Friday, May 30, 2008 Speak out: Badong and Pepe By James Michael Uaminal RMDSF-Stec, Danao City
SUMMER is a season of joy and adventure for children.
This is because the days of reluctantly waking up early, going to school, being scolded by terror teacher and going back home with a report card with grades in bloody red has come to a temporary end.
Summer is the time for round-the-clock playing or an incessant marathon of viewing Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon.
But this is not the situation experienced by Badong and his younger brother, Pepe.
Both are ill-fated fruits of a broken family with parents no longer interested in taking care of them.
They live with their Lola who is already incapacitated by tuberculosis.
Badong and Pepe are “trash scavengers,” which is their job since their parents abandoned them.
They roam the streets in search for empty bottles, cartons, plastic containers, etc.
There is no time to play because if they don’t work there will be no food to eat.
They do this to look for a “pot of gold,” not at the end of the rainbow but at the bottom of trash cans.
Danger
They do this amidst the dangers on the road.
They cross the streets cautiously, fearing a reckless driver might bump them, resulting in expensive hospitalization or funeral.
They do these to be able to fill their hungry stomachs. This is the only thing they know to be able to earn money.
After a long, hard day’s work, they were very lucky to earn P50, enough to buy a kilo of rice and canned sardines – the very same meal they eat for almost two weeks.
From the P50, nothing remains for breakfast, so they just beg from their kind neighbors for bread or leftovers. This has been their everyday life ever since.
For them, nothing is significant with summer.
There is nothing to rejoice about the end of the school year because their daily condition is much more painful than our school sacrifices.
While they are not forced to wake up early to go to school, they sleep in hard, improvised kawayan bed.
While they are not scolded by terror teachers, they are sometimes stoned by homeowners of rich subdivisions and villages.
Worse, they don’t know how to read and write. Badong only reached Grade II while Pepe has not even entered the four corners of the classroom.
Though they love to learn and go to school, they will just end up being discriminated upon by their well-off classmates.
Not happy
Besides, their earnings from scavenging are not enough to buy bags, pencils and paper.
There is no reason for them to feel happy about summer.
For them, nothing changes.
They still eat the same food, sleep on the same bed and dwell on the same place. They are still scavengers vomited by the modern yet cruel society.
Now summer is about to end. Pepe and Badong feel jealous as they see mothers and their children crowd the markets and
department stores to buy school supplies and uniforms.
They are craving for education but it seems education has already forgotten these two innocent children and the many others who have not seen the light of knowledge.
The sun has already set and it’s now time for Pepe, Badong and their ailing Lola to eat their not-so-nourishing meal---rice and canned sardines---again.
Afterwards, they will sleep with aching hearts brought about by their misery and misfortune.
Pepe and Badong both dream that someday education will open up their minds and brighten their murky tomorrow.
