I happened to see my sister on the wake of my mother this past holy week, and I can't understand why she allows herself to be in the state she was in today. She was too thin (I felt guilty coz I'm on the heavy side). When asked she simply told me there was no food to eat. She has no work, her husband (who is also out of work) does not allow her to work coz he does not trust her. They have 4 kids, all malnourish - 3 girls & a boy, ages 13, 10, 8 & 6. Their subsistence depended on the allowance of my mother coming from me and from another sister in the Middle East. Her parents-in-law sends the kids to school, their home was build for them by her in-laws so its free but has no maintenance.

They don't even have electricity coz they cannot afford to pay and it's for over a year already according to her. It's good they have deep well for water, some neighbors fetch water from their deep well, (manually pumped) pays per container and that adds to their income and those neighbors is just about a couple of families. Their other neighbors had their own deep well with electric pump.

Every month they were supplied a sack of rice by her in-laws, actually if they were only employed they will be better off. I don't really understand my sister why she allows her husband to rule over her like that, she assured me she's not a battered housewife or physically abused by her husband. How about the welfare of the kids, how about if her if her parents-in-law died, those are not young anymore.

My sister is a college graduate, surely she can find employment or they can find some business if they don't want to be just employees. I even told her why can't she just sell milkfish in the wet market just like we were doing when we were in college or have some poultry of piggery since their place is a farm. The nearby farms are just doing it or to be different a flower farm. Their residential lot is too big, she can do the business with her husband or convert the place into a plant nursery.

I really can't understand them why they can allow their children to be malnourish, the children are too thin with bloated stomach. Gosh....laziness really is the cause of poverty.