By: Telly Gonzaga-Ocampo
The year 1958!
It was in 1958 that I finished my elementary grades at the Baclayon Central Elementary School. Those were the postwar years. World War II ended in 1945 and I was born in 1946. Classrooms at the central school were not enough, at that time. Grade 5 and 6 classes were held at Pisong now the Miguel Oppus Memorial School (MOMES).
Since the school was more than a kilometer away, we had to walk 4 kms. More often, we would bring our bawon wrapped in banana leaves called onas.
My mother was a teacher in that school and she saw how we wanted to bring our bawon so we can play after our lunch under the big mango tree at the back of the school near the creek. We did not feel the heat of the sun since our school was surrounded with many trees. If we had the time after our lunch, we did sleigh ride using takong ug lukay. We would slide down from the little hill on the slope enjoying the ride on the takong and the lukay
Going to school was never an ordeal for us. We didn’t have many books. I just remembered “Pepe and Pilar”, the Phil readers and the geography book that we shared with our classmates. We had the senorita notebook with multiplication table and division table on the back cover page. For addition we used our 10 little fingers and the tiny toes down below.
The focus, then, on the intermediate grades were History, Geography, English. Grammar and Literature, Social Studies and Home Economics for girls and Workshop for boys. Physical education was mostly playing volleyball and baseball but not everyday. Flag ceremony was an important practice and it was done with full respect. It was in our intermediate years when we were taught sewing, embroidery, crochet and how to use the sewing machine.
My eldest daughter asked me to do a cover for the round table that we had in Tacloban and this was part of the stuff I brought with me in coming home to Bohol crafted by my friend, Pacita.
Crochet craft is something I’ve learned in grade 6 from our teacher Mrs. Amada Ayaay-Calope. My mother, unlike most mothers now, would never allow us to let others do our “industrial” for us. “Industrial” was the term used before.. Ug karon pa, “project” ang itawag.
Crochet is a craft honed thru the years. And this was very useful when I had my ischemic stroke that left a little weakness on my left arm.
That was on the early 20s and now it is 2024. I’m doing my crochet while watching Batang Quiapo, Linlang and Can’t Buy Me Love.
I’m not fast now with my hands and change of grade for my eyeglasses. It took me some time to finish this round table cover that I have designed for the 54th birthday of my eldest child. I thought of the cover illustration of the book Lunop designed by her.
At on time, the eye of the storm was in Tacloban; that’s why I put the book on top of the crocheted table cover. The place was in the middle of the maelstrom and dead bodies scattered all over the place. To me, that is a device I wish to call symbolism.
We visited Tacloban a month after the aftermath. It was still a no man’s land. Only very few people were there. The not so young were transported mostly to Manila and Cebu and nearby provinces. The whole of Leyte and Samar were very devastated.
Eventhough I’m back to my home town, yet, deep in our hearts, Tacloban is still home.
Lunop is a collection of stories of those who survived the storm and the surge.
The book lunop. This is a collection of narratives from those who survived Yolanda.