My Mother, Estrella Carvajal Bernal, a Dressmaker & Gardener

MEMORIES;  Life and Time of Pastor Rudy Bernal,  His Glimpses on History & the  People’s Struygle for Freedom

Chapter 7 – My Mother,  Estrella Carvajal Bernal, a Dressmaker& Gardener...

My mother, Estrella  Carvajal Bernal  was  only 17 years old when I was born. She was left by my father when she  was a few months  pregnant of me.   My father went for training  in the army.  I was told,  that in Asia  there   were rumours of  war between the United States and Japan. The   United States  have already entered the war in Europe against the Germans and Italians.

My mother, whom, I   call  Inday,  was an industrious and creative woman.  She finished only Grade IV of formal schooling. But she  learned  lots of skills from my grandmother and other relatives who taught her various  skill, including sewing  dresses.  Dressmaking  became  my mother’s  first vocation.  It  was her major way to earn a living.  Women and girls in  the village of Dayhagan, Pilar and Cawayan, Carles and other nearby villages come to her and   have their  new dresses  made or old dresses  remodelled. 

  During special occasions - school graduations, Christmas Seasons and  fiestas   my mother was always busy.  She  saw dresses  for women and girls  from morning until late in the nights. She woke up    early     in the mornings to saw dresses again.   We helped  in whatever we can    All of us 9 children call our mother “Inday”, just like an older sister.  Only our youngest brother, Rex,   calls   our mother  “Nanay” (mother).

Life was  hard in our village. All of us were trained to work and  helped the family. I  and my younger brother, Restituto Jr.,  were  trained to care -  feed, graze and water our   3  carabaos   daily.  We water them at  noon  and late afternoon.  The carabaos were  our  help in the farm.    But   life was   a little better for us.  My mother was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church, when I was very young. She  brought me  to Sabbath School every Saturday for study and worship.  My grandmother, who’s a Baptist, brought  me to Sunday School every Sunday morning. Our father who is a Catholic, later joined the Baptist faith. My father  do not gamble,  and  later  ends his drinking and smoking habit. It was a decision he made to  make life a bit better for us.

I think, one of the reasons for the very hard life of many people in the village were vices –drinking wine, gambling, card playing  and smoking. The daily cost of this seemingly little vices,  get much of the income of the family that could have  spent   for food and other family needs.

Early in life, I learned  the positive effect of   faith and   Chistian  values  in life.   The leaders of both the Baptist  and Seventh Day Adventist church in the  villages  were also cousins.  Their spiritual and moral values were  quite  high.  And except for the some foods – the Adventists  were   taught  not to eat    pork, fiwithout scales, crabs  and shrimps.   The Baptists eat all kinds  of food stuffs, but   eating creatively and in moderation. The  life’s values of Adventists and Baptists  were quite the same. And they  have little vices in  life. This was made possible with the education we have in the church. Baptists and Adventists, have to undergo doctrinal studies for several days about their faith, before they were Baptist to be Christians.  Many children baptized, do not know their faith. I heard the joke many Catholics in the Philippines has gone  to church only three times their whole life - on baptism, marriage and funeral. This is a  joke. But when we  saw  the rampant vices, crimes, drugs and corruptions, mostly by most Catholics, there's something wrong, perhaps of the teachings.  And President Rodrigo Duterte may be right for having  quite a very low regards for  many Catholic  Bishops and Priests. 

When I was 5 years old,  my father and mother were  able to buy about 3  hectares of farmland  in Cawayan, Carles. They bought the   land from my father’s cousin who decided to transfer to Capiz province and ventured  in fishpond as their livelihood.   I heard he made good in his  fishpond ventures. My father was able to buy the land from his Back Pay as a soldier in the Philippine Army. I heard the cost of the 3 hectares  land was Three Hundred Fifty Pesos (P350.00) in 1948. The equivalent of  P350  (Philippine money) that time was USDollar 175. That year, the dollar exchange was USD 1.00 equals  Ph 2.00.  This year  2017, a  USDollar 1.00   is PHP 52.00.  What a difference. What really happened? Was  this a little part of what was called, the power of US imperialism? Applied by the US financial power against Asian countries, like the Philippines? 

During some months, when women and girls do not usually buy new dresses,  mother works mostly in her garden.  All  my bigger sisters helped   mother  in the gardens.  Father works in the rice farm during the day. And he went fishing during the nights. Years later, when he learned carpentry, he farms and  worked as a carpenter. He left fishing.  Mother helped  the family earn some income  from gardening.  Gardening was mother’s second love.  Our house'  surroundings were  full of different flowering plants.  She grows different  flowers and maintained this even during dry seasons.  Mother’s  flower gardens were always blooming with   roses, daisies, pointsetias, gumamellas, vogainvillas and other  flowers. She gave my younger sisters   small pails   to help water her  plants.

What did we do to have quite abundant water for home use?  When  I was Grade IV, about 10 years old,   my father decided  to dig a deep  well.  With a young man as helper, they  dug   a deep  well  that reached 24 feet deep, working several weeks.   But  there  was no water. A twenty- four  feet well was already deep. But  still no water.  But father said, he will continue digging..  At  26 feet deep there was  still no water. But  there was something that made the soil  a bit wet.  He  thought with  little depth more, their would be water. So they kept   on digging the hard rock. There were days that they could only dig about one forth (1/4) foot deep. But they continued digging.  

 Then, at about 26 feet, there was a small water that comes from the solid rock down. They worked harder. The rock, we called “dalipe”, a very hard rock, which was called in our place  “buhi nga bato” or a “living  rock”.  Then, to their great joy,  the “living rock”  slowly cracked.  And a very clear and fresh water came out slowly. It was slow water coming out, but water was  now within reach. And after digging for another  half foot,  at about  27 feet, water was coming out.

After long, hard and patient digging, we   got clear and clean water,  at 27 feet deep. It was only 4  meters away from our kitchen. We have now water for all our needs.  We do not have to carry water from a well,  a  kilometers  away   during dry season.  We are fortunate. Some families in Dayhagan, Pilar    dug   deep wells, 35 feet deep. But  no  water came out. They have water during rainy season. But on dry seasons, their  well  35- feet deep  were dry.  We thanked God for the blessing of fresh water.  The gardening of my  mother  was now more easier.

My mother said she was  always happy when she looked  at her flower   gardens.   The flowers were   for her eyes only.  She shared some  to friends.   But on some occasions, in June during weddings,  many church decorators buy flowers from my mother to decorate the church.  Also on February 13, many young people visit our home to buy mother’s roses and other flowers.

But she earns  year- round from her vegetable gardens.  She plants pechay, string beans, mustards,  alogbate,  eggplants year round. After harvesting the vegetable, a new vegetable was  immediately planted. My sisters helped water  and pulling  weeds. Mother practices organic farming during those times.  She kept the carabao and goat manures, all the garbage, the leaves, ashes in our stoves, daily store it  in a corner, under a tree  and kept it there for  months. She also bring  some seaweeds,  gathered from the  shore  to her composts. When this materials were fully decompost, she  spread on the gardens. She told us this will make the vegetable grow well, fast and resistant to diseases.

She  brought  sewage from the seashores and hang it on branches of fruit trees - jackfruits, papaya, mango  to drive away some insects and flies. 

 Daily, our  neighbors  comes to buy vegetables from mother. Also,  wives of fishermen comes   exchanging some of  their fish with our  mother’s vegetables. Other women  came  with fish, lobsters, shrimps and small crabs  and  barters  these with mother’s vegetables.  Although my parents  have little cash,   life was  quite  easier for us . Barter was  technic of her business,

For continuous source of a little cash,   mother  planted “buyo”. This  were   plants that climb the bamboo poll. And the leaves are used  by  old women for  chewing,  “mama”. Together with other ingredients – tobacco, lime, beatle nuts and  “buyo”, they chew this ingredients mostly  after  meals, making it also as a social sharing among women. Their saliva becomes red. And they do this, mostly 3 times a day, morning, noon and evening. They come to the house weekly, to buy “buyo”  and buy other ingredients for their “mama” from other nieghbors. I learned later, the chewing game mostly of older, women,  was the reason why, most of them   have very good and strong  teeth until they die.

To earn other additional  income, my mother reserve two rooms in our house for public  school teachers to use as lodging room.  They  just cooked their  food. Two teachers often stayed in a room.  Only  female teachers were  boarding in our house.

My parents earn  little income. But   with 11 of us all in the family to   feed,  dressed  and send to school, it was not easy for our parents. They  challenge us,  they   whisper to us to get an education. My  mother  did not encouraged  my sisters  to go dancing during their youths.   But challenged us to get education.    We made it to elementary.  But  to get education in high school  was  very hard. And college education was  much harder. We need to find ways to get college education.  They pushed  us a little  hard. Challenging us to go, if possible and  study as working students. Getting   education was a way for us to have a little easier life for the  future.

 I think, some  of our family’s values, were influenced by the Baptist Pastors and Bapitst leaders that often visited our home. I could remember those who came when I was still very young, and those who when I was still younger. For many Baptist Pastors has slept in our house and they for a  little time talked with us and shared thoughts with us.  I remembered  Dr, Agustin Masa from Capiz Evangelical Church and Filamer Christian College, Rev. Ralph George,  Rev. James  Long, Dr. Joseph Howard, Rev. Leo Penacerada,  Miss Carmelina Catedral,  Pastor Angelina Cadiao, Rev Edwin Lopez, Rev. Penuelito Sacapano, Rev. Apolonio Francia, Rev. Gigari, Rev Edwardo Calvo, Rev. Malvar Castillon,   Pastor Proserfina Plasus,  Pastor Fred Jacildo, Mrs. Feraz Legita, Rev. Geofrey Parish, Rev.  Sven Lindstrom,  Rev. Olof Lindstrom, Mr. Leo Liljengren,  Mr Aki and Kikki Svalfors, Rev. Emelio Lapatha, Rev. Elias Laprades, Rev. Harold  Blatt,  Rev. Ernesto Carvajal , Rev. Ernesto Uncho, and quite a number more have stayed for a day and  night at home..

I think, the time  we   have  pastors at home have helped us, my brothers and sisters to developed a sense of sensibility  that comes with a few minutes time and  conversations with pastors, both men and women of God.  They have a kind of bearings and attitudes,  the language and the way of speaking  that helped developed  good  attitudes  and  sense of  responsibility  that I thought,  were  moulded from   stays of  ministers of God who visit our  homes.  There   visit blessed us as a family.  The ministers of God’s   short   stay, a day or two,  in our homes   were  blessings  to  the  family.