Chapter  8-- My Grand Parents on My Father’s Side

My grandparents by father’s side were Simplicio Bernal and “Am” Apolinario. I cannot remember the first name of my grandmother. But I called her “Am”. I remember. I was the one who called her “Am”. For I was the first among their grand children. . “Am” was short and inverted for “mama” That was how I called her for endearment.

My brothers and sisters and my cousins, later followed me in calling our grand mother,  “Am”.  We all  called our grandmother “Am”. They lived in Guinticgan, Carles, Iloilo, about 3 kilometers away from our home in Dayhagan and 3 kilometers from the Poblacion of Carles.

Guinticgan, Carles is one of the 16 villages in mainland Carles. Twenty-four other villages were island villages in the eastern side, separated by sea from the mainland. Carles has a fishing grounds covering thousands and thousand miles on the northwest, north and northeastern seas. It has also a very wide swamp lands, much of it was now developed into fishponds.

The fishpond areas of Carles were 3rd in size, in the whole province of Iloilo. Carles was considered before the coming of strongest Typhoon Yolanda  in 2014, the  3rd biggest producer of coconuts and copra.

My grandfather earn his living by fishing. When I was 4 years old, he has a kind of “fish pond” in the stony seashore of Guinticgan,  His fish fond  is about 100 meters wide and 200 meters long. He gathered big stones and made it a kind of a “fish pond terrace”. The stones were stocked about a waist high and a meter wide at the base. Here the fish during high tides entered his “fish pond”.

In Guinticgan, this was called “Atog”.  During high tides, the  "fish pond" of my grand father, was submerged in deep water, which is about 2 meters high. Different fishes from the sea enters my fathers fishpond. Then during low tides,  when sea water was very shallow, just about half-foot deep and lower, I can see the different fishes  stranded in my grand fathers' fishpond. He just enter in and catch the fishes, some already lying on the sands but alive.
 Grand father then caught the fish still swimming  in the deeper side  of the fish pond with his small fish net. He got lots of fish every morning to bring home to my grand mother. The fish were more than enough for the family needs. Some fish he sold to neighbors and friends. My grandfather has also a rented small rice farm, about a hectare. He developed it to a rice field during rainy seasons, from June to September. Then from October to November he plants corn, different kinds of vegetables and  peanuts.  This was how grand father earns income for his 4 children, 3 boys and a girl.

My grandfather told me that when he was still a young boy, the place where they have their home and farm was a jungle. He said: “Rudy when I was still young, one time, I saw a big snake on the branch of the tree. The big snake has caught a calf. The snake bit the calf on his back, holding it strongly. The snake’s tail was around the branch of the tree up. 

"The snakes teeth bite strongly the back of the calf. It was trying hard to lift the calf to higher branch of the tree. It has lifted already the snack about a meter  and  a half  high in the tree. The snake was slowly lifting the calf up. It can swallow the whole calf, when his saliva will be around the calf.”

He called the snake “Bitin”. It was called “Bitin” because it carries her captured animal up to the branch of the tree. He and his friend  killed the snake. And also killed the calf which was still alive but very weak. They slaughtered the calf and the meat distributed to the neighbors. He told me, the meat, which may have been poisoned by the snake’s bite, was tasteless.

“Am”, my grandmother, helped earn heir living by planting sweet corn and bananas for  snacks. She plants violet ubi, a root crop and made it to some kind of cakes. She planted Cacao, a kind of tree whose fruits she dried and ground. They has small grinder made of 2 flat and round stone at home. She ground  cacao grains on her grindstone  at home. Then she mixed the grounded cacao cereals with water and sugar and made chocolates and bread for our home needs. Some they sold also to neighbors.

Grandmother also planted a kind of an “oatmeal” plant, which grows tall, about two meters high, which flowered and matured to grains. She called the grains “batad”. After harvesting, she dried the “batad” and made it into grains. Then she cleaned it. She ground it. She called the grounded “batad” an Oatmeal. She cooked this in morning for breakfast. She told me to eat this  as breakfast in  mornings, because Oatmeals   has many vitamins, nutrients  and minerals and good for my body.

When I was about 6 years old, my four grandparents, Tay Gauden, Papa Pecto, Tay Amboy and Tatay Melik, cut a very big tree, about 3 meters circumference in Guinticgan. The made that big tree into a big big boat. They worked together building it. After several months, they have a big boat, 1 ½ meter wide, 1 meter deep  and 20 meters long. They put 8 oars on each side of the boat. Twenty people go fishing on that boat, either early morning or later afternoons, and during the nights.

Then, they bought nets and made there fishing nets themselves. They inaugurated the boat. They burned an incenseso. And they started in there new venture in life, fishing with their newly built fishing boat with their new fishing nets. These were how enterprising my 4 grandparents on my father side were. They were also all boys.

My four grandparents go fishing with some 20 young people, including young boys helping and working. They managed their fishing business together, each with special task and responsibility. Tay Gauden was stirs the boat. Tay Amboy was the manager. Tatay Milek was always at the front, looking for the swarms of fishes. Tay Gauden was incharged of selling the fish.. They continued in their business for years, until some 20 years later, a strong typhoon came and destroyed their fishing boat.

My untie, Rosina, visited me always when I was still a small boy of 3 to 4 years old in my mother’s house. Because I am the only nephew, I was loved and endeared by my uncles and unties. Nene Rosing, came often, every two weeks to my mother and borrowed me for 3 days. She brought me to my grandparents in Guinticgan to be with them.

This was about 3 kilometers away, which we walked always slowly going home and back. When I got tired, she carried me on her waist or back. But often, I walked on the beach and farms on the 3 kilometer way. It was always good experience walking on very clean seashore where fishermen were trying to catch fish by hooks, lines and sinkers about 10 meters away from the shorelines.

My uncle, Jose was very close to me. When I was 4 years old, my uncle Jose made me a small boat which I used to play in the seashore and in the rice paddies when there were deep water. When I was in Grade 1, my uncle made me a pair of boxing gloves, and taught me little boxing skills. When our globe become rotten, my mother made me another pair of boxing gloves for my brother and my friend’s use. But I did not made good in my boxing. Just little boxing skills to parry and stop a possible opponent.

My uncle Jose also made me a Ukelele and taught how to play. But I did not learn to play musical instruments. He also made me a Banjo, a musical instruments, which me made from scraps and woods, with dried goat skin. I tried to play both the Ukeleli and the Banjo. I did not also made good in playing musical instruments.

When we have children with, Hesther, we bought musical instrument. We gave our children some musical training from teachers we hired. We bought guitars for them and a drum set for them to learn. Our children, Rally, Noynoy, Toses and Dodo learned some skills on musical instruments.

We also bought some weightlifting equiptment, dumb bells and assisted them to get trainors for self-defense. This were some ways, we tried to developed their self confidence.

These were some skills we learned from our grand parents, from our uncles which we passed on to our children..

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