Sense and Science: 'Tubibi' and other creatures

The long break with my blog came about because of many reasons, including a daughter’s surgery and a slew of medical conventions and meetings.  On top of all that was a move to Nuvali in Laguna.  Between house-hunting and preparing for my daughter’s surgery, I did think, several times, that I was crazy making the transitions but now that we’re (sort of) settled in, I’m convinced it was a right move.

 

Nuvali is just one development in a growth corridor south of Manila that includes Canlubang and Sta. Rosa in Laguna and Silang in Cavite.  Several of the country’s best schools, including Xavier, Brent, St. Scholastica’s, De La Salle, have campuses there with Miriam and the University of Sto. Tomas planning to follow soon.  

 

Besides the schools, my move was spurred largely by the greenery and fresh air, which made a real difference for my daughter.  Because she has a congenital heart condition, I worry constantly about her coming down with some respiratory problem, which would then affect her heart.  The period before her surgery was especially crucial so having her in Nuvali was a kind of reverse quarantine, to make sure she’d be healthy enough for the operation.  

 

The cleaner air there was even more important after she was discharged from the hospital.  Following the grueling but successful 9-hour surgery, she went straight back to Nuvali and, two weeks later, she was ready to start school, not a day late.  I’m sure the quick recovery came in part because of the fresh air.

 

In the two months the kids have been out there, in the “probinsya”, they’ve been discovering a whole new world.   They bike, they swim, they have the full run of the subdivision.  I don’t worry too much about their safety, with friendly neighbors – most houses don’t even have fences – and security guards who act more like "kuyas" (elder brothers).

 

It’s a place where you can start the day stress-free.  Back in Manila, it took me half an hour to drive the kids to their schools, which were only a kilometer away from where I lived.  In our new place, it takes five minutes to get to one of the schools, a kilometer away, and about 15 to get to the other school, which is 10 kilometers away.

 

I’m still Manila-based because of my work at UP, but, avoiding the rush hour, I can be with them in less than an hour.  And each time I visit they have new stories about what they’ve discovered.  Frogs were the big thing with them the first week.  Then “tubibi”, my youngest child’s version of “tutubi” or dragonflies and which her Kuya said made more sense because, “You know, tubibi are insects, just like bumblebees.”

 

They’ve discovered all kinds of beetles and while in Manila, they’d complain about any living thing that flies, they’re now used to all kinds of bugs that come into the house, knowing these are not harmful.  (I think their comfort with insects may have gone too far though because even the flies are now acceptable to them.)

 

Perhaps the most exciting discovery they’ve made so far are the fireflies, the alitaptap.  The last time I saw fireflies in Metro Manila was maybe 10 years ago, in UP Diliman.   Our new place in Laguna lacks trees but we do get fireflies at night and the kids love them.  My son did ask how many batteries are needed for their lights.

 

Battery-operated fireflies aside, what finally convinced me about this being the right move was one weekend when I was parking in front of a shop and the youngest shouted out, “Animal!  Animal!”  I looked down the road and saw a cow.  I was initially puzzled because all my kids learned what a “cow” looks like, from the children’s books they have and TV shows but I realized these were all western breeds, usually dairying types.  The “animal” my daughter saw was a Brahman hybrid, which you don’t usually see in children’s books.  (You can find pictures on the Internet and they do look different from the usual cows in children’s books.)

 

We settled the “animal-cow” bit, including its Filipino name “baka”.  And then a few days later, I overheard two of the girls debating about another animal they just saw, and whether it was a cow or not.  It was a carabao.

 

I’m looking forward to more discoveries of creatures great and small. — TJD, GMA News

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Michael L. Tan is a medical anthropologist and a veterinarian.  He is currently dean of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, and Clinical Professor at the College of Medicine at UP Manila.  He also writes the opinion-editorial column "Pinoy Kasi" for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He has been involved in numerous research projects on a range of issues from HIV/AIDS prevention to the culture of impunity. In 2012, he was elected to the National Academy of Science and Technology, the Philippines' highest science advisory body.