Rosa

By Zielfa B. Maslin

To pursue her dream of a better future, Rosa sought work overseas. Leaving her husband and three children in the Philippines, she found out quickly that, when it comes to domestic work abroad, one has to forget ones own needs and desires. She saw this as her fate and Gods will. Chores had to be completed to the satisfaction of her foreign employers, whilst her dedication in taking care of their children was second to none. The Philippines, Singapore and England are vastly different worlds. Mastering her anxieties, she tackled unfamiliar tasks she never dreamt of - using washing machines, cooking with spices and wine, and handling fragile wine and spirit glasses. For this, she was paid much more than what many teachers in the Philippines earned in a month.
This is Rosas story the story of an individual persons drive to improve her lot in life, in the context of the Philippine economic conditions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481795807

Zielfa B. Maslin

Dr. Zielfa B. Maslin is from the Philippines and lives in England with her husband and daughter. As a retired person, she views her disengagement from clinical and educational occupational therapy practice as an opportunity to be as physically and mentally active as possible. With her second novel, she continues to pursue her ambition to be a writer.

Book preview

ROSA

Zielfa B. Maslin

US%26UKLogoB%26Wnew.ai

AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

© 2013 by Zielfa B. Maslin. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/10/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-9579-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-9580-7 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Glossary

Chapter 1 Rosa’s World

Chapter 2 A Foot On The Ladder

Chapter 3 Rosa Craves For Her Own House

Chapter 4 Do I Carry On?

Chapter 5 So, This Is England!

Chapter 6 Long, Dark Days And Nights

Chapter 7 What Have I Accomplished?

Chapter 8 Am I A Good Mother?

Chapter 9 England, Round 2

Chapter 10 Through Their Eyes

Chapter 11 Behind Marriages

Chapter 12 Seesaw

Chapter 13 Rosa’s In The Dark

Chapter 14 Loss And New Beginnings

Chapter 15 Undercurrents

Chapter 16 Reconciliation

Chapter 17 Nightmare In Magano

Chapter 18 In Limbo

Chapter 19 Persuasions

Chapter 20 Take Very Good Care Of Our Rosa

To Keith and Philippa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank all the Filipina women for their generosity in sharing their stories about overseas domestic employment and for answering my questions. There are so many that I can’t name them all, but I would like to give special mention to Bingbing, Nene, Mia, and Wilma. However, I bear full responsibility for the details, events, and persons in this novel. Any similarity to people, events, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

I would also like to thank my brother, Junior, for giving me information on aspects of Philippine law related to this novel, to Vinya for updating me on aspects of domestic employment in the Philippines, and to Malene for suggesting a glossary that non-Filipino readers may find useful in reading this novel. I am grateful to Claudia Gould, for her valuable comments whilst I was pursuing her creative writing course. My thanks to the AuthorHouse staff, and especially the design team for their patient technical help in the publication of my work.

Finally, to my dearest daughter, Philippa, a mother’s proud and boundless thank you for your most positive contribution towards the completion of this novel, for your encouragement, and for your painstaking editing of my work And, to Keith, my husband for encouraging my pursuit of writing.

GLOSSARY

CHAPTER 1

Rosa’s World

Rosa’s not the type who attracts people’s attention. But look long enough. She’s light brown, black haired, slightly built, short. Her face is ovalish, with almond shaped brown eyes. True, she’s not a full-blown mestiza with a mixture of Filipino and Spanish or American features, but look at her nose. It’s not so flat. Wonder why? It could be her Malayan and Chinese ancestry; it could be the three and a half centuries of Spanish colonisation. But why is a fair-skinned, darkish-haired boy of about five comfortably settled against her? Is she his mother or is the white woman who’s looking out of her window seat his mother?

When Rosa glanced out the plane windows, she saw darkish blue skies. She supposed that it must be nearly evening time, wherever they were. She still couldn’t believe her luck. ‘At long last, I’m in a plane bound for England. Even in my college days, I never dreamt of going abroad. That was only for actors, actresses, and politicians. I didn’t know about overseas domestic employment, much less about Singapore or England.’

Barrio Santa Cruz was her world. There were no more than about fifty houses or more in the village. Sure, she had memorised facts about Asian countries, in order to pass the quizzes set by her elementary school teachers. There were questions like: give three chief products of China; what type of government does Thailand have?; what is the main religion practised in India? Perhaps she had learnt about Singapore; she couldn’t remember. In high school, she had learned about America, the saviour of the Philippines from the Japanese. She couldn’t remember anything about England but now she was heading for this country.

There was no high school in Santa Cruz, so her parents had sent her to live with relatives in Lerma, the biggest town in the area. This had continued until her college studies. Without this arrangement, she would have had to walk four to five hours a day. Written across the skies were the sacrifices of her parents. They had never said it, but she knew they did not want her to work in the fields like them. They wanted her to be a teacher. Her parents gave their relatives a sack of rice every now and then. Rosa bought and cooked her own food. There were others like her.

Her parents were tenant farmers of the richest man in their barrio. She did not understand exactly how it worked, but she knew that, for the use of rice land, her father provided not only his labour, but also the use of their carabao and all of their farm implements. Most of them still thought of themselves as living in a barrio, even though the latest government diktat use the term barangay for a place like theirs. In their history class, settlements like Santa Cruz were called balangays, long before the Spaniards came in 1521.

She could hardly believe that during her first year as an overseas foreign worker, her younger sister, Elena, was in her first year at high school, and her other younger sister, Edna, was a grade five elementary school pupil. Now, Elena, with the Lord’s blessing, could have a teaching job soon. In her last letter to Rosa, she wrote: There’s a high chance that I could be teaching in a town near Lerma. Tiyoy Roming said he was going to talk to the high school principal in that town. He said that they know each other. If this happens, they would truly owe a lot to their Tiyoy Roming. Not only was Uncle Roming the richest in their place, for he owned many hectares of land in their barrio, but ‘Uncle’ or ‘Aunt’ is used as a sign of respect for older people.

She could still see her sisters, speechless and their eyes shimmering with tears. She was nearly crying herself as she told them when she left for Singapore for the very first time in 1984: I know that I am not a good example for you. Sometimes I wish I can undo what I’ve done. I didn’t finish my college education. I very much regret having done this, but I’m very happy with Manny and the children. You’ll make our mother very happy by finishing your college education. I know that it is what our father wanted.

Perhaps it was inevitable that she and Manny should have married before she finished her college studies. They’d been close as children and this had continued into their college days. She was not a brilliant student, but she passed all her subjects. She wasn’t sure whether it was the thought of her parents working hard and borrowing money on many occasions to pay for her college fees that finally drove her to abandon her studies. One year, she had to stop. There was a poor harvest and they didn’t have enough money to pay her tuition fees. They still owed the college some amount for the previous year and she didn’t want her father pleading again to a college official for an extension of their credit.

People in their barrio couldn’t believe it when Manny became a farmer like his father. With five hectares of rice land that his parents owned, Manny’s parents were much better off than hers. He had two elder brothers and three sisters. His parents were hoping for Manny to become a lawyer.

When I told others about you, they said I was just fooling them. They said it’s simply not true that a person with a college degree would prefer to be a farmer and live in a barrio. This was typical of what his friends said during gatherings and some evenings imbibing beer or rum.

Manny only smiled. He got tired of telling them: I’ve always wanted to work in a farm. I don’t like living in a big town. I tried to please my parents. I finished my commerce degree, but in the end, I just couldn’t do it. I’m happy where I am.

Paking, Rosa’s father, died from a cough that couldn’t be cured. It had been raining heavily for days, but he wanted to finish ploughing the field in preparation for rice planting. He could not bear an unfinished job. He was always like this. She remembered the many times a neighbour informed them: Your father is still on the farm. We told him that it’s getting dark and it’s time to go home, but he said he must start clearing another part of your field.

He was coughing when he arrived home, soaking wet. That night, he was shivering, and when Mita, Rosa’s mother, felt his forehead, she told them: Your father feels like he’s on fire. Get a clean cloth and a basin of water. I’ll put a wet cloth on his forehead to bring his fever down. Then go to Tatay Indo and ask for atsuete. Make sure to pick the young annatto leaves. Tell him we need these for your father’s fever. Rosa, Elena, and Edna could sense their mother’s anxiety. Why did she have to stress that they must pick young leaves? They had known the importance of young atsuete leaves almost as soon as they were knee high, for this was their mother’s usual cure for high fever.

After a few days, he said he was fine, but he couldn’t shake off the coughing. Some said: Don’t you think that Paking may have angered a fairy? That’s why he has these coughing fits. He might have disturbed a fairy’s home when he was clearing their farm.

Among the many suggestions was this: If I were you, he should beg the forgiveness of this fairy. Offer a sacrifice, a tin of rice from your harvest last year. Another one was: All of you should go to your farm. Let Tatay Apolonio intercede for your father and for all of you. This worked for your neighbour last time, remember? This went on for weeks and Paking went back to work as he pronounced himself well. No one could stop him.

Their mother became increasingly worried and eventually asked the help of Tatay Apolonio, the barrio herbolario’s. No one seemed to know how old Tatay Apolonio was, but his prayers and concoctions of herbs were well-known. He looked calm and thoughtful, and his white hair added to his almost saintly appearance. He was revered in their barrio, as well as the neighbouring ones, for he had successfully cured many people of their illnesses. They were on hand to do whatever was needed. He was closeted with their father for a long time as they nervously waited downstairs. The girls saw him talk to their mother, and this was followed by a flurry of commands. Each daughter was sent to a neighbour.

Fresh gumamela flowers. And kabugao leaves from the pomelo tree at the back of the school. Hurry! They should have remembered that one of their aunts, when she was alive, made them drink water which was boiled with these citrus leaves if one of them was coughing.

Go and ask for ampalaya from our neighbour. Just a little will do. Tell her that Tatay Apolonio sent you. Only the leaves of this bitter gourd, not the fruit. He needs this for your father, tell her. Hurry!

Tatay Apolonio was in deep concentration as he made a preparation from the herbs that were gathered, sometimes closing his eyes, muttering words that no one could understand. The house smelt of garlic, ginger, and other plants. For a while, their father seemed all right. One night, he started shivering again with high fever and fits of coughing. He had difficulty in breathing. What was even more worrying was that his coughs produced reddish phlegm. In spite of their father’s insistence that he was getting better, they made preparations to bring him to the municipal hospital in Lerma the following week. Their older brothers borrowed money to hire a jeepney to take their father to Lerma Hospital, about seven kilometres away. However, the night before they were scheduled to go, their father died.

Family and neighbours were shocked by the death. They couldn’t believe it and this was the focus of many conversations. Why, they could hardly remember him complaining of being unwell? He talked about his back-breaking work in the farm, but so did many others, especially when they lamented that the price for a sack of unhulled rice was very low.

Many of the residents in their barrio attended Paking’s funeral. Perhaps it was community spirit, driven by shared hardships or friendships. These were nearly always communal events – baptisms, weddings, funerals.

Friends contributed for the wake – vegetables and fruits from their yard, even a catfish caught from the rice fields.

Sorry, this is the only banana that was ready to be harvested at the back of our house. We can boil these for the people who’ll come to tonight’s prayer, one of their neighbours whispered her apologies.

You don’t have to do this. Are you sure? Here, keep half for your family and we’ll have the other half. You are so kind. I hope we can give you something someday, her mother responded.

They were devastated by their father’s death, but it was understandable that Rosa’s mother and two younger sisters were especially affected by this event. Her mother, in particular, couldn’t stop crying. Her sisters worried about their studies, and this worry was echoed by their mother.

"I pray that your two sisters can go to college. I don’t know whether this is possible. I’d like this very much. Your father will be very happy if it can be done.

Yes, I know, Rosa agreed. They liked studying. I’ll help. I’m really sorry that I didn’t finish my studies. She knew that her parents had been very disappointed that she had not become a teacher. They had never said it, but their hope had been that she would help her sisters with their studies when she became a teacher. Instead, she got married. Fortunately, they had accepted what she had done. Her father had been happy with Manny and their children. Her mother adored her grandchildren and couldn’t have wished for a better son-in-law.

Rosa would have been the first to finish her college studies, if only she hadn’t stopped. Her parents would have been very happy and proud of her!

I’m not expecting you to help, but it will be a blessing if you can help them with their studies. However, you’ve children of your own. I do not know what to do now that your father’s dead. Maybe your brothers and your Manang Jane can help.

It could have been her father’s death that made Rosa ponder her life with Manny and their children. The year after her wedding saw the birth of their first child, Leo. Two years