People Focus One: Yu Dian

I am starting the year introducing and celebrating the people who had played a big part in my life as a person, as a teacher, and as a friend. They will be random so as not to be boring. They will be in segments as some deserved more space than others because of our stories. Some will be short and sweet yet all these people played an enormous part on how I became Jonathan Yu.

"Bulutong!" was the name he was often called by his neighbours. This wasn't his name because it meant chicken pox in English. It was rather name calling and I grew up hearing that every now and then. 

His real name was Yu Dian and he hailed from Xiamen which is a part of Mainland China. Married to Lim Teng, they had five siblings and I was the first grandson of the Chai family. My grandfather started life in the Philippines after fleeing the mainland by opening a small store and later on a restaurant where I grew to be diligent and responsible.

I attended a Chinese school which means that I had voluminous assignments when I reached the house at half past five. However, I needed to be present in the restaurant's kitchen so that I could help my grandparents in preparing ordered food. Not that I learned to cook, I was the errand boy and errands had to made in split seconds. "We ran out of soy sauce, go get some!" and off I would go. 

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After a few visits to the market with my grandfather, it was now my turn to do the marketing myself complete with a list with very specific instructions. I remember being asked to purchase flat noodles with the shrimp brand, and no substitutes were allowed. I would be buying peanuts, hot buns, Vetsin, salt, vegetables, candles, and other things. The best part of going to the market was the way home. I get to ride a 'calesa', a horse driven carriage from Paco Market to our place. It was so cool!

My grandfather was very creative and inventive. We used to have a cook stove heated by either wood, charcoal, or wood shavings. The delivery man would come on a regular basis with sacks of wood shavings. I would help my grandfather unpack the shavings in a brick room and sometimes would have fun jumping in the stack. A great find would be a giant scorpion running away from my grandfather as he was to hit it with a wood plank. The storage room, with its cold and dry condition, became a habitat for scorpions and giant millipedes. Awesome!

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The best story I had shared with my students would be my grandfather's cockroach killer. He taught me how to use a Flit gun, a manual insect sprayer used during my golden days. Rather than the usual insecticide, we used kerosene and then we attached a lighted candle secured by rubber bands in front of the air nozzle. Once you pull and push the plunger, the spray of liquid creates a fire blast that can instantly kill multiple batches of cockroaches. Dangerous but effective!

At age ten, I learned so many things in life. When my Angkong ( our term for grandfather) showed me how to do groceries, it was my first real experience of math. When we played with the sprayer and hunted for dangerous bugs, it was a hands on experience in science. When we communicated, it was a dialogue in a foreign language. When I helped out and enjoyed it, it was my foundation for life. 

I love him dearly and his last material gift is still with me, hidden in my cupboard.