Lambanog and Milk

A great number of development researches in the 1970s and 1980s were on agriculture and

family planning. I was involved in the project which sought to find out the knowlege, attitudes and practices of residents in selected provinces nationwide regarding family planning. 

             One of my respondents in Laguna turned out to be a woman in her mid-thirties who looked at least ten years older. She was washing clothes near their artesian well when I went to her house.

            “E… Iba na lang. Kita mo naman, naglalaba ako”, (Interview somebody else. As you can see, I’m washing clothes),  she told me when I told her about the purpose of my visit.

            I don’t know why I did give after her refusal. I took a chance. I told her that she could go on with her laundry and we could talk. That way, I would not be disrupting her work. She agreed.

            I sat on a low wooden stool but did not go to the main interview right away. I commented on the volume of clothes she was washing.

            “Anim kasi ang anak ko” (It’s because I have 6 children), she said.

            I didn’t see any children around so I asked her where they were. She said they were in school except for the two youngest.

          “Sa katunayan, nilalagyan ko ng lambanog ang gatas nila pag marami akong gawain.” (In fact, I put lambanog  in their milk if I have lots of work to do). This means that she makes them drunk so they would sleep and be out of the way of her household chores! She told me that her neigbors did the same. 

            As I walked away after the interview, I felt depressed because  children are made potential alcoholics at a very early age and because the mothers like my interviewee knew no better. They are victims of poverty.