by Telly Gonzaga-Ocampo
Seashells on the Seashore
I have not experienced gathering tambajang. It’s both thrill and fun looking for the mata sa tambajang. Experts in doing this would have an easy time as they say that the tambajang spread like mat on the shore. The experts simply use a sharp and long bolo to dig the tambajang as they converge in large groups lying on the shores. The activity of gathering the bounty from the shores is called panginhas.
Meanwhile, the sea grapes in our shores were different from other areas. They were crawling on the stones of the sea. Pero and bungkawil, saang, taktakon ug kibow, daghan ni sila. They come in pairs but I am not an expert in gathering these. However I could guarantee you that I am good sa pagpanilang ug swake. Sa among panahon, ang swake magbanig dapit sa pamanggawan. Among atapukon da-an sa dili pa ha-ha-on. We bring the big ones home for our consumption.
My playmates, when we were young, together with the children in the neighborhood would, then, happily go together to the shores in order to harvest the wealth from the seas. We would bring the extra food (bahaw) from the previous meals and enjoy our “fiesta sa baybayon”.
Those were the days when the treasures of the sea were ours for the picking. We were never afraid that we didn’t have food on the table. The seashells on the seashore were always there for us. While the men in the family were responsible for catching fish, the women did their role in doing backyard farming. We were self-sufficient.
Life is such a wonderful experience especially if we are industrious and we center our activities on God who has given us the abundance of seashells on the seashore.
