Yesterday was the Barangay and SK elections. At around 4 am that day, mother was trying to wake me up. Half awake, half asleep, I head her saying something like "...lunch, ...drop it to my voting precint...", with subconsciousness, I replied, "ok". Then, I heard a car engine start then drove away. It's when I went back to sleep.
I woke up at about 9 am and had a quick breakfast. After that, I curled again in bed and read True Colors. I am almost 6 chapters away from finishing it. It was 10:40 and I got up to prepare my mom's lunch. I planned to cook the chicken I bought on Sunday. Chicken Adobo sounded tempting. I thought, this dish wouldn't take much time to cook. So, with all the ingredients ready, grabbed my apron and started cooking.
What I had:How I did it:
- 1 kilo dressed chicken, washed and cut into parts & pieces;
- 1 cup soy sauce;
- 1 tbsp. brown sugar;
- 3 cups water;
- 1 tbsp whole black pepper;
- 3 cloves garlic; crushed
- laurel leaves and salt to taste.
- In a pot, combined all the ingredients (except water) & cook it over medium fire. Let it simmer while tossing the chicken for about 3 minutes. Then add the water. Bring to a boil while occasionally stirring for about 15 minutes. Turn to medium heat. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes & once oil comes up to the surface of the sauce, it's done.
Then I scooped some rice from the rice cooker in a food keeper and so with the chicken adobo. It was a quarter before 12 and I was already hungry so I ate whatever was left. Took a quick shower, slipped into a comfortable jeans and a white tee. Then went to the voting area.
There were less people in the voting precints than what I expected. Probably because it's already lunch time. I searched for my mom in the rooms then I found her. She was with two other teachers who are in charge of the precint. They looked exhausted. Who wouldn't? It was hot in the room with only 2 electric air fans. And as I saw, they haven't had a worthy snack since they left at 4 early this morning, except for the tempura crackers in one of their tables.
I called her and handed her the lunch box. Then we headed to the my voting place. Like where my mom was, our voting precint looked less of a voting precint itself. I found no other voter inside the room, except for the committee in-charge and one poll watcher. After signing and placing my thumb mark, I took a seat and started filling out my ballot. Earlier, I was expecting to see the PCOS machines. But I was wrong. We are having the manual elections again. Poor. When I was done, I slipped my ballot into the old ballot box, which seemed too old to be a ballot box. Even with several repaints you could imagine how it would look like in its original paint, rusty and crooked. Then I had my right index finger stained with this ink which I didn't like that much. It left a disgusting look on my finger.
Elections here in the Philippines had always controversial. Starting from the campaigns, to the vote-buying , to the tedious counting. Year after year the government promises to work out on it. But here it is, almost the same as before. And we have to live with it.
And just as I am about to end this post, may I salute all the teachers and everyone who took part in the election and in all the previous elections we had. Their sacrifices and efforts are more worthy that just the thousand peso the government is giving them as a remuneration. And I feel even more sorry for the teachers who lost their lives in the name of their duty. Some people just don't know how hard it is to serve in the elections. Probably, you might ask, "Do you even know?"
I would answer you a big "YES!" Coz my mom has been through it all.
