SISIW

“Pa, ibili mo ako ng sisiw.” (Papa, buy chicks for me.) That is the request of my five year old son to me during my vacation. I was so delighted by that request. It has been my desire to have poultry in our backyard, but my wife strongly disagrees with the idea. The number one reason is our son is asthmatic, second is our neighbor might complain of the unpleasant odor coming from the chicken dung.


I replied to that request of my son with a big “YES!” Luckily, my brother in law has a chicken cage that’s idle, so I took that after getting his permission to use it. Then we went right away to buy fifteen chicks. I let my kids to choose those fifteen chicks. You can see the joy in their eyes as they took turns in picking the chicks. After buying the chicks, my kids are too eager to go back home so they can start feeding them. But my wife needs to go and attend to her commitments, so I have to convince our kids to be patient and besides the chicks are not yet hungry.

My kids are a natural pet lover. I guess most of the kids are like that. We have that same nature when we were as young as them before. We got dogs, cats and birds as pets before. We even have turtles and “golden kuhol” (golden snail) as pets. Though I doubt you can call snail as pet. Anyhow we give too much care for them that’s why they become our pet.

Let’s go back to my kids. My kids, most especially my son, is not allowed to have pet, because of his condition, though he love it so much to have one. They only have a dog named “Patchi” in which my son used to kiss and hug whenever my wife is not around. They are contented of sharing with our neighbors pets from time to time because we cannot have more pets at home.

There is also one occasion that my kids spent all of their money in “pabunot” (this is a set of small rolled paper with number inside, if you get the same number as tagged in the prize, then you win that prize) in which the prize is a chick with different color, this is now popular most specially during the town fiesta. The man with the pabunot took pity to my kids because they didn’t win any prize at all, gave them one chick as a consolation. They are very happy at that consolation. They would carry the chick wherever they go. They would let the chick to sleep in their bed at night for fear that the cat might eat it. But since the chick is not designed to that lifestyle, it didn’t survive for another week.

Now that we just bought fifteen chicks, my son was so happy. He immediately calls all his “kalaro” (playmates) to show them his new pets. They began giving names to each chick. All the fifteen chicks got named in less than a minute. They even want to put a lace in each chick’s leg in order to identify them among the others but I told them that it is not possible. When evening time comes, my son told me to put the chicks inside our house. Maybe he is worried to leave them outside all night. I told him that they are safe because the cage is their home.

For the days onwards we would be spending our time watching the chicks grow. Every morning, my son, straight from his bed, would go to the cage to check on the chicks. My wife who used to disagree with this idea now enjoys spending time with the chicks. This becomes one of our bonding moment as we clean the cage of the dung, replace the feeds and the drinks of the chicks and we would record their weekly weight gain, one by one.

We even set up a place near the cage in which we can have our breakfast and lunch. Our auntie was so inspired by this idea that she also bought 10 chicks and give to her brother to raise. When I returned here in Libya the chicks are about three weeks old. I did missed them as well that I would regularly ask my wife of their weight improvement. They would even show one on the cam for me to see. I was so happy because all of the fifteen chickens did made it up to their 45th day, there was no casualty.

It was holiday in the Philippines, when the time comes to dispose the chicken and my kids are at home. They cried when they saw what’s being done to their pets. My son run to his bedroom and wept. My wife had a hard time explaining to him that it has to be done. That evening, my wife prepared chicken for dinner. The kids asked if that was their chicken. My wife says no, though it was.

Today my wife bought another fifteen chicks to raise just in time for her and our sons’ birthday celebration next month. I was surprised because she doesn’t want it before. She told me that she enjoy raising the chicken because time passes so quickly and that helps her a lot in coping with her longing for me. And unlike before that she thought it was so difficult raising the chicken, she told me, “Sisiw lang pala mag-alaga.”