Story Time: Poverty

How do you view poverty on your own perspective?

Have you ever encountered one?

I grew up in poverty. My mom would always ask me to go to our neighbor who has a Sari-Sari Store and ask the owner if it is fine if we get some goods and pay it on my fathers payday.

Example: My mom would give me a list of what goods do we need:

• Beef Loaf

• Corned Beef

• Noodles

• Milo

• Biscuits

• Egg

• Coffee

Almost everyday that is how our day goes that if owner declines then there is a possibility that we sleep with our growling but that is how life works. That is what life is leading us and we had struggled so much just to survive a day. It has been a like a cycle to just eat whatever is available in the store. There are cases when the owner would throw the goods on my face instead of properly giving it to me but I can't blame them because we were such a hassle especially when my fathers pay gets delayed.

Unhealthy? Yes. It is. To the extent that my two siblings suffered from malnutrition. They would sometimes be fed with brown sugar or cooked grilled rice. But that was the only thing that my parents can think of so we can all survive.

My mom on the other hand works with s job-out type in which she is just asked to follow a design of bracelet made of sea shells/beads. Say, she is asked to finish 200 pcs within a week. She is also paid weekly but could only get 200-300 a week which won't still be enough for us.

This made me strived harder. There are times when I feel myself involuntarily shaking when I got nervous because my mom would ask me to go to a certain person to ask if they can lend us some money and I am afraid because I might be embarass in front of other people just like what happened to me before that someone shouted at me in front of our neighbors telling me she won't give me any penny because my father have not fully paid his balance.

My father on the other hand, is a construction worker but there are cases when he won't have any work because they would have to wait for a call from the person who can refer them to any engineer. When this happens he would have to go fishing and we would then eat either a fish, shrimp and any other seafood that sometimes it would make me vomit.

You may say I am over reacting but I am certainly not. When you eat almost the same food for weeks or month you would literally feel the same. My parents would try to cook it on a different ways just to make sure we don't get out stomach upset.

Then when my father would get called for a job we can have at least a meat for once then back to going to Sari-sari store to get noodles and other canned goods for another week or so. We can't even afford to buy veggies at times.

When my father got sick it got worst. He had been in and out of the hospital. There was even a time when he died for a couple of minute as per my mom and just got revived. We were left to our grandmom and grandpa while all those chaos are happening to them.

We had to sell our house since we were drown with a lot of debts after my father got hospitalized and live in a nipa hut that is not even well built. Everytime theres a heavy rain everyone would get wet even my 2 year old sister and 3 years old brother.

It is hard for my mother to look for a job despite reaching college because of her age and since we suffered poverty she can't buy any decent clothes at even looks older than her original age.

....to be continued....

So sudden that I decided to write this story down. I'll give more details as this is gonna be an ongoing story. I can't tell if it would end by just part 2. May depend on the flow. But will do my best.

Thank you for reading! Have a great day!