MEMORIES: EARLY LIFE, STUDIES, INVOLVEMENTS & PEOPLE'S 
STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM (PART 1)   By Pastor Rudy Bernal
 -Chapter 7- My Grand Parents on My Mother’s Side 

My grandmother’s name was Aurea Bartolome Carvajal. She has four children, two girls and two boys. My mother, Estrella was the eldest. In  1940, when I was born,  she  told me,  there were strong rumors of possible war between the United States and Japan in Asia, during  the 2nd World War in Europe.

The war in Europe had brought many countries to war –England, France, Russia, other countries in Europe and the United States. On the other side was Germany and Italy. The United States  entered   the war joining the Allied forces  in Europe .

Since, Philippines is under the United States, Japan will go to war with the United States in the Philippines.;

My mother, Estrella cared for me  with   my grandmother. They cared for me when I was still a baby.  My grandmother, who was the youngest among her 9 brothers and sisters has a share of land, about 4 hectares –one hectare of low lands suitable for rice farming and 3 hectares uplands.  The farm sustained our foods during the war and   after.

My grandmother, with her four children,  planted rice, corn, bananas, root crops - camote, cassava, oraro, gabi, ubi and vegetables. I remembered, in the morning, we often eat camote, cassava, gabi and vegetables. We always have Cocoa drinks in the morning.  My grandmother and mother planted Cocoa Vines near our house. It grew with big vines and  bore  fruit. Our cocoa always has   plenty of fruits. Mother planted Cocoa every  July or August every year. She kept the dried beans for the whole year. She also encourage her neighbors and relatives to plant Cocoa. She gave seeds for them to plant.

When the fruits matured, my mother with my uncles  harvested them  and  dried these under the sun.  They dried the  fruits for several says until  dried.  Then, they get the seeds from the shells and dried it further in the sun until the seeds were fully dried. They can preserved the dried Cocoa seeds the whole year.  Then my two uncles, Ernesto and Ricardo pound the cocoa seeds   in a mortar until fully grounded. We used the ground Cocoa seeds for breakfast, most of the days during the months.

They boiled  cocoa  in the mornings with sugar, This iwas often our breakfast with  boiled bananas, comote or cassava  roots.   It is the same with our snacks in the afternoons, boiled cocoa with sugar and camote, casaba, oraro and ube.   That was a very nutritious morning and afternoons drinking cocoa with bananas.  I think, this was one of the reasons, we  were  healthy even then 

Often,  we   have   small seashells with vegetables for lunch. My grandmother   almost every day  gather  shells in the seashores. There were   plenty of “big living stones” in the seashores, we called “kabatuan”. There, small edible   shells were plenty, hiding under the stones.  Grandmother selected  the bigger shells and brought   home.  She mixed the shells  with vegetables  and cooked for our lunch. We often have rice for our lunch.

For supper, we again have  root crops -  camote and bananas. These were just boiled. My mother would not allow me to eat cassava during nights. She told me, these was an instruction of my father when he left and joined the army. Cassava were  eaten only  during days.  Never, during the nights. 

My grandfather, Esperidion Carvajal  left my grandmother and his 4 children before I was born. I heard he has practical training on health care and earned income by caring for those who were sick. I heard he went to Negros Occidental and stayed there for many years. He returned in Cawayan, Carles, Iloilo  when I was about 6 years old. I first met my grand father,  when he arrived, first time after many years on his sojourn in Negros Occidental. I was already Grade 11   in the Elementary school.

That was about 4:00 PM when my grand father arrived. He stayed in my parents home. My father and mother took care of him. He cannot worked   anymore. His eyes were growing blind. My grandmother did not live with my grandfather any more.

But my parents, uncle and untie helped take care of my grandfather. They cared for him. When he was completely blind, his children took turns caring for him. They respected him. But I think there was little love, It was just respect for a father.

My grandfather died about 8 years after he returned home.  There was 7 days wake for my grandfather. He died under the care of  Untie Aurea Alvaro’and her husband Eldefonso in their home. All of his children joined in his wake on his death.

My grandfather lived first  with my parents for nearly 1 year. When, he became fully blind. He stayed with my parents for another year. Then, it was arranged that he will stay with his other  daughter and son, every six months. And again, back with my parents. 

That arrangement was made so that caring for him will not be a responsibility of just one of his children. My uncle, Ernesto was studying in Iloilo City. He arrived only for a few days during the year, and left again for his studies or works. 

My grandmother was a woman with a strong and courageous heart.  She was soft spoken but decisive. He guided all her children, 2 boys and 2 girls, in their lives and worked hard to provide them, including me with our needs. When his sons and daughters got married, she gave them her blessings and share of the land, also about 1 hectare each. She gave  each son and daughter equal share of the land.

Grandmother, also lived with each  his children every six months. That was her way to help each of her grandchildren to feel her love and care. He stayed with each of  us,  and all her children and grandchildren every six months. While she lived with his sons and daughters, he took care of her grandchildren, including getting fresh shells in the seashore every morning to help provide for the family food.

To have strong and loving relations with her grandchildren, every night, after supper, the mats were readied on the bamboo  floor, in our homes, where  ever she was  staying.  She tells stories every night to her grand children.  Grandmother was a good story teller.

All of us grandchildren, loved to hear stories she told us every night.  She had seven stories. One story  every night. These were the same stories, which she told  over and over again with some  little revisions and  changes to make it  a bit  new and fresh.  The same story,  told several times the year over. But  we just love to hear grandmother telling us stories, until we  slept.

My uncles, Ernesto, was in Iloilo City studying in High School and later at the College of Theology. When he was pastor of Dumangas Baptist Church, my grandmother often visit them in Dumangas, mostly during the months of  October  to December. This was harvest time and  grandmother took me with her to Dumangas  and  we  joined   other women harvest rice. It was one of our  ways to earn money for some of our needs.

It’s hard living in Cawayan, Carles during that time. During rainy season, from June to October, when rain was abundant, we got our cooking, dish washing, and clothes washing water, near our home, about 5  meters away from our kitchen,  where we have a well about 18 feet deep.

But during dry seasons, from December  to May, we got all our water needs – cooking, dishwashing,  clothes washing and baths, in a well, more than one (1) kilometer away. We carry water in 2 kerozene  cans, hanging on our shoulders,to get our water from the well

For some of our  snacks, we also have   young coconuts and drunk fresh coconut water. Father and mother knew that fruits are good for our bodies. So, they made sure we have fruits always at home. We took care of guavas that grew year round around our house. We have 2 duhat trees (lomboy) which provide us with fruits every year. We have several Santol tree with many fruits. We havc several coconut trees providing us with young fruits anytime we need. We get some old coconut fruits for coconut milk , we often use for our vegetables.

We took care of  wild trees that provide us with fruits - like Inyam,  Kaimoto, On-on, and other wild trees that grows around. These wild trees, together with what our parents planted, provided us with the  fruits that were  all needed for the development of our bodies and and minds. During our younger days, we seldom got sick. I have never gone to a clinic or  hospital when I was  young. In college, I got only a stomach problem for a day. I went to Iloilo Mission Hospital for just a day and night.

In 2010, I got a stroke that landed me in a hospital. I got a stroke two times in 3 years time. But I think, I made a wrong  works that time. 

We have  simple lives  in the village of Dayhagan, Pilar, Capiz and in Cawayan, Carles, Iloilo.     But the people of our village were  healthy.   Very few ever got sickly. I never heard of people sick of diabetes, high blood pressure, or other deadly diseases  like kidney stones  and liver  troubles during  those  time.

People in our village ,  both men and women, grew and die of old age at home. For  in my  primary and elementary school days, I have  not seen a physician caring for sick people. And I have not seen a hospital . I only saw  “herbolarios” men and women who care  for the sick. They  visited people in homes who are sick,   gave  them  medicine from concoctions  of plants barks, leaves and fruits.

During those  times,  the old people were healthy, strong and died of old age. My grandmother,  Aurea Bartolome Carvajal  died  at 108 years  old. During that time,  I was already studying Lyceum of the Philippines in Manila.