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Work avoidance grrrl here! Yes, I have lessons to plan and papers to mutil--errm, grade, but don't I always? So, today I'm driving to school through the pretty neighborhood containing my favorite shortcut, on a gorgeous, intoxicating, sunny morning, and I see THEM. It's really, truly spring when THEY appear. They were flitting about in their yards, dressed in flowered smocks and big sun hats, toting trowels and kneeling boards. Yes, THEY have emerged from their winter hibernation: the Filipino Grandmas! Mind you, I've spent my whole life among one of America's largest concentrations of Filipino immigrants. I can't imagine a neighborhood without brown faces, folks chatting in Tagalog, and the smell of lumpia and pancit wafting from neighbors' kitchens. Filipino grocery stores and bakeries are essentials to me. About a third of my students are Filipino (or some variant). Home isn't home without Filipino neighbors. Most local Filipino households include some older family members, since Filipino families tend to be of the extended variety rather than merely nuclear. Pretty much all of the Filipino elders I've met tend to be very diminutive (under five feet tall), energetic, and of the opinion that everyone under fifty needs constant supervision. One of my school's assistant principals is Filipina, and she's enlisted a group of older Filipino folks to keep our school's courtyard looking nice. (We tried having the Science Club do it, which was, um, unfortunate.) Our courtyard abounds with lush blooms, thanks to cuttings from our volunteers' gardens and lots of TLC. On days when we see tiny brown ladies in big sun hats out there, we can count on fresh cookies, getting our cheeks pinched, and lots of good advice delivered in staccato English-minus-F's. (This is really funny if you ever provoke a Filipino grandma to curse; "Pucking pools!")One of the grannies has allowed me to teach all three of her darling grandkids, and she still actually likes me. One of my requirements for home-buying is that our neighborhood must have tiny brown ladies with sparrow-bright eyes and big hats in its yards every lovely spring morning. I need all the gardening advice I can get! |
 
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They're back!