There’s this family that can’t seem to get out of poverty. I’ve been analyzing why. Is it because of fate? Are they destined to live in scarcity their whole life? Or is it because of their own doing?
Lack of education? Intelligence? Ugali? Approach to life? Ano kaya ang diprensya?
They are good people, for sure. No desire or tendency to take advantage.
We employed their sons many years ago but didn’t stay long on their jobs.
The two good-looking boys found jobs elsewhere but one was abused by his supervisor. He was not paid his salary and for three months he only received one thousand pesos. After following up his salary from his supervisor, he was fired. Two months of depression, no money in his pocket, was too much for him to bear, so one morning he didn’t wake up. He was 38. His mother’s guilt was compounded by the fact that her son was making lambing a few days before “Nanay, magpa Jollibee ka naman.” “Nay, ibili mo naman ako kahit isang kamiseta lang.” It broke my heart when I heard this story. Edmund has lots of unused t-shirts here. And a Jollibee meal was not difficult to have.
For the past 25 years at least, their family has been recipients of my periodic spring cleaning. Boxes of still good to wear and okay to sell branded clothes, grocery packs, or whatever little thing I can give them to help.
Even if I don’t feel relaxed after a one hour massage with her very light strokes, I call the mom to come here so she could earn some good money plus tip. Two days ago, I gave her P1,000. Ilang araw na nilang ulam yan.
Last year, when I found out that the husband only earned P200 a day on Grab delivering food orders, Edmund agreed that we hire him as hardinero and utility around our house for P750/day plus free meals. Kahit our garden is very small and our drivers and maids tend to them, we just found a reason to employ the guy. But he didn’t want to come back here after I scolded him for painting something that I didn’t tell him to paint. He swore he didn’t do it but there was no other person in this house holding a paint brush. He even swore “mamatay na lahat mga anak ko”, which infuriated me.
This year, when I learned that the patriarch had no job, I employed him as family driver. He only lasted for a week. He was medyo suplado. When I told him to wear shoes, I could feel his objection from his body language and facial expression. When I correct his driving, he scratches his head, and obvious na obvious and feel na feel ko na inis na inis sa akin.
A few months ago, I found out that the wife took P10,000 from the funds entrusted to her which was supposed to be deposited to an account. When discovered after a few days, she later apologized and promised to return the money which she said she was forced to take to pay for her parents’ emergency hospitalization.
The other son lost his wife early last year from aneurysm, living 5 children. Being a single dad, I thought he would focus and dedicate his life rearing his children and to be able to send them all to school. This in my mind, would be a way out of poverty. Kung makatapos silang lahat, makapagtrabaho. They’ll have a better life than 6 people living in a room the size of our bed 80 inches x 80 inches. And what happened? He met a young woman 20 years old with two children ages 5 and 2. Brought her home and now he takes care of the two year old because the young lady doesn’t like to do any work, senyorita. Nakupo nag-uwi pa ng pabigat sa buhay. She’s tall daw, sexy, and pretty. She got pregnant when she was 14 years old. Nay ko po. The worst part, he married her. Instead of focusing on his own children, eto nagdagdag pa ng pabigat sa buhay. Baby pa at senyorita yung asawa na ni hindi natapos ang high school, may 2 anak, how the heck would they fit in that king sized room house? How would he support 5 children of his own, plus his teenage wife and her 5 and 2 babies?
I see the word POVERTY twinkling like a star.
Today, naawa na naman ako. I called the sister and her husband to clean our house.
These couple had a scuffle a few months ago, inuntog nung lalaki ang ulo ng misis nya sa dingding kasi he came home looking for good food on the table. But they only had rice and toyo. After two days I brought them two sacks of rice and some grocery items.
Although we have maids, marami akong kalat so I found a good excuse to employ them. They arrived one hour late. And after one hour of dusting my shoes, she excused herself to drink water. I said “okay, you can rest anytime.” I think she misunderstood my generosity. It’s been 30 minutes and she wasn’t back yet. So I went down to the kitchen to look for her. She and her husband were eating lunch at 10:39 am according to Antonia. Mukhang they haven’t had breakfast. So I said, kawawa naman baka nga mga gutom. After one hour, wala pa rin sya. I went out to look for her. She was outside, on the sidewalk, just making tunganga. Nai-stress pa ako sa kanya.
I told her “medyo confused ako, gusto mo bang magtrabaho o gusto mo na bang umuwi? Gusto ko lang kayong tulungan kaya ko kayo pinapunta dito, pero kung hindi ka comfortable, pwede ka ng umuwi. Akala ko kasi kailangan nyo ng pera”. She replied “Mam, kailangan namin ng pera pambili ng gamot ni tatay.” Medyo nainis ako sa sagot nya.
The desire to have a steady income or to grab every opportunity to earn a decent living, should not only be for one purpose. Aside from her father who is not sick because I just saw him two days ago making istambay on the street, they have four children to feed and to send to school. If I kick them out of the house that I let them stay at, they will have no place to live, no money to rent a room, no money to feed themselves. No money to live, period.
Working to provide for our family is a day to day commitment, not just for one time need. Expecting others to always help us will only bring disappointments. We will not get the help that we expect from other people, from friends, from relatives. We should expect help from within, from ourselves. Tayo talaga ang kakayod para sa ating pamilya at para sa ating sarili.
Sana maging maganda ang bagong taon nating lahat. Wala tayong sakit, tahimik at masaya ang ating pamilya. At naitataguyod natin sila.
Blessings to all.
