Silverlinings (for other editions, see Silverlinings)

Stretching The Bone
(October 16, 2006)

"Magbatak ng buto, stretching the bone," Norma laughing replied when I asked why she was up at 4:30 in the morning. "One has to work hard in order to eat." She teased that she is easily awakened because she has tulog manok-chicken sleep. Two small kerosene lamps filled the room with a hazy light, casting shadows around the table where she was preparing breakfast. The double-sized sleeping mats have already been rolled up, and the room-size mosquito net has been folded and put away. There is no sofa set, but the white plastic chairs are arranged around the room, seemingly adding more light.

The first order of the day was to have a good cup of coffee. The boiled water from the day before had been kept warm in a thermos for this very occasion. We added instant coffee to the water which tasted slightly of soot and flavored it with some powdered milk; neither of us preferred the raw sugar which the crazy, tiny ants were trying to attack. But there was no time to sit and enjoy this pastime; we would need to stretch the bones.

Reviving the ashes and cinders under the lean to, Norma lit a new fire with one of the hot embers. She balanced a large blackened pot on the rocks surrounding the fire pit. Water would soon be needed for drinking and for warming the cold well water for bathing. She pumped a bucket for flushing the outside toilet and then pumped two more buckets for me to use for my morning bath.

Norma never married

After our baths and quick breakfast of a boiled egg and bread, Norma scraped and pounded the skin of a bangus or milkfish with the flat end of a long knife. She then prepared a simple marinade of fresh garlic cloves, coconut vinegar, calamansi (lime) juice, salt and blackpepper. She would later grill half of the bangus and stew the rest of the marinated fish with broth and kamote (sweet potato) tops. I don't know of any other fish that has more bones than bangus, but it so delicious that the bones don't deter my appetite.

However, it is not time to eat yet; Norma was still stretching her bones. Humming one of the church hymns, she swept the yard all the way around the house. Instead of gathering the dirt with its loose pebbles, grass and fallen twigs into a heap and sweeping it into a pan, the pile was swept to the edge of the yard along the fence line. Over time this had made the yard to have a well-packed, white-sandy surface. Water and foot traffic have tended to pack it more. Later in the day, when it rained, I found that there were a few puddles here and there, but for the most part, the yard without a leaf of grass was not muddy at all.

But still her work was not finished, and bones were stretched again as Norma walked to the family garden nearby. I heard her singing as she hoed the vegetables, slashing weeds and using the cutlass to dig out stubborn roots. The neighbors say that she is magaan ang kamay-her light hands can make plants grow faster. I told her she had a green thumb, and she laughed at how ridiculous the expression sounded.

Norma is sixty-three, and she has never been married, nor has she ever worked outside her home. She has no means of income. She is dependent on her nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters to supply money for some of her food, medicine, and even for the house she is living in. Norma readily testifies, however, that her trust is in the Lord.

Norma's house supplied by relatives

No one in Norma's family lives on the same island where she lives. The Philippines is the text-messaging capital of the world where about 33 million own cell phones; however, Norma does not own a cell phone. She is dependent on neighbors to send and receive news about the family.

Norma could sit back and let her family or even her extended family and neighbors do everything for her welfare, but she is trustworthy and wants to stretch her bones. She could take advantage of the dependency that circumstances have forced upon her. She could feel distressed and overwhelmed with obligation to her family and friends for all they do for her, but she stretches her bones instead. Instead of feeling dependent, she feels free and independent. She focuses on what is real and concrete around her. She focuses on what God has provided. At the same time, she knows magbatak ng buto-"One has to work hard in order to eat."

"The diligent find freedom in their work..." (Proverbs 12:24 The Message)

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Dr. Geneva Silvernail

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Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary
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