A Place Called "Quiapo". PART 2.

[jiro]

Here is the 2nd part of this series called "A Place Called Quiapo".

8. What more could be better than buying a cup of hot coffee from her for the afternoon? The milk bottle is not for sale by the way.



9. The sun is moving near the horizon and we had some shades. I was greeted with a smile by this lady selling bubble making toys. She told me that her name is Vilma. She asked me what are the pictures for? I told her that I am studying photography and I want to learn how take good street photography pictures. She asked me if she can have a copy of her picture once I visited Quiapo again. I obliged of course.



As I was composing some more shots of her, this boy happened to play with the bubbles. He must have gotten loose from his mother's hands and rushed towards the bubbles. I was able to take two shots before his mother took him.



Can't resist to convert this one in B&W:



10. Solving a crossword puzzle:



11. As it is the norm here, the parent (usually the mother) attends to her merchandise while the kids are off sleeping or playing nearby. I'm glad the mother did not get angry when I took a shot of her sleeping boy.



12. This guy is selling cellphone accessories. His stuff is very portable which is usually the case here. If the local district officials are out there hunting for illegal vendors, they need this kind of materials to get in and get out fast to avoid them.



13. Selling sampaguita flowers is one of the livelihood that you can find in the Quiapo area. As you would notice, even her stand is quite portable.



14. Here's a young lady also selling sampaguitas.



15. And here are some older ones who does the same.






16. If lemonades are popular during summer in the US, here, we sell Melon drinks. It is water mixed with natural melon extracts, pulp, and sugar. Each cup sells for about 15 cents (in US currency).



17. I saw this scene on one alley beside the church. At first, I thought that he was buying sampaguitas from the old lady. When I finished taking shots, I came to talk to the guy and he told me that the lady is his mom.



He then posed for a happy shot with her.



18. Here's a lady selling colorful fans. The fans are called "pamaypay" or "abaniko" in Tagalog, the native language in the Philippines.



19. I was really interested about these colorful candles. I got fortunate enough to interview and took some pictures of Sally's group (the one in the middle.)



She told me that they offer candle burning services to the public for a fee. What people do is they buy the candles from them and they burn them to "fulfill" their wishes or their concerns. The candles are color coded .



And each candle has its own significance.



If their client is hoping to have a favorable relationship with her boyfriend, she can buy the red candles and pray while the candles are being burned. The red candle can also be used to pray for family members who are sick hoping that they will get well soon.


The black one is something unordinary. It symbolizes "conscience". Some clients buy them to give burning conscience to a spouse who is having an extra affair outside marriage. At times, they use it to counter a special curse given to a person close to you. The human figured wax is the one used for this purpose aside from the black candles.






More to come on the next part. Thank you very much for viewing.

[dje]

Welcome back Willie, I see you haven't lost your youthful good looks !

I haven't been to the Philippines but after looking at your photos I feel that I have. They give us a very good insight into life in Manila. As usual, the shots are tecnically very good. Thanks for sharing them.

Oh, by the way, I'm desperately in need of some pp advice, Are you available ?

Dave