“NEP-NEP”

August 5, 2023 Opinion

Residents in Baguio during the southwest monsoon season or “Habagat” season starting from May until October experiences the “wettest” season and I mean — wet shoes, wet flooring of houses, wet walls due to seepage from the windows and walls but dry pockets with more expenses set to be incurred.

A lot of us use the services of laundry shops, not because we cannot do our laundry by making “gel-gel” or using the washing machine which I am sure, most if not all houses have, but because making clothes dry takes an eternity if they are ever really dry minus the “cold” and the damp feeling of the clothes.

Refrigerators used to have exposed refrigerant heating coils on the back, that doubles as heating agents for drying clothes or even shoes. Present-day refrigerators no longer have them or have been placed inside the body, which makes drying clothes a bit difficult. We still have the “takure” (kettle) used in heating water, which at times have atop the cover are undergarments or socks, hoping to dry with the heat emitted by the body of the kettle.

Who would forget the “electric fan” during the monsoon season which is turned on not to make the environment cold, but to help dry the clothes hanging on clothes-line at the living . The book “Genesis” of the Holy Bible mentioned 40 days and 40 nights of rain, which almost every year is experienced in Baguio and the province of Benguet—forty days without seeing the sun or good enough if we see the sun peep so that we do not forget how it feels like and what the environment looks like with the sun amid us.

There is a saying that goes: “Save for the rainy days”. The metaphor of rainy days was used because of the more difficult life situation during the rainy season when there is no rice harvest, no activity, and “no life”, thus the need to save up for those days. Tony, the guy in front of me while I was writing this said that during the “rainy days” life is more difficult during and money is scarce so people need to keep a little to have more funds for the rainy days when there are more extra expenses needed to be incurred to survive the wet season.

During rainy days, the work of daily-paid workers is cancelled due to the strong rain, which means no income for the worker. Taking the jeepney or taxi instead of the luxury of a walk is also necessary during the season with strong rains ready to make us wet even before we reach the workplace or any destination, draining the pocket of funds for transportation.  “Nep-nep” is an Ilocano word that refers to the wet season.

Some of my friends sometimes say “buti pa siya wet” (it is up to you to interpret) but all I am saying is let us be happy during nep-nep because it is not hot, but let us prepare for the nep-nep season to make us all safe.  Keep warm everybody!!!