WHEN LIGAYA CAME HOME
Everyone was waiting at the airport when Ligaya came home. Kuya Fred and Tata, Belle-au and Vicky, Pa and Ma, Inday, and her one year old son Jimboy. Ligaya cried upon seeing her son; the last time she saw him was six months ago. Inday took care of him from the time Ligaya left to return to her nursing post at a hospital in Sheffield, England. Inday is her youngest sister, who, like the rest of her siblings is jobless. Only Tata is earning an income from driving the jeepney Ligaya bought two years ago, and now they were riding that Jeepney as they went home to Bacolod.
"Baya..." there were hugs and kisses and more hugs and kisses, but Ligaya wanted most to hug her son. Jimboy only stared at her but cried when she attempted to get him from Inday. The toddler sat restlessly at Inday's lap on their way home. Ligaya was thinking how she could take her son back with her to London, where he was born. Who would take care of him there as she worked? She was thinking of his privilege: at least seventy pounds every month from the British government. The boy might lose his privilege if he remined in the Philippines.
She was thinking about how lonely she was without Roy and Jimboy on her side.
Roy, her husband used to work in the same hospital she worked in but just
recently found greener pasture in a US cruise ship. He was always complaining
about the huge taxes they pay in London, and looked for new employment. The
uncertainties loomed in her head. What would happen to her family? Ligaya
herself was going to be a British citizen in another year. Could she give up
her job in London and follow her husband in the US?
Meanwhile, she needed to buy back their house in Bacolod which was amortized
when her father was hospitalized because of a stroke. She would talk to a
former classmate who was given a multiple-entry visa, when the latter applied
for a tourist visa and passed the interview at the British embassy. Maybe that
classmate would want to stay with Ligaya for six months in London, take care of
her son, while she worked in the hospital. Ligaya also wanted to pay the unpaid
debts of her sister Vicky, and help Belle-Au, apply as domestic helper, also in
London.
Ligaya was also waiting to get reunited with her husband who was now a ship
nurse. She secured this unpaid leave because Roy was also coming home to his
parents and siblings in Batangas. The two planned to get together, once more as
a family. But until Roy came, she would stay first with her family in Bacolod.
The day after her arrival, her siblings suggested that they go out and take the
little boy to an outing. Ligaya was excited about this. After six months of
cold weather, she wanted to see the beach, eat rice and adobo with her hands,
and savor the sweet mangoes. Ligaya provided gasoline money, all the budget for
grocery, every accessory from sun-shades to bathing suits, and of course, the
fees for entrance and accomodation at the resort. The family exchanged stories
on the beach, ate plenty, sang songs together, swam and made sand castles, and
Ligaya played with her son, who could now walk with only a little help.
After that happy day on the beach, the next days were full of domestic
arrangements. Ligaya bought six thousand pesos worth of groceries for a week.
Every sibling was still living with Pa and Ma. Ligaya reasoned to herself that
maybe, it was ok for Tata, even if he's already married, to stay home with her
parents. She was glad that Tata's child Bing was just a year older than Jimboy
and at that early age, the two were already playmates. The twenty-thousand
pesos she sends her parents every month would be enough to help even Tata's
family, considering his meager earnings as a jeepney driver. Ligaya was thinking
of how to remunerate Inday's taking care of her son, at least send her to
school, so Inday could later on take the board exam as midwife, and who knows,
maybe also be able to go abroad. She had hoped that Vicky would pass the
nursing board exam and help her, but Vicky failed and was now earning
forgettable commissions in her telemarketing job. This was so far Vicky's third
so-so job "which did not pay well."
Even as Ligaya began again to establish rapport with her son, her head swam in
the one hundred and one things that she needed to settle within her three-week
unpaid vacation leave. Their family's debts, the new arrangement with her
husband, her son's future.
Before she slept that night at the beach, she stared at the stars and marveled
at the huge space in the sky. How she wished she had the same wide space. How
she wished to make every aspect of her life sparkle. But until everything had
been settled, she felt trapped in a very small corner.
Mabuhay! Pinoy, Pilipinas. Balikbayan. OFW. Fil-AM. Foreigner or a carefree travel bug -- have you been to the Philippine Islands lately? (including all 7101 of them low tide) We'd like to hear about your anecdotes: you can call it "My Pinoy Experience." Funny, irreverent, bland, cute, different, interesting, religious, smorgasboard - we welcome your stories here. Or if you have an interesting photograph, you may want to share the story behind it.