|
Hello there. I’m Louise. My friends call me Lois or Ice or Jams or Jajams and my family calls me Aisa (pronounced as Ay-sah or something like that). I came into this world December 1984, in a crowded hospital. Too crowded, as my mom described to me, that 2 mins after I was out of her womb, the doctor asked her to leave the bed and sit on a nearby chair to give way to the next expecting mother. At any rate I was born and my parents were given their first child.
I was raised in the province of Laguna here in the Philippines, where my family lived with my grandparents and the house was owned by my father’s brother who then resides in Hong Kong. We don’t really have much money then and my dad did not really have a stable job until one of his brothers gave him a tricycle which he used so he can provide for us. I think what he was earning then was quite enough for our basic needs so I never really enjoyed too much luxuries in life though I was able to attend private school, it was because some of my father’s brothers are so fond of me that they paid for my schooling- well my father gives me allowance since my uncles only covered for my tuition fee. Both my grandparents and my uncles spoiled me that they provide for the stuff that my dad cannot give me. But though my father cannot provide me everything, I still admire him for his hard work.
I got 3 siblings: Maru, Toto, and Anthony. Among them my favorite is Toto. I am not ashamed to tell people that I love him more than my other 2 siblings since he is a special child. He was born April 1990 with congenital heart disease. Doctors thought he won’t make it but he is still with us now. He just turned 18 last month. He’s skinny but he’s strong and eats a lot of rice and spaghetti. He is actually good. He never went to school since we cannot afford it but he’s intelligent that he learned to read by himself and he can speak English and a little Spanish too better than most of the residents in our house. Only thing is that he never learned to write. I spoil him a lot. No one could ever hurt him as long as I am around. He thinks like a five-year old boy, and he loves to play around.
We lived in Laguna up to 1996 until my uncle separated with his wife and decided to sell their house. Our family went to reside here in my maternal grandmother’s house. It’s a compound where my other maternal relatives also live. It was hard living here. My dad was jobless too since he needed to sell our only means of living. After couple of months my parents decided to sell ihaw-ihaw (grilled stuff mostly internal parts of chicken and pork). We don’t get much money from selling ihaw-ihaw but still my parents managed to send me to a public school (my uncles stopped supporting my studies then. I really don’t know why). I was in my 6th grade then and that part of my life wasn’t really memorable. I can barely remember most of my classmates face maybe because being a fat girl from province, my classmates, who has been living the city life for quite some time, barely want to talk to me and since I don’t made a lot of friends then, that part of my life is basically forgettable. More about my school life in my future blogs.
After almost two years of selling ihaw-ihaw, Aunt Gi, my mom’s sister gave us FX which we used for a living. Well she did not really give it us. Fact is it was named after her brother-in-law a.k.a. Kalbo (bald). My Aunt Gi lives in Australia with her good for nothing husband. Maybe you can sense that I don’t like him. Well hell yah I don’t. Anyway, I will talk about them some other time.
Driving the FX did not really bring too much money in the house. My dad would earn like 800php or less a day and since he and my aunt Gi had a deal that he has to pay the 500php boundary (thru my cousin Ate Lala) everyday (my mom makes Ate Lala sign her notes as an acknowledgement that she received the payment) and has to leave the FX with full tank gas, what’s left for us was only around 50php a day which isn’t really enough for us. I go to school everyday with no allowance at all. I just bring a bottle of water or sometimes I roam around the school looking for my cousin (all of my maternal cousins studied in the same school) to ask for food. But I did not pity myself experiencing all of these. I pitied my family more especially my brother Toto who was always sick then because we cannot provide him with the right food and medicine he needs. I remember one time when I came home from school that he was just lying on the wooden sofa on too hot with fever. He was motionless and pale that I really thought he was a goner. My mom was sitting beside him. We wanted to bring him to the hospital but we don’t have the money. Well just so you know, here in the Philippines it’s really hard to bring anyone in the hospital without money because they’ll just neglect you to death. Anyway, we did not really think that he will survive, but he did and I thank God so much for that. Miracles really do happen.
I’ll continue my story on my next blog. Thank you for your time…
|
| Views: 46
