Some of the Filipinos we commonly refer to as “poor” may not even realize they are “poor” in the real sense of the word.
For the love of me, I have never considered myself to have lived as poor despite what was being around me growing up. Here was my life:
- I sleep on a sink.
That’s been my bed, every day since I was five years old, maybe younger, but five is as far as I can remember. The picture is exactly what our family sink looks like. The bamboos are intertwined, not fancy. After dinner, and as soon as plates, pots, pans, etc are washed, I wipe the sink with a rug and spread my mat (made of coconut leaves, my pillow of folded shirts, and a mosquito net. I have a little blanket too. It was THE life. I am not kidding. I had my first real bed at 16 as a freshman in a university far from home. This real bed is a double-decker of about 20 inches wide and 5 ft long, made of plywood. Three of those double-deckers pile in one room the size of a regular master bathroom nowadays. It was a big improvement for me.
2. We had no electricity, no running water, no gas stove. We use firewood to cook our food and oil lamps to light the night. I studied with oil lamp. The only disadvantage was when you run out of oil, otherwise, it was cool.
3. Our living room is our bedroom and kitchen and balcony, and work room all in one. And the stars are a welcome spectacle serving as roof layer for bedtime stories. We also don’t have much walls. Once you enter, you are already outside.
If you don’t believe me, ask our neighbors. They are still there and their kids and grand kids live the same lifestyle, until now. The place is Lubas, Turno, Dipolog City, southern Philippines.
4. We eat ration-style. What that means is we measure our rice by the cup. One cup is for one child. We were nine kids growing up almost at the same time. So imagine the plates with the rice.
That’s about what our meal consists. A pinch of salt if we’re lucky, a coffee made out of burnt rice, sugar (raw), or pork fat (lard). It was only a little later that I learned vegetables are a good alternative food. Fish and meat, that’s for those who have extra money, and sometimes we can have it too, when my father gets a bonus. Boy, those days were heavenly.
Believe it or not, I grew up and afford better things.
But the best times are those days, when what you have is all you have, and what you do with what you have is cherished.
That was how I lived my life. Forty years later, I still find myself reminiscing on those good old days.
Being “poor” to me, is a state of mind. You are what you think you are.
What your mind can reach, your body follows.
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