The Life of A Balut Vendor

There is simplicity in living in the province. If you happen to live in the highly urbanized cities, you get to hear a cacophony of vehicles. Whereas in the province, you get to listen to the sweet voices of nature… most of the time.

For the meantime, I have to stay here in our province to assist my grandmother. And of the many perks of staying here is that I am able to enjoy the food that are really considered as “Tatak Pinoy” (Originally Filipino). One of these is our very own “Balut” or fertilized duck eggs.

Considerably, it is an acquired taste to some. However, if you get to know it more, you’ll be looking for it as if the voice of the vendor is a voice from heaven… because it really is delicious.

Last week, before I had covid-like symptoms (yeah, my grandmother and I have symptoms since last weekend), we sat by the seawall and Kuya Martin, the Balut Vendor, came to us to sell his Balut.

He sold his Balut at 20pesos a piece. You can buy a 16-day old to 20 day-old egg. My friends and I loved to eat a 16-day old because we don’t want to eat a Balut with a “pokemon” inside. 😂

While we were enjoying the food, we had an interview with Kuya Martin.

He told us about how being a vendor helped his family in surviving everyday. He mentioned that selling balut is difficult especially in the pandemic where lesser people come out to buy. Although there is already a relaxation of protocols in our city, not many are buying because of the curfew.

Everytime there are buyers, he is elated because it means income to him. He mentioned that he only has a supplier and all the income he has in a day, a portion of it is for the supplier and the rest is his.

He has a family with 5 children. Also, I noticed that there is something wrong with his left eye but I did not dare to ask for courtesy purposes. He mentioned that it is already a blessing that he is able to provide for his family because of selling balut which he has been doing for more than 6 years already. He told us that it was challenging but it was worth it. So long as he is not causing problems to anybody, selling balut is something that he is proud of.

He also mentioned that there are also a lot of balut vendors who experience the same difficulty as his. Although they want to earn more, they cannot really do anything because selling balut is the only way they know to provide for their family. Lack of education is also one of the factors.

He emphasized that even if his life revolves around balut selling, he is happy because one balut sold is already a blessing.

To be honest, we were struck by his last statement. We then realized that throughout our lives, we have already missed the simple joys in life. We’ve been so busy making a living often forgetting how to live simply. That is the lesson we got from Kuya Martin.

We bought 20 balut from him. He was very thankful because he sold a lot that day. He may have made our stomach full, but another thing that he did is making us experience the simple joys in life once again.

It’s really amazing to know the stories of different people from the different walks of life. You get realizations which you already have forgotten. Thusly, a simple balut will help you remember that life that you’ve long forgotten but continued to yearn for: a simple life.

So, if you have time, eat balut. While doing so, try to get to know the vendor’s life. Trust me. You’ll learn from them.

In the midst of the rising cases of Omicron Variant, always keep yourselves safe and improve immunity. Currently, my grandmother and I are at home gradually improving our health. It is really true: “prevention is better than cure”.

Keep safe everyone!

Ampyng!