Life is just a mere reflection, a mere expression of God's infinite goodness. Life is God's shadow that may somehow lead us to wonder how and why we come to be. Everything has its purpose, every single shadow reflects its reality - there must be something that's true. Everything must be true and must be real as I am.
I am a woman who used to wonder; how and why? I mean, how come I survive? How come I dare to hope when it happens to be hopeless? why is it so?
My name is Jetryn Genilla, 35 years old, married, currently residing in Misamis Oriental, Philippines. I have a ten (10) year old daughter and she's now in grade 4. I am working in the office of a certain private company and my husband working as a OFW in the country of Saudi Arabia.
Actually, I am newbie here, and would like to share my story to inspire, give courage and hope to those who are hopeless and to cheer-up those who are lonely. I will start my story with my childhood days. When we we're in Maramag, Bukidnon.
"Childhood Days"
Early in the morning my mother shouting saying "Wake-up and take a bath". When I woke-up it was 4:00 o'clock in the morning. I felt dizzy, so sleepy. But my mother won't stop nagging unless we get up. After taking a bath, we eat our breakfast and make it hurry cause we need to walk five (5) kilometers to reach our school. Week days is a struggle for me since we need to walk a total of ten (10) kilometers. I am the eldest of three siblings. During that time I was eleven (11) years old. I have two (2) brothers namely: Marjun and Jeson. Marjun was 10 years older than Jeson. My mother is a house keeper and my father is a carpenter and a farmer as well. We live in a small hut with a simple living, we lived in the province of Bukidnon. Most of the time, I heard my parents quarrel. My mother nagging because of my father - he's drunker and cigarette smoker. Actually, they were separated for how many times but because of us they choose to stick each other and thrive to live to make our family complete. Yeah.. we're complete but I can't feel the complete happy family.
Honestly, during that time we're financially poor. In short "Kakha Tuka" meaning "No money, no food". With that very young age, in my mind "I want to finish my studies and help my parents especially my mother". One day, I prayed to God. "Lord I want to help my family please help me to do so, give me strength so I could be able to bear the trials and endure the hard times of my life. I know that you heard me, please help me Lord".
One day, my grandma visited us. She is the mother of my father side. She invite me to come with her - to their home land in Kibawe, Bukidnon. When I heard that my mother allowed me to go since it was our summer vacation, I am so happy.
When I was in Kibawe, Bukidnon. I meet a lot of cousins and became my friends. I felt the happiness and I am at peace in my grandma's place. I called my grandma as "Popo". I saw a lot of fruits such as mangoes, guava, seriguelas, Hebi and etc. there's a lot of coconut tress and the place is so nice. Popo's house surrounded with green herbs, rice fields, fruits and coconut trees. The air is so clean and fresh.
Early in the morning, my cousins called me to play. We played tago-tago-an, slide on the hill using the "palwa" the petiole or coconut leaf stalk. We also played "lastiko" or rubber band, tumbling in the rice husk, climbing on the fruit trees. I experienced the incomparable happiness. Imagined, we played for the whole day.
On the next day, we swim on the "hill gate" an irrigation canal together with the carabao. But the carabao is on the lower part of the canal and I swear that canal is not like the canal now a days. During that time, our canal has a clear water and its like a swimming pool wide. We enjoyed swimming for almost whole day. You can't believe it right? Hehehe...but we really enjoyed it. After swimming, we go to the coffee farm to get some mangoes because that place was surrounded with mango trees, guava and seriguelas. When we go home we bring a "pasalubong" for Popo so she won't get mad on us for roaming around. And eventually, she's happy to see us happy.
My Popo is a kind-hearted person. She's so beautiful inside and outside. She was around 70's that time and yet she's so energetic and diligent in working at her own rice fields. She own's more than four (4) hectares of the rice fields. She love to sing bisaya gospel songs every morning. It give me a positive energy when I heard her sang a song because she was gifted with a beautiful voice. Every Sunday we go to the church and she nurtured me spiritually. As I observed her while we walked from church going home, She's so happy while hamming. While observing her, I felt that she wasn't feel the tiredness of walking the seven (7) kilometer from home to church and a total of fourteen (14) kilometers. Yeah... maybe you can't believe it right? But its true because in our province the transportation is only the motorcycle and carabao or horses sometimes, but they are few. We don't have any choices but to walked because if we wait for the motorcycle we can arrived at church late and she doesn't want us to be late.
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