I started school when I was five years old. My mother walked with me to our small school, which was half a kilometre away.
My teachers were good and very patient with young folks like me. Every six months the American supervisors visited our school. We were tested on reading, music, arithmetic, sewing and cooking. I remember very well how this American supervisor observed me sewing with out a thimble. He asked me to remain after class and showed me how to use the thimble when sewing.
In 1926, I finished my Grade 4 class as a first honor with a grade of 91%. My parents were happy about my achievement.
To get to a higher grade in school (Grades 5 to 7), I have to go to the elementary school in poblacion Malinao.
To make it easier to go to school, my father built a wooden house near the school for us – my cousins, my neighbors and farm friends from Rosario. There were nine of us, all studying in different grades. My relative, an old lady, looked after us. We brought our weekly foodstuff from our homes to the town. There was no guide to help us.
We read our books and did our school work under the light of a kerosene lamp, and in early mornings we bathed in the placid, clean Malinao River. If we had free time, we walked about a few hundred meters over the stony river beds and got a big swim in the roaring Aklan River.
I remember the surprise home visits of our geography and arithmetic teacher, Mr. Godofredo Yarra who checked whether we were studying and doing our homework alone. The next day, he would announce to the whole class what he saw and observed, pleasant or not.
In class 1928-29, I graduated class Salutatorian. It was a great honor to our family.
My father always reminded us that education will free us from the bandage of hardship. Every Saturday, my elder sister Corazon and our cousins (Villegas family, Icaminas, Iradas) would gather in our farm house to help with farm chores. We will make copra from the coconuts, plant rice, harvest and dry the grains for long months of storage.
While we were working, my father would prepare a feast of chicken cooked inside the bamboo tube; young pig slaughtered and cooked over piles and piles of dried tree branches. Later he would question us about addition, subtraction and fractions in Aklanon dialect. It is all fun after work. We learned so much from home.
Graduating as an honor student is the top dream of my parents. At an early age, living far from the town, they acted as our mentors, teaching us the practical, fast and honorable labor. Mother taught us all the housework, including cooking and sewing, at an early age.