Tara SA kanto -

"Tara sa kanto..."

"Kanto" is the Filipino word for street corner. "Tara sa kanto", loosely translated to mean "come let's go to the street corner", is what a friend would usually say to another; an open invitation to meet up with other friends. The street corner was the spot where friends meet to chat and trade stories of how their day went, make small talk, or simply spend time watching the world go by. In the olden days, it was one form of social networking so to speak.



Now there are other reasons one would go by the street corner. There is Aling Basyang's carinderia where one can buy the most delicious piping hot goto. Domey's Panaderia serves the best hot pan de sal. The shoe-shine shop - sapatero . Lorenzo's Barberia. Pedro's sari-sari store where you could buy a packet of ground pepper or sackful of rice, name it, they have it! And oh the day's mainstays - sorbetes ni Fred, Jack's cart of roasted peanuts, Naning's banana-Q and Teddy's balut at penoy from dusk till midnight.

Over years, that very same street corner evolved and became busier than ever. Wider intersections, more shops, cafes replaced the carinderia. Some small businesses either grew and became bigger enterprises, others evolved to keep up with the times. Still others remained small along with its loyal patrons.

But beware. There is also this other, negative, meaning of the word kanto. That of being seedy, notorious and dangerous, which one should be aware off. Let's not be naive to ignore that fact. Sa kanto is where the local boys and girls learned how to be street smart, acquiring true life skills, which, when used discerningly and applied in real life cases make one one card smarter that the rest of the pack. However, for now we would first like to focus on the positive elements of the kanto scene.

So, get the picture? That street corner was always bustling with commerce and activity. A true trading ground. A real life platform. This is the concept from which this blog page would like to pick up on.

To apply the concept to our current scenario, our blog title SA kanto is a play of words. SA to mean South Africa.In Pilipino grammar sa is considered a non-focus locative marker, used to point out the direction in a sentence. The word "kanto"  literally means "corner" and figuratively points out to "Cape Town", this little corner of the globe where we now live. Thus, our header photo. Cape Town, with its iconic Table Mountain, is what we now call home. Its beautiful scenery providing shelter for us washed on its shores, embracing our diversity, accepting our varied personal identities.

This is what we are trying to achieve, in Cape Town (first), hoping the visionary initiative of Bayanihan SA Cape Town social enterprise could someday evolve into something more meaningful and substantial for the greater good of the Filipino community locally and as a whole in South Africa.

We hope to use this blog newsletter as a means to channel ideas, dreams and aspirations to something more concrete in the near future.

Join us in our journey... so tara na SA kanto!