{"id":9373,"date":"2021-01-07T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=9373"},"modified":"2021-01-07T11:17:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T19:17:20","slug":"waking-up-to-kalachuchi-sampaguita-gumamela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/waking-up-to-kalachuchi-sampaguita-gumamela\/","title":{"rendered":"Waking up to Kalachuchi, Sampaguita, Gumamela"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a pleasant way to wake up, the words rolling through my head like a song or a poem. Sunny-day flowers on a cloudy winter’s day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tagalog words, coming back to me even though I haven’t been in the Philippines for more than twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I lived there, I saw many kalachuchi<\/em> trees. But the one I remembered as I lay in bed that morning, reluctant to open my eyes, was growing behind the building where my daughters attended nursery school. The school was in a large city church with an even larger grassy yard. Mothers dropped their children off in the yard so the kids could swing and slide and run and shout before going inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kalachuchi tree was unusually large, covered with countless fragrant white blossoms. You may know the kalachuchi<\/em> as plumeria<\/em> or frangipani<\/em> (both musical words that could be added to my morning song\/poem). If you’ve seen it, you know that the flowers don’t last long. They soon fall to the ground and wilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They don’t wilt immediately, though. so when I arrived each day with my girls, the grass under the tree would be covered with lovely, fragrant blossoms. Sadly, the gardener was always there, hard at work, raking them up. More than once, I grabbed a blossom for my hair before leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time of year in Washington State, the sun doesn’t rise until almost 8:00 am. So I stayed in bed a while longer, half-dreaming about sunny-day flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
photo courtesy of Glenn Martinez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sampaguita<\/em>, which you may know as Philippine jasmine, is a small white flower prized for its fragrance. They’re sold as garlands which can be used to welcome guests or to adorn saints’ statues. But what I saw most often were the vendors with their sampaguita leis along busy highways. They took advantage of slow, busy traffic and long traffic lights to sell sampaguita<\/em> garlands which drivers hung on their rear-view mirrors to lend a sweet fragrance to the cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
photo courtesy of Glenn Martinez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Glenn Martinez has a delightful article<\/a> on his blog, Traveler on Foot, about San Pedro, Philippines where they grow and string sampaguitas.<\/em> He also mentions in the article a legend that tells about the origin of the sampaguita<\/em> bush. Like the legend of the love locks, it tells of a faithless man and a grieving, jilted woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gumamela<\/em> is the Tagalog word for hibiscus, a plant with large, trumpet-shaped flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting up in bed, I said the three words out loud: kalachuchi, sampaguita, gumamela<\/em>. Then I left my warm bed and started my day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a pleasant way to wake up, the words rolling through my head like a song or a poem. Sunny-day flowers on a cloudy winter’s day. Tagalog words, coming back to me even though I haven’t been in the Philippines for more than twenty years. While I lived there, I saw many kalachuchi trees. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[1783,2107,2110,2109,2108,928,456,2106,2111],"class_list":["post-9373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philippines","tag-flowers","tag-gumamelas","tag-hibiscus","tag-jasmine","tag-kalachuchi","tag-philippines","tag-plumeria","tag-sampaguitas","tag-tagalog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-2rb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10206,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/photography\/stopping-time-saving-beauty\/","url_meta":{"origin":9373,"position":0},"title":"Stopping Time & Saving Beauty","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"May 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The nursery school my daughters attended had a large grassy playground with a kalachuchi tree as big as a large house on one end of it. Every day when I dropped my daughter off, there were tens of dozens of kalachuchi blossoms on the grass, and the gardener was sweeping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Gardens"","block_context":{"text":"Gardens","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/gardens\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/IMG_3853-e1682537890615.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5042,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/philippines\/5042\/","url_meta":{"origin":9373,"position":1},"title":"Mother’s Day … and Being Good Enough","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"May 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Mother\u2019s Day cards can be a bit over the top. Have you noticed? Mom is wonderful, they declare in letters embellished with flowers, butterflies, and cute little birds. She\u2019s amazing, the best mother anyone could wish for. 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The moment I stepped off the plane in Manila, the first, most obvious difference hit me in the face\u2014a blast of heat unlike any I\u2019d ever felt. No more cool, drizzly Seattle days for me. 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