Hello hivers! This is in me again—your proud provincial girl, how are you feeling right now? Are you feeling good or bad? Anyway, I wrote this blog for the reason that I want to share with the world my daily life as a proud provincial girl here in my little but wonderful town. Since we are now on a long-term vacation from schoolwork, projects, and any extracurricular activities in our school, I decided to stay at our small yet humble house to help my mother rather than spend my time finding a job for this summer vacation. Farming is one of my family’s sources of income. In addition to that, we are raising 1 cow, 15 goats, and plenty of chickens. That’s the reason why I choose to be in our house because the responsibilities here are no joke. I really have a hardworking mother; I can tell that she’s a beauty at her young age; in fact, my mama’ had a lot of suitors way back in her 20s, but my papa’ really got her attention’. Going back, in order to raise our cows and goats, we need to find their food in the mountains; it’s far, but we’re used to it. Come with me, because’ I want you to feel what t’s like to be me and to live in the countryside.
This is the photo of my mother in her 20s. Some of our neighbors said that we have the same facial features; of course, I'm her daughter, and she's my mom haha.
I Woke Up Like This
Of course, it will all start with a good morning!. Obviously, I looked haggard in this photo: frizzy curly hair and dried saliva beside my lips—well, sorry, but that’s me every morning that I wake up. I can’t deny that I’m like a witch early in the morning every time I wake up. As I looked in the mirror, my reflection really shocked me. It’s like, “Who is this avatar in front of me? ”And then I was hit by a sudden realization in my mind, and I just said, “Oh, that’s me.”.
Clean, Clean, Clean
After doing my morning routine, the first thing to do is sweep all the leaves that were scattered all over our yard because our house was surrounded by big trees. That’s the reason why we need to clean our yard every day due to the dried leaves that were scattered all over our area. After sweeping, I go to our kitchen to wash the dishes and cook food for my family.
Animals are hungry too
While waiting for the rice to be cooked, I feed our animals; of course, just like us, they need food to grow. Just like us humans, they need to eat three times a day or more in order to survive, and as their master, it is our responsibility to feed them wholeheartedly.
Taking a bath is a must, especially since we can be wet from our sweat while doing plenty of work. Our body needs to be cleaned, just like what our teachers taught us—taking a bath every day can help us from many possible illnesses that germs or bacteria bring.
Finding and gathering foods for our pets
After eating, we will go to the mountains to gather food for our goat. Since the food of our goat is different from that of our cow, my mother said that we are in charge of finding the goat’s food while she’s in charge of the food of the cow, so it's expected that we don’t go to the same place. Below are photos of different plants that we gather for our goat food.
(In our place we call this “Lubi-Lubi”, this is one of our goat's favorite food)
(We call this "Panganton", I don't know what is its scientific name but in our place our goat love to eat this kind of plant)
(In our place we call this “puti-an” our goat also love to eat this plant)
(In our place we call this “Banilad”. Yeah, we gave unique name to plants)
***Rest Time ***
Night came, and after a long, tiring day, it’s time for our bodies to rest. My mama allows us to do what we want because we are all done with our responsibilities, but sometimes I choose to go to sleep early in order for my body to rest and prepare it for tomorrow’s responsibilities. I know it’s kind of tiring, but you know we can’t eat if we don’t work hard. My parents are working their asses off in order to give us our everyday needs, and because I’m here in our house, I will always choose to help my parents with our household chores and other responsibilities rather than go to the party and be wasted like there’s no tomorrow. I learned one thing from my mom: “If you love the things that you do, you can’t be tired of them.”
So that’s my cute and exhausting cycle of life. If I’m in our house, do you do the same?. Well, it’s quite tiring to take care of animals, especially animals that need grass or leaves as their food. Whether it’s sunny or rainy, we have to go to different places or mountains to find food. Some people think I am a “Disney Princess” in our house, but they are all wrong; my mom taught me to be a responsible and independent woman, so I can do things you can’t imagine when it comes to household chores and responsibilities. Other than that, I’m just a typical village girl with a big heart for her family and country. You call me hardworking? Yes, I am. And I do all this because I don’t want my parents to do everything for me. I mean, I’m a grown woman right now, so being lazy is not in my vocabulary.