The Ten Commandments V. 01

Commandment No. 10 (Feb. 09, 2017)

10. Thou shall not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s.

The story below;

Linda is busy with her cooking. They are preparing as early as the sunrise. They are almost done from wrapping their suman (rice cake) as their daily routine. This is their source of income since the father of the family died already after being shot by rebels. She has two sons and a daughter, Belinda.

Belinda was blind. Her two older brothers was nothing but a wasted. Not because of some illegal things but because they do not help their mother and sister to sell the product to anywhere. They just there sit or sometimes with tambay (people in the community doing nothing but sits all day and gather just for drinking.) They come home just to eat, sleep, and take a bathe; useless people.

Linda and Belinda ready their basket and bilao (wide circle handy crafted material) after everything they've cook is ready to sell.

When the sun rises they started their journey to reach the downtown market before they went house to house selling from market to home. People loved their suman because it is made with full attention and care not to overcook and burnt. The sweetness is just right, not too sweet and not too salty. Or sometimes bitter because of burned.

"Linda, give me five slices of your biko." The woman said and pointed it. Belinda's the one cared for her request and put it in a plastic and hand it to her. "Thank you; I still don't know how you can manage the things even without the sight." She commented.

"Don't worry too much, I used to tell her everything before people will come and buy." The mother Linda answered. The woman nodded and walks away.

Many of their suman products are hard to sell unless people really looking for this kind of food. They made three up to four kinds of suman just to supply the needs of their buyer. And the worst of it if the product didn't meet the target sell they will lose from it.

Time moving and people are just passing by and some are buying but few. Just filling their empty stomach then will leave without taking another.

Every day routine seems hard but they can still manage to survive. They are only living simple life. They don't even have electricity to sustain for monthly billing. Their waters are from deep well. They had farm but no one's tilling and planting.

They walk going home instead of taking the ride. They need to sell more before the nightfall.

Along their way someone's called and wanted to buy. They walk back and let the man choose of what he likes to buy.

"I'll buy this one. I'll take it all. I have visitors today." He said and pointed the content of the basket.

"Oh! Thank you, Dado. You saved us." Linda said and preparing to transfer the content of the basket to the man's larger container.

"You daughter is getting prettier. How old is she now?" The man asked and looked at Belinda who is holding the basket.

"I'm sixteen." She said and gives her smiles.

"Take care of yourself especially that you're blind." He said and patted Linda's shoulder instead of Belinda's.
Belinda nodded only.

"Thank you again!" Linda said and guided her daughter to walk home. "He saves the day. We can make new sets of suman early tomorrow."

"Mother, what does the man looks like?" She asked while holding at her mother's shoulder.

"That, he's almost my age. He's maybe forty-five or something." Linda said. "His family lives in Manila but sometimes they went here just for vacation. I know his mother. They used to buy sacks of rice to your grandfather, but that was long time ago."