Caroleen’s Treasures

Saturday again and it was supposed to be an exciting day for me. Remember, I am crazy over ukay-ukay but today I have to keep myself from buying even just a piece. The three of us went to the market. Tadiday, the student who lives with us, has to go to the rice field to harvest rice. This is what me and her mother agreed before. I can get her daughter to live with us, work for us (just the light chores before and after school) and in return we will pay for everything for her studies…BUT the mother will “borrow” Tadiday every Saturday when the harvest time comes so THEY BOTH can work. The reason? So her daughter can help her pay her debt.

Before it was perfectly fine with me. But as harvest time is nearing, I can’t help but tell Donald how this mother can dare let her daughter to work such a heavy job just to pay off HER debt. I know I could not do anything about it but what made me more disappointed is that the mother was just there in their house while Tadiday worked whole day and that I know for sure she will take ALL the money her daughter made for the day.

Another thing is, she and her husband are paid each month as care takers of the church before we moved here. Their job is to put on the light int he church building each night and put it off each morning, water hte plants and clean and prepare the hall for worship. When we moved here (while Tadiday was not yet living with us), Donald and I suggested we could have some groups to help in keeping the church building tidy and ready for worship and this was implemented. So the care takers job now is just the ligths and the plants yet they are receiving the same wage. Tadiday did the job without complain and when we get her, she water the plants and takes care of the lights each day. Her mother wanted her to do the work for them and yet she is the one who receives the whole wage (never ever gave Tadiday even a single cent from it). There are also days when the mother will come to Tadiday to ask for money because she knew I am giving Tadiday allowance for school.

All I can say is I am very lucky she is not my mother.

The cleaners for today hasn’t showed up so I decided I’d clean the hall myself and not wait for them. After cleaning the hall and the comfort room, I took a shower and called Ella to get in because she has not taken a bath too. While I was scrubbing her elbow, she asked:

Ella: “Mommy, tayo ba ang pitcher dito?” (Mommy, are we the pitcher here?)

Mommy: “Ano????” (What?)

Ella: “Pitcher…’yung nagtuturo and nagtatrabaho dito sa church.” (Pitcher…the one who teaches and works in the church.)

Mommy: “Ang sinasabi mo, preacher hindi pitcher….” (You are talking about preacher, not pitcher….)

Thanks to Ella she made me laugh!

Anyway, I was thinking why not try the online stores that I found in the internet? I came across Manolo Blahniks. They have the best items, although I could not afford it but it is worth dreaming for.