Fed up with her husband, Pondare’s mother moved out of the house when Pondare was 8, taking all her children with her except for a son. Pondare would see her father and brother again six years later, when she turned 14 and felt her life might soon come to an end.
Pondare went to Tahanang Walang Hagdanan in Cainta, Rizal, a nonprofit training center for people with disabilities, for her early education. But she would return to this town years later to finish her primary studies at Kabilang Bacood Elementary School, a few blocks away from her first home near the public market.
She then enrolled at the Jaime J. Vistan High School, which was closer to her second residence in Plaridel, but got to finish only first year. Her mother was not making enough to cover the family expenses.
Except for one incident when she was bullied by a classmate— “Mukha daw po akong tiyanak (I look like a demon child for him),†she said—the lone year in high school was a happy one for Pondare who had the support of the school principal and her classmates.
Like her mother, Pondare became a vendor, peddling clothes, crafts, and fruits on the streets and markets here. Her suki or regular customers include a foreigner who would buy mangoes from her and always let her keep the change, and even help out when her family’s finances were low.
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