I was doing my daily early morning walk earlier but then suddenly I felt this intense pain my gut. I know this feeling very well, I was so hungry to the point that my stomach acid is eating me from the inside.
So I decided to eat in a nearby "Pungko-Punko" which means a street food store in which you need to sit in this very low chair. This is a very common food stall in Cebu, it's basically just a table and a bunch of food stacked together where you can pick whatever you want to eat, sit down and chow down.
The most common food in a Pungko-Pungko is a friend pig intestine, that is the one near the sauce with onions. A food stall like this can never be called a Punko-Punko without that pig intestine in their menu. So I picked on and a cut of fried chicken as well.
As I was eating, the owner was shouting while talking to a kid not far from where I'm eating. Yeah shouting is very normal from where I live and people here are loud and I mean really loud, myself included 😁.
Anyway I heard the owner talking to the kid saying he wanted the kid to make a Carabao. That got my attention and I started asking the owner who that kid was as I don't recognize the kid. I recognize almost all the street kids and adults in our place since I like helping them from time to time.
The owner said that kid is not from here and he came here yesterday. He also said that the kid is from Carcar City Cebu it's the city before my town of Sibonga. Apparently someone working from the Municipal Office knows the kid that is why the owner knew that the kid was from Carcar City.
The owner boasted that the kid has talent for art and so after I finished my meal I went to talk to the kid. Please excuse me for blurring his face as the kid strongly stated that he doesn't want anyone to know where he was.
He was staying in front of 7 Eleven and he has this small plastic looking bag and some clays with him. The owner said he makes art with his clays and as you can see just right below his feet there is an unfinished looking Carabao there.
As I went near the kid he asked me to buy him coffee, but I declined. I asked the employees of 7 Eleven to give him a hot chocolate and a meat bun aka siopao in the Philippines. I told the kid that coffee is bad for him as he was clearly a kid in his teens I guess or maybe early 20's. I am already 32 years old so he is a kid as far as I can tell.
He was happy for the food and hot chocolate and thanked me. Honestly if I had more money with me I would have let him eat at the Punko-Punko but sadly I don't carry a lot of money when doing my early morning walk.
We talked for a bit and I told him to show me some of his talent in art. He said it's already there the Carabao but I told him it was not finished yet. He just laughed and said yeah I will finish that later but before I finish that let me show you something cool first.
He walked away and that got me confused, what was he going to show me if he is walking away? Apparently he went out to get some kind of torn pages from a magazine. Then he started working on it without even looking at what he was doing. It was like he already memorized how to make the thing he wanted to show me.
Honestly it was amazing to watch, it looked to me that what he was doing is from muscle memory, we were still talking and he was talking to me while making something.
After a few minutes he was done. He showed me a bird and it would look like it was flying if you hold the neck and tail together and then pull them apart.
After the bird he then proceeded to make a Crocodile out of the clay he has on hand.
Then after the Crocodile he finished the unfished Carabao last.
Honestly it was quite an amazing display of talent, well that's my opinion. He was molding the clay while not even looking at it just like what he did with the magazine turned in to a bird.
You've read this far and you are probably wondering where the mental illness is right? Well the kid has a mental illness that's for sure.
People called him "Boang" or "Crazy Person" but to be honest he doesn't look crazy to me. He was too clean to be called a crazy homeless person.
This is a very common misconception here in our country. People with mental illness are often labeled as a crazy person. But talking to this kid it didn't feel like he was a crazy person at all.
He knows what he is doing and responds properly when being questioned. Although I can tell that he lacks the basic social skills most of us have. The way he talks is like he rarely talks to people.
I think he is probably an autistic person. I'm not sure about this as I am not a doctor but according to what I have read. Most people who lacks social skills are mostly autistic people. Although this is not 100% true for all people who lacks social skills but this kid felt awkward to talk to that is why I say he lacks the social skill.
Despite that we talked for an hour I guess, I felt like we had some connection as people have labeled me as a crazy person in the past and until now lol. He was quite talkative as soon as I opened up to him. He really didn't feel like a crazy person to me. I think I just found a new friend I could talk to every morning 😁
As to all things I had to say good bye as it was already quite late, but before that I asked that we take a picture together as a remembrance in case we don't see each other again. He might move to a new place tomorrow as he is not from here.
While most people would not even bother with people such as these. I am quite different as I empathize with these kind of people. I really wish people in the Philippines would be more aware of mental illness.
I totally agree with her on this one. I have met so many so called "Crazy People" but when I try to talk to them they don't seem to be as crazy as what people labeled them to be.
Just because you don't understand a person doesn't mean they are crazy.
That's it for me today folks. I hope you like what you just read and I hope to all people reading this. Please be mindful and be aware of mental illness and don't just go labeling people crazy just because you don't understand them.