swings, slides, monkey bars, and seesaw are there - with a twist - literally!  The design of the playground equipment incorporates a lot of curving lines, and swirls, and twists, creating a re-imagined, whimsical version of the standard equipment.  The swings, for instance, do not simply hang from bars, they hang from looping arches painted in fire truck red.  Next to the swing is a swirly slide, done in sunny yellow - it functions every bit like a typical slide, but does not have the usual straight ladder leading up.  The monkey bars are similarly provocative, and inviting. Narra and Guijo were content to monkey around the bars for nearly an hour, repeatedly climbing up and down until they've mastered the equipment.  

Narra, on her favorite twisty monkey bars.

So inviting was the playground that even the Yayas were obviously enjoying themselves.  I felt glad to see Yaya Gigi enjoying herself.   God knows she needs a break, after all the family troubles she's needed to address in recent months.  Seeing her relax, even just for a bit, seeing her like this - childlike and carefree, makes  me feel that playgrounds are necessary social spaces... they are not merely "nice-to-haves"... they are "need-to-do's".  This reminds me of an old family story of my aunt, my mother's youngest sibling, who was visiting Manila as a little girl from Bicol in the early 1970's.  My father drove her to the playground near Manila Zoo...and she called it "paradise".  It's not a great story, really, just an anecdote - but I remember it often because I pass by that playground regularly, and each time I see it, in it's current overused and grimy state, with the paint worn off on the old equipment, with the dusty ground where no grass grows, the overflowing trash cans and the sweet-sour stench of the sewers underneath - I remember my aunt, and how she once called this place "paradise".   Seeing Yaya Gigi made me think of the same word - "paradise".  To be free from all the cares in the world, to be having fun, and smiling from that place within our being where our inner child resides, isn't that heavenly?

Yaya Gigi, happily monkeying around too.

I had just started on my Cohen Program and I was strictly following my food prescription.  It's only been a few days into my new diet, and as I reduced my food intake, the toxins hoarded by my fat cells were being released, and I was getting headaches.  The walk at the park really helped clear my head. Seeing so many people jogging, healthy and fit folk, encouraged me to persist in pursuing my resolution to put my health on top of my list of priorities this year.  I want to feel as light and agile as my kids, as I used to be.  I tried swinging on the monkey bars for a bit and my body felt so foreign - so heavy and sluggish.  I felt old. And I don't want to feel old anymore. So weight loss is the first step, so I can return to a more active lifestyle, with sport and dance back in the picture.  I am so looking forward to having more fun and exercise this year... to feel light and free when I play with my kids, to no longer feel dead on my feet... to see paradise in a playground!

Guijo, a picture of pure exuberance as he floats mid-air.

For now, I can't do much exercise just yet, not while I'm on a very restrictive eating plan.  I'll have to be happy with slow walks in the park, and engage in recreational activities that do not gravitate towards food. So far, so good, it seems we can work out newer patterns of leisure.  And with parks like the one south of High Street, with the landscaped paths, artful trash bins, and engagingly designed spaces, we can while away the weekend engaged in free play.  One weekend down, 50 more to go in 2013...may all the weekends to come be as lovely as this.