She patiently waits for her luck to get her dream job. And while she does that, she vends assorted candies and pastries–pastillas de leche, food for the gods, cookies, and all sorts of “pantawid gutom” for students while in campus.
She surprised us one late afternoon, my daughter not included since this lady is a usual sight for most students. She goes around selling, looking like a Christmas tree with all the trimmings that hang in her shoulders. One bag after another must have contained all that she had to sell that day.
What struck me was that she sold to us like a veteran ambulant vendor, uttering what sounded like a recorded message on her head: Bili na kayo ng pastillas, food for the gods, cookies…masarap na mura pa. My daughter later told me she is a usual sight here, with students from all colleges becoming her captured market.
I was not coaxed into buying one pack of pastillas de leche; I was more emphatic than anything else. She reminded me of myself back in college in the same campus–when I would buy big packs of squash seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts from Quiapo, repack them into tiny plastic wrappers, and sell them to my classmates. That was the only way I knew how to augment my allowance. And I told her I even sold sheets of yellow pad paper to those who would come to class without them. I thought now that I could have rented out pens also!
The young lady told me it was good money selling what she sold. And better to be vending around the campus than doing nothing while waiting for her dream occupation–waiting it out patiently for the UST Hospital to take her in.
She may be one of the many who are still looking for jobs, and come this graduation season, many more will be.
Kathryn passed the nurses board examination last year. She waits for the UST Hospital to tell her she got a job.
She agreed to pose for me, by the way.
