Nothing much happening over here after my aunt’s burial, the water supply is becoming more scarce and the water pumps are drying. The nearby water station can’t supply enough water anymore to their customers so some people are running towards us to buy drinking water, my mother didn’t stop getting purified water in town because we use it for drinking too.

The printer I have bought last year for my family was broken, the paper suddenly jammed and it stopped printing after it prints more than one hundred pieces of program for clan reunion. My family brought it to the repair shop but was told that the printer has 50% chance to be repaired, the repair man could open it and try to fix but we have to pay ₱500 either it is fix or not for his labor so my mother brought home the printer unfix. The repairman suspected that the sensor was broken and if a sensor was need to changed he advised  my family just to buy a new printer because the broken part will cost a brand new printer, he also added that Brother printers are good but they sucks in some aspects, most of the Brother printer brought in his shop has the same issue.

We accept program making and printing and the program for the grand reunion was the first one this year, it wasn’t that profitable but a little something is better than nothing.  We earned ₱1,000 for this transaction but I didn’t get hold any of it since we have bills to pay, it was summer time and the fields are dry so my father can’t plant rice grains in the small field he is minding.

So today, our one source of income at home is dead and it will only resume when we buy a new printer. I have told my family that I can’t shoulder the cost of a new printer again since I have bought the previous one, it is going to be their turn to buy a new one this time which I think is just fair since they’re the one who collect the earnings from printing and program making.

A week ago was been a busy week for all of us, we didn’t have a proper sleep for nine days because of my aunt’s funeral wake. We stayed until early in the morning playing bingo with some relatives, we only attend the vigil service for a night or two since it started early and we are still at home preparing for dinner and feeding the pets, so we usually go at the wake after the prayer service. I didn’t view my aunt’s coffin until the last night of wake because it feels like she was still alive.

The other day was her burial before heading to the cemetery there was a short service at the church, we prepared short photo video, photos of our aunt when she was still alive and then there was a committal service in the cemetery before her coffin was put in the ground.

The Aratilis or Saresa is part of my childhood, I climbed this tree many times like how many times I climbed a guava or mango tree growing up. The aratiles or Muntingia Calabura is a flowering plant that grows in a few parts of the world including Mexico and Philippines, it was commonly called Jamaica cherry,  Panama Berry, Bajelly tree and other alternative names.

The Aratilis is the most favorite wild fruit by kids in the Philippines since they just grow anywhere without someone planting them. When I was still a kid I always go to the house across my grandmother’s house because they have an aratilis tree in their yard then I think my late grandfather observes my liking to the fruit that he replanted aratilis tree in our backyard but sad to say I wasn’t able to climb it since we went home and live to my father’s hometown where I found an aratilis tree to climb.

Today, my cousin’s kids and their playmates were also like me who loves to climb the aratilis tree that surprisingly grow along the path in the field. The other day while letting our dog wander in the field I asked my sister to pick aratilis but she left ahead of me since she has work to do, I was amazed that there was a lot of ripe aratilis in the tree which is not normal because most of the time the tree has no red fruit since the kids love to pick them as well. While jumping and trying to reach the ripe aratilis my older cousin’s toddler daughter came and extend her right arm and says “be” she was asking for the fruit I’ve picked. I was shocked the way she asked for the fruit, she didn’t even asked if she can have some she just want to took it from me like she asked me to picked them for her so I told her to climb and get her own fruit but I have changed my mind thinking she’ll going to cry so I handed the aratilis I have in my hand and by looking up in the tree I found more up top so I decided to climb the tree and while at top I have asked her to pin point the red ones for me and informed her that I will not give the fruits right away because I have to take photos of them first and she willingly agreed.

Browsing online I have found that aratilis aren’t not just merely a wild fruit that grew anywhere because it has medicinal usage, in traditional medicine, its leaves can be used as an antiseptic or antipruritic and to treat abdominal cramps while another study claimed that aratilis leaves possess antinociceptive (reducing sensitivity to pain), anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and antipruritic properties, justifying the folkloric medicinal use.