THEY CALLED ME TIYANAK

THE POND
























MY GRANDFATHER



When we were young my older cousins all studied in the nearby school in Bulacan.All of them had danced a hula.I envied them so I told my mom that I wanted to go to school already so that I could get my self into a grass skirt .However, mommy sent me to Manila where the school do not have the same curriculum . During those times, I felt I was Rizal who was sent also to Manila to study.I was a voracious reader of Rizaliana the first time I started to read.Instead, I became a program host in school program, a part of the choir and a school journalist.I still wish I can still wear one and dance the hula.Hi!Hi!Hi!

In Grade 1,I also read the books of passion of Christ, and biographies of the saints which were the books of my late grandfather Pendong who was a devoted Catholic. He was very delighted to see me read all his books. He said I was his ugliest princesita because of my small nose but I was his favorite. he always made swings for me whenever I go home for vacation. He and my grand mother were mestizos and they felt that being morena and having low-arched noses are ugly. They called me " Moro" because I was not baptized while my Catholic cousins call me tiyanak.Tiyanak are dead babies who became monsters because they Are not baptized .They said that there were a lot of them near a boat and a small pond at the back of my Uncles' houses.I am the only tiyanak who becomes an obstetrician in this part of the country.Imagine what would the patients think if they learn that a tiyanak is assisting their deliveries.Much more if they learn that a tiyanak is doing their hysterectomies.

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