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Barbecue…stick!

What do you do with the stick after eating barbecue or bananacue? We have only one predictable answer – THROW IT AWAY, who cares. Besides, who needs it?

Most of us don’t care of the small things that exist in our daily lives. Just like a barbecue stick, after we used it the conventional way, we throw it immediately as if it’s nothing in this world’s worth. Anyhow, we are not harming nature because it’s biodegradable. We know it is made from bamboo tree. And bamboo trees grow so fast that it’s so easy to cut one stalk to make thousands of sticks.

Barbecue sticks are part of daily life for some people. In canteens, there’s at least a stall that sells bananacue to feed the rumbling tummy. At night, barbecue stations are in every barrios of the city. Especially here, in Cagayan, every Friday and Saturday night is called “Night Café” where barbecues are served with cold unhealthy beverages. We are clueless of where these sticks go after it thrust the chicken or pork meat. We could just easily answer that surely as they are thrown away with ease. Worse in the nearby areas of Cogon Market and Agora, it is done every night.

We all know that these sticks are made for the purpose of food. However, crafts of imagination won’t limit to how one use these things. When I was still a kid, I used to play with these sticks. I tied them together in the middle forming an X. Funny, but I had many slingshots out of them; even funnier because those were used or thrown-away sticks. I washed them with soap and water before using though.

I can still remember when I was in high school and we had an art project. I really hated arts that time but I had no choice but to follow orders. For it, we were required to construct miniature woodcraft. I didn’t really like doing it because I have no idea what to do. Late in the afternoon, I was assigned to clean the surroundings outside of our room (it’s usual in public schools.) As I was picking those barbecue sticks, an idea blinked into my empty brains. So I collected bundles of those sticks and glued my piece. It cost me sweat but not money. I passed it and got 95% grade (an A-grade) for it. How brilliant!

What if those thrown sticks were just reused? It really takes time and effort but after seeing the task, it’s worth a thousand smiles and boast.

But those things can be used by bad means too. I heard a sure-kill using only one stick. Its pointy edge is like an icepick. After a forceful thrust on the man’s tummy, blood clot followed because fats covered the hole and incapacitated the flow of blood. The man was said to die in minutes.

Maybe for some reason, we just disregard those sticks. We take them as trashes, mess, craps etc. We don’t think how we could benefit from them by other means. But who knows that someone will be featured worldwide as an Artist of the Year due to his crafts using thrown-away barbecue sticks. Or maybe there are many of them now. Well, as they say everything in this world has its own purpose. But this doesn’t mean “only purpose”. It could be one, two, or three purposes just like a barbecue stick.