Page 48 - Manila Up-Vol3#6

MY HUMBLE

BEGINNINGS

et me share daily entertainment by
with you the listening to radio soap
beautiful operas. Sweet potato and
memories of steam rice were a daily
Lmy humble common food. Tis was
beginnings. I was born our road to the village,
and raised in an uncivilized this is how I played, this
village in a remote island was a typical kitchen
called Antequera, Bohol in of my neighbors, the
the Philippines. I am fondly bamboo jar was our piggy
called “Tata” by neighbors bank. We had bonfres in
and friends. In the village, the afernoons to keep the
there was no electricity mosquitoes away. Tere
and no running water. We were no beds. We slept on
take our baths and wash the foor with a mat made
our clothes in the river, from coconut leaves.
situated deep in the forest. Te older the mats, the
We carry our laundry on sofer it gets. I must go
top of our heads walking to the forest every 2 days
though the wooded rugged to gather up dead woods
terrains in hopes that we to be used for our daily
don’t encounter or step on cooking. My school was
snakes, in which i did a few times. next to a beautiful wooded running river. I walked
We cook our food this way, these are the typical a mile to school barefoot with my lunch wrapped in
houses of my neighbors, these are the gas lamps that banana leaves, tied around with a banana string. A
gave us light in the evenings, I struggled to do my simple steam rice and salted fsh is a typical daily lunch
homework with very minimal light. for school. Ahhh....
Tis was my grandmother’s sewing machine, this ..it was peaceful, beautiful, far and untouched by
was the potty/pee bowl we put next to us when we modern marvels; My grandmother always used to tell
sleep in the evenings because the toilet is separated me afernoon stories, as i sat on the foor with my face
from the house. Te small radio was the only form of leaning on her knees, as she sat on her window chair,

48 manilaupmagazine.com