TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan 8 (PIA)—Without the leak that brings drips of rain into his mat, there would be better nights ahead for Sherwin Balbuena, 19 years old. And then he could much better roll on to his dreams.
“He grew up through the times when our small hut made of light materials had to be repaired and refurbished twice until typhoon Odette crumpled what was left of the already crumbling structure,” shares Robert Balbuena, Shawshaw’s father in an interview. Without a clear provision for a house made Shawshaw’s life even more miserable.
Second among the Balbuena kids, Shawshaw could have envied when his four siblings would rise up and leave the room every morning to play, as his version of play is only to roll to the corner, and back.
Or roll away from where occasional drips of rain leaks through the battered and rusty tin roof.
Born from Robert, who works on call as a laborer for a wedding services provider and Marjorie, a local day care teacher, Shawshaw, and his brothers could only dream of better house than the contraption they have grown into.
Life could have been a little bit comfortable had they continued to live with their grandma’s house. But a few months after getting married Robert and Marjorie think they need to live on their own.
That was when Robert built a basic house on four posts, bamboo and anything that could give them privacy.
Discarded tarpaulin, abandoned bill boards, junk tin and corrugated sheets, plywood pieces, split bamboo and round timber roughly hewn to form the frame of the house is fair game for Robert. And Marjorie.