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.
It was not much: four posts holding up a crapped tin roof, living, dining, small kitchen and shared bedroom, but there was love and patience here.
That could probably be why Shawshaw, when his siblings walk out of the room to school, would struggle to draw, or write, using his mouth.
From there, he asked his parents to get him to school. And when his drawings got a little bit better.
“He can draw, he can write using his mouth,” shares his mother Marjorie, and he is diligent in learning things,” she added.
When he is not on his mat, he would be propped up in a corner in school, attending to classes, writing and drawing with the pencil gripped in his mouth.
His father would scoop him up to the nearby Monserrat Elementary School then, surviving the days of interrupted elementary days despite getting bullied and called unpleasant names by kids who see him in his unusual condition.
All the while he survived, sometimes frustration stopping him from school and then getting back in, until he finished Grade VI.
“He is very good with cellphones,” his sun-burnt skinned father said, which is something the boy could get from exploring the gadget’s functions while alone in the bedroom.
Born with a congenital disability that has kept him incapable of escaping from his sleeping mat, without actually saying it, Shaw-shaw is trying to prove that disability is not defining his future. And his family.
Determined to survive, Shawshaw keeps in his mind that getting liberated from this thing called a house means getting educated.
“I just wish them good health, and for me to fulfill my ambition,” Shawshaw meant his parents so he could continue his Grade 9 studies in Fatima High School Alternative Learning class.
The Balbuenas, whose already hunched house finally crumbled to the ground at the heat of typhoon Odette, had just received a new decent house from well-meaning citizens: foremost of them, Bohol Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado and wife, Congresswoman Vanessa.
Funding the police-picked project called Libreng Alagad ug Balay, the Aumentados, along with the Bohol Provincial Police Office have motivate even more Boholanos to abide by the law as the free houses only go to law abiding Boholanos like the Balbuenas.
“One time, there was a slight rain and the police patrol car stopped, the officers got off and trudged the trail to the house. I was wondering about any illegal thing I did, I could not recall,” remembers Robert when the team arrived to inspect their storm damaged house.
The police chief went in, looked up the dripping blue tarp roof, and to Shawshaw who was half wet in his mat and accordingly said, you deserve more than a house.
In Bohol, police stations are directed to submit potential beneficiaries of the police’s libreng balay, these would be evaluated based on their capacities and the beneficiaries’ being law aboding and are responsibly living in the community.
In Monserrat, the Balbuenas were among the three recommended families to get a free house, but the two unfortunately did not own the lands where they built their Odette-damaged houses, according to Marjorie, occasionally bowing while unconsciously rubbing her hands.
“Magpasalamat mi ni Gob Aris ug Maam Vanvan, sa among kapitan, sa kapolisan nga nagvolunteer, kay sukad ma sukad, karon ra gyud mi maka-angkon og desente nga balay,” Marjorie, who had the governor and the police provincial director as new year guests during the house turn-over, meekly added.
“Og wa mi tabangi nila Gov, di mi makarecover sa among pamuyo,” Robert, who sidelines as a handyman added, while Shawshaw who was on the mat in the room played on his cellphone, touching the touch-screen with his tongue.
“Some day, when I will finish college, I will design and build our house, the disabled young adult who wished to become an architect, said as a matter of fact.
Now, with a new house to keep him dreaming of a better future, Shawshaw can study more comfortably at preparing for his ALS exams, to get him to college. And mouth-design his house.
Amo siya nga tumanan, kay, abi na lang ingon siya niana, dili na siya kahatagan sa iyang pangandoy, the mother in Marjorie finally surfaced.
To that, the man in the mat paused his game, looked up and smiled. (PIABohol)
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