The Balbuena family had to live among the ruins of their house which Typhoon Odette damaged. (PIA Bohol)
Without the leak that brings drips of rain into his mat, there would be better nights ahead for 19-year old Sherwin Balbuena. And then he could sleep and dream better.
Born with deformed limbs that made him unable to walk and even crawl, Sherwin, or Shawshaw to his family and friends, has been confined to his sleeping mat most of his childhood and young adult age.
“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,” said Robert Balbuena, Shawshaw’s father in an interview. Without a clear provision for a house made Shawshaw’s life more miserable.
Second among the Balbuena kids, Shawshaw can only roll to one corner and back in their house while four siblings would rise up and leave the room every morning to play. Or he would roll away from where occasional drips of rain leak hrough the battered and rusty tin roof.
Shawshaw’s father, Robert, works on call as a laborer for a wedding services provider while Marjorie is a local day care teacher. Shawshaw and his brothers could only dream of a better house than the contraption they have grown up in.
Life could have been more comfortable had they continued to live with their grandmother’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 his drawings got a little bit better.
“He can draw, he can write using his mouth and he is diligent in learning things,” said Marjorie.
When he is not on his mat, he would be propped up in a corner in school, attending classes, writing and drawing with the pencil gripped in his mouth.
Determined to survive, Shawshaw keeps in his mind that getting liberated from this thing called a house means getting educated.
The Balbuenas, whose house finally crumbled to the ground at the height of typhoon Odette, had just received a new decent house after they were identified as beneficiaries of the Philippine National Police’s Libreng Alagad ug Balay, which is supported by Gov. Erico Aristotle Aumentado and wife, Cong. Vanessa Aumentado.
“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,” said Robert.
The police chief went in and saw the dripping blue tarp roof.
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 abiding 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.
“Some day, when I finish college, I will design and build our house,” said Shawshaw, as he aspires to become an architect.
Now, with a new house to keep him dreaming of a better future, Shawshaw can study more comfortably while preparing for his ALS exams that will get him to go to college.
“Amo siya nga tumanan, kay, abi na lang ingon siya niana, dili na siya kahatagan sa iyang pangandoy,” said Marjorie.
(We will support him. We don’t want people to think that just because he has a physical disability, he can’t go for his dreams.) (RAHC/PIA Bohol)
