I did not spend a single cent to enjoy the happiest moment of my life in this world. Naaah Virginia, it was not when I graduated from college nor when I passed the CPA Board Exam. For a woman like me, it could have been when I met the person who I considered my soul mate or when I heard the first cry of my baby. They indeed made me happy but not without the feeling of fright of what's going to happen next. What would I expect given the new opportunities?
For someone who is mababaw- ang- kaligayahan, the happiest moment in my life was going to a picnic when I was five or six years old. O di va. mababaw talaga. Mababaw din ang tubig eh.
I've been narrating here in my blog that my father took the responsibility of washing linens, bedsheets and diapers (that time, disposable diapers were unheard of) after my mom's childbirth had helped in the growth of population. They made use of bleached flour sacks or the classy birds-eye for the baby's nappies.
My father was not a house husband. He was gainfully employed in a multinational corporation and the sole provider of the family. His gender was not questionable. What with ten of us in the family ?
He liked to bring the big soiled items in a little waterfall near our place for laundry instead of requiring the help to wash them in the bubon (well). However, he could do it only on weekends. We started before 7:00 am after breakfast. I said we because I was the shadow of my dad; whereever he went, I was there too. My brothers were more interested in playing jolens and teks. He knew how to do the laundry. First he bleached the white bedsheets and diapers under the sun by spreading them on flat big stones that lined the cascading crystal clear water. So where was I during this time and why was that the happiest moment in my life? My father would bring me to the shallowest part of the waterfall where I can swim without the danger of drowning. I aso did some laundering--my raggedy ann doll. For someone who grew up by the sea, I was the only one who did not learn how to swim.
We had a short break at 10:00 am. Some women who were also doing their laundry gave me snacks. I knew they were asking why I was with my father. Some women were making tsismis and flirting with my dad. I did not care. I was clueless then. At 12:00, my dad had already rinsed the laundry and had spread them around for drying. Malaking drier.
Then he would bring out our baon which was wrapped in banana leaves. There were daeng, laing, crabs, langka, bananas and guavas. Yum. We shared with the other women who also brought some veggies like paco salads, ginataang puso ng saging, sapsap and lapu-lapu. We did not have bangus there nor tilapia. Ours were mostly saltwater fish.
At 3:00 we're all packed and ready to go home. When I reached home, I was tired that all I did was sleep. No problem thinking where to get the next food, no problem about GDP, no problem about bullies in the workplace and no heartache from unrequited love. (ahem). Just the innocence of eating near a waterfall. What about you?
Pinaysaamerika
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