THE PEDDLER AND THE BREEDING BOAR

The Samuel Barcelona, Sr. Story

By: Norberto Betita

Bro. Samuel Barcelona, Sr. 

He felt disinclined to tell his own story. He does not want to remember the difficulties he had been through which started very early in his life. He was born in Talisay, Cebu in conditions of extreme poverty and despondency. Despite difficult circumstances, he tried his best to go to school. He was excited for his elementary graduation, but his elation turned into despair when he was told by his father that he will not be able to enrol in high school. He questioned his father, “Why his cousins were in high school and others even already in college?” However, he later understood his parent’s predicament.

He left their home in Talisay and went to Cebu City to find his future. Nobody would want to accept him for a job; he is too young and small to labor. So he went to the Cebu City Pier to do odd jobs of a porter---carrying cargoes of passengers arriving from different ports of origin. It was no formal employment; he just got up the ship and asked the passengers to allow him to carry their luggage. At times he is refused, but there were also others who allowed him out of pity. His earning was just enough for a meal or two in a day.

Life at the Cebu City Pier during those times was one of survival of the fittest. It is the abode of swindlers and criminals. [In fact a high school classmate and friend of mine was a victim of a swindlers group at the Cebu City wharf while waiting for a ship to Manila. He returned to Surigao City fleeced and drained of all that he possessed, except a rubber slipper, a short pant and a T-shirt.] Samuel was too small and young to fit in. Yet he tried to live on whatever such kind of life could provide. He had to sleep in the open---no pillows, no blankets. When bigger and older men would mistreat and annoy him, he would want to fight, but he realized that his tender and thin body was not strong enough to sustain the blows of bigger and more experienced strong hands. Then while he was strolling near the Pier Area, he found a karate school. He courageously talked with the Karate Master to allow him to attend training. Since he did not have money, he pledged to do errands for the master. Luckily he was admitted. 

During his karate training, as a young boy, he learned more about discipline. He was continually reminded that “karate as a martial art is only for tournament and self-defense.” He was told by his karate master that “running from trouble is the first defense and karate should be the last recourse.” While on training and doing errands for his karate master, he continued to work in the Pier Area for a living. He singly faced his life’s battle. The environment upon which he has been daily exposed should have made him a menace. But he chose not to be counted as an annoyance to society. He was grateful for his karate training for he had been continually reminded to do good always despite his unfavourable circumstances.

The Barcelona Family

For some time he lived in such dreadful environment while trying to live to be just as good as he can be. [His experience and exposure in such wicked domain saved me from being a victim when he personally confronted the swindler who threatened me with a knife many years later in the same pier area in Cebu City.] When he had grown enough to be admitted for work, he applied as a security guard at the University of the Visayas. His Karate certificate helped him to be employed. There was no high school diploma requirement during those times for one to be admitted to work as security guard. While working, he took time to enrol in high school. But when he was about to graduate, he married and eventually resigned from work and returned to his hometown of Talisay, Cebu. There he worked as broom maker together with his wife. Not long after, he and his wife were invited by his brother-in-law to come to Surigao City to work as peddler of household trappings. That’s when he started the peddler’s life. 

In Surigao City he was kind of being trapped in the mire of despondency and destitution. But he faced with courage and faith the sullen tide of his depressed condition. Each day he carried a heavy bundle of household trappings, tools and equipment and walked around the city throughout the day. He carried with him a small white towel to wipe his sweat-filled face as he walked under the heat of the rising sun. He built a one-room nipa hut in a squatter’s area for his family to dwell as he could not afford to rent a house nor even just a room. His being used to such condition of difficulty during his boyhood allowed him to tolerate the deplorable condition. Once, his Karate expertise was tried when his brother-in-law and boss was mauled by porters at the pier area of Surigao City while unloading their cargoes. He came to the defense and they fought with courage using their martial arts skills until the police came. Since then nobody ever dared to abuse them.

Bro. and Sis. Barcelona

Every little extra income from his peddling around the barangays of Surigao City and towns in the Province of Surigao del Norte, he would buy for a chicken or a duck to raise as a vivarium type of storage for emergency preparedness. He also planted some garden to supplement any shortages of income. While peddling around these areas, he observed some of his clients raising backyard hog fattening. He also noticed that there were sows that need breeding boars. It gave him the idea to raise his own domesticated pigs on his backyard. 

In time he and his family became members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He understood better the meaning of all his struggles as he learned to understand the purpose of life and his relationship to God. Each Sunday, he would gave to me, his branch president, his donation envelope for his tithing and every first Sunday, he and his family fasts and prays and gave of their fast offerings equivalent to the cost of two meals to help the poor although he himself and his family are also experiencing difficulties. In the face of great hardships, he never allowed his children to go hungry, but to have something to eat while at home and school. He wanted to provide his children with the needed education which he failed to attain. He determined to carry every required burden for them to experience the glory of attainment.

When his brother-in-law became bankrupt, as a result of uncontrolled vices, Samuel and his wife, rather than return to Talisay, Cebu with their growing children, took courage to start the same business by their own. They borrowed high cost funds at 15-20 percent interest per month. They built another nipa hut as storage for their stocks. He made a hand cart for him no longer to carry the heavy loads on his shoulders. When the children are at school they together pushed the handcart to downtown and find places where they can display and sell their stuffs. 

To make sure he would not misappropriate his small and high cost capital, he eventually raised hogs for fattening to be sold during school openings to cover the school needs of his children. Later he cared for a breeding boar and a sow. He learned to care for the animals by inquiring from the department of agriculture. While peddling he would contact people who are raising sows and recommend his breeding boar. Eventually he got an increasing number of clients for his breeding boar.

With friends in the church.

He was kind of devastated when two of his elder daughters were married a short time after graduation from high school. That was not what he wanted them to be. But he persevered and continued to encourage his children to get the highest education that they can possibly attain. He never failed to support his remaining children through college. He wanted them fortified while their actual battle with life is still distant. This was the time when he had to work double time. After peddling household trappings, the peddler and the breeding boar walked together a kilometer or two to their appointment. In the crucible of adversity he learned a lesson from the words of James E. Faust, “In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner’s fire, and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong.” (The Refiner’s Fire, Ensign, May 1979, p. 53). He pressed on and just kept going.

Notwithstanding his inadequacies and limited capacities, he volunteered to accept responsibilities in the Church as called upon, even to such a heavy responsibility of a Branch President, presiding over 500 members. I have heard him speak many times in Sacrament meetings and I witnessed his wisdom and learning of the spiritual things elevated to a level beyond his own. His messages are simple but deep in meaning and inspiringly penetrating. His simple words edified his listeners. Until now he is still on voluntary service as a member of the District High Council. 

As college needs of his three children magnified, his capital was eventually misappropriated to a more important investment for the future of his children. What were left were the peddler and the breeding boar. He soon got a part-time job as church custodian, while continuing his breeding boar peddling. In seasons, he would raise two or three breeding boars for hire. He made sure that his breeding boar will not grow old as to be no longer acceptable for slaughter. He learned how to castrate pigs and even his large breeding boars.

During his difficult times, he did never asked any financial assistance from the government, except for information and training on how to make his hog and breeding boar livelihood thrive. He had since bought a motorcycle and installed a side car to ferry his breeding boars from place to place.

The peddler is now getting old and the breeding boars had since been replaced from time to time. Yet the enduring partnership of the peddler and the breeding boar remained alive and still productive as to provide a little more than their daily needs. 

The boy Samuel who once struggled with life, engulfed in the midst of swindlers and criminals, now remembers those days when like Caleb of old he would shout, “As yet I am as strong this day… Now therefore give me this mountain… if so be the Lord be with me” (Joshua 14:11-12). More of those mountains of adversity did come which he tried to surmount and conquer with faith in the Lord. He has borne his adversities wisely and now he is relishing a life of peace, happiness and contentment. During my interview with him, he said, “I was so strong during those moments of great adversity because I have a wife whose tender arms always cling onto my weary hands even when we are asleep, with unwavering confidence that we can survive.” All his five children are now married. Three of them earned college degrees and are now gainfully employed. Those who married early after high school graduation are now assisting him in his breeding boar and tricycle livelihood.

He loves telling his grandchildren of his personal history motivating them to face their personal challenges with faith and courage as he did, for as a seed buried deep in the soil grows into a more stronger and sturdy tree, so is the person who encountered the darkest moments of life will taste the sweetest fruit of triumph and victory. He expects them to write their life's stories better than the story of the peddler and the breading boar.