Silence Sweat. Humidity. Filled the room, not a strand of air went inside. Suddenly, she stood up and placed her school books in a table. It was dim, too dim to even do something properly.

      There was no electricity, not just one family but 2 million families in the Philippines are living wothour electricity and live in unlit-scorching places. These families just use kerosene, paper or wood for a little spark of subtle brightness.

        According to Rep. Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman the 5 billion for the program had not been enough to put electricity on the unserved, darkened communities for the last three years.

Eyes Closed. No power, a brown out. With people living with no light, what happens at nigh time? It’s just dim and scary. They’re forced to sleep and the stars are their blankets.

Flicker of Light. With such little brightness of a candle, it’s very limited for them to do other things. Something so little as a flower can make something that is dark a small colorful piece of the so called black canvas.  

Voices of the Night. While the crickets and the frogs sing, the people inside their dim houses sleep helplessly through the night and under the bight moon. The darkness in their house remains as the night ends.

Learning Black. Even the school lives of other people are damaged because of power. Because of the lack of light, they can’t read properly. Stack of home works and books remained untouched while the black canvas stays.

The sound of crickets filled the house, she, the helpless woman, has been used to it by now. The stars became her blanket as it gave her light, something she needed. She lived in the monochrome world with the stars and the moon as her guide.

A tiny light for the monochrome world…

By: Ms. Jane Sarah R. Balderama | Teacher I | BNHS-SHS | Balanga City, Bataan