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Chito - Part I How Abuse Happens
First Published: Reflections - Philippine Daily Inquirer Publication Date: 3rd October 1991 Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC Christmas lights meant nothing to Chito. They conveyed no message of peace or hope that his life would be the better off for the coming and the going of the Christmas celebration. He has little enough to celebrate as he hobbled barefooted, weighed down by the two cans of water slung from a slender pole that was raising a raw welt on his skinny shoulder. The ground sank beneath his feet with every step. It was a man made pile of plastic bags and trash, most of it came from the nearby bars and clubs that were decked out with Christmas lights - as if trying to convey good cheer where there was none. Chito swayed as he walked on the uncertain ground trying to avoid broken glass or bits of metal although it was unlikely that he would cut himself as every scrap was snatched up long ago. Chito is a push-cart boy and the the son of a trash collector who died of TB two years ago leaving three children and an emaciated wife Lydia, her body wrinkled and worn like a crumbled page. She was sickly having spent the best years of her life working in a club. Now she didn't have the strength to launder enough clothes to feed herself and the children. Anna the youngest was just ten years old and helped her mother with the washing. Merly was six and got little or no attention. She did not even go to school. Chito was really taking care of the family since his father died . His mind was now concentrating on reaching the cardboard shack that was their home, with every step the bamboo pole painfully stabbed his shoulder. His face wore that worried frown of older people whose waking hours are filled by thoughts of how to get food. Although it was Christmas eve Chito had other worries. His youngest sister Meley had sores all over her feet and they were growing worse. Two of his friends Resty and Jose, street boys, were in jail and had sent word for him to get their gang of street children to make up a collection and buy them out for Christmas. Two hundred Pesos would do it. Chito knew how hard jail was. He spent Christmas there once. He was frequently there for a few days at a time for vagrancy especially when the big ships were in, but he was never charged. He was made to clean out the faeces and urine in the toilet hole and sleep on the concrete floor listening to the scuffling and guffaws of men and women doing their thing in the dark. If he was to eat he had to massage the criminal inmates until he was exhausted. One was dissatisfied and threw boiling water on him. He still has the scars. Arriving at the shack Chito heard Merly crying. His frown grew deeper. There was nothing he could do, there was no money, every visit to the City hospital cost money, lots of money. He was scolded once by a doctor at the hospital. His friend Jose was sniffing glue from a plastic bag and became unconscious. They blamed him of being a drug addict too when he asked help from the General hospital. But Chito didn't take drugs, he had a family to take care of and he was almost twelves year old. He put down the water cans on the earthen floor and propped the yoke in a corner of the tiny shack and saw that Merly's running sores were bigger now and the flies were settling down to feast. He impatiently waved them away and put some water in a plastic basin and washed a dirty cloth and then wrapped it around her sores. Merly stopped crying. They hungered. Their mother and Anna had not come home for three days, she was washing clothes in a compound where the Americans from the nearby base rented apartments. He thought of Trevor, his American friend. He first met Trevor when he was eleven. He went there with his mother to help with the laundry. Trevor took a shine to Chito and gave him a candy bar, then ten pesos and later clothes, food and money. It was a taste of paradise, Christmas gifts everyday and soon he was worshiping his blue eyed God of plenty. That is what made it easier to overcome his embarrassment and shyness when Trevor invited him into the apartment for a merienda and showed him the wonders of a shower room and magic of a television. Soon he was encouraged to try the shower and afterwards sit on Trevors lap watching television and sometimes fell asleep. One day he woke up in bed with his "friend" beside him and it wasn't long before he was shown what games made Trevor happy and make him angry. An angry scowl or a harsh word from Trevor was sufficient to warn Chito that their games were secrets, he quickly learned that it was the only way to keep the food and money flowing. His parents depended on these gifts that Chito brought home and they never asked what he did for Trevor to make him so generous nor did Chito tell them.
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