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LANAO DEL NORTE, Philippines – This is a call to the wedding sponsors of the Marawi evacuees who fell in love and tied the knot in a big wedding at a tent city in September 2017.
The couple is pregnant!
Jomar Saumay and wife Norinsha are expecting in June. The shy couple agreed to sit down with Rappler for an interview on Thursday, May 24.
Jomar said he wants a girl. Norinsha laughed because she wants a boy. The husband smiled, looked her wife in the eyes, and caressed her baby bump. They couldn’t be more in love with each other.
It’s a love story forged at the height of battles between government forces and armed groups that sought to establish an Islamic caliphate in Marawi City in 2017. Jomar made life easier for Norinsha at the tent city, such as making sure her tent is fixed when it needed fixing. (READ: The war in Marawi: 153 days and more)
The government offered to pay for the wedding feast in September that year, 4 months into the war, hoping that the music and the celebration would lift the spirits of the community as they yearned to go back to their homes.
A year after the siege erupted in Marawi, Jomar and Norinsha are among 40 out of original 100 families who continue to live in a tent city in nearby town of Pantar.
“Dapat may electric fan kasi mainit talaga (We should have an electric fan because it’s really very hot here),” Norinsha said, smiling, when Rappler teased her to send a message to government officials who attended their wedding last year.
The summer heat hasn’t made Norinsha’s pregnancy easy. It’s not making the days easy for the rest of the evacuees used to the cooler climate in nearby Marawi City.
The evacuees couldn’t find jobs in the new place but they get by with groceries and supplies regularly supplied by the government. They are getting various training from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, too, to increase their chances to get jobs.
Time has worn down the tents. There are tears and holes here and there that the evacuees have patched with all sorts of adhesive.
Some residents like Jamerah Abdullah are feeling jealous of former neighbors who have returned to their homes outside the former battle area in Marawi and others who were given temporary shelters in barangay Sagonsongan.
Rohma Omar, a government employee managing the tent city, said the tent dwellers will likely leave the tents soon for temporary structures, possibly in the lot across the street. But she said many of them are aching to go back to Marawi.
Jomar is making his own plans for his family. He intends to find themselves a new home after Norinsha delivers their baby next month.
“Gusto ko maging maganda buhay namin. Puwede ako mag-business gaya ng magtinda ng isda (I want a good life for my family. I can have my own business. I could sell fish),” said Jomar, who didn’t finish college.
“Sa malayo. Sa ibang lugar na kasi walang hanapbuhay sa Marawi. Pagkapanganak ko, malaking gasto sa bata (Somewhere far away. We can’t go back in Marawi, where there are no jobs. We need money after I give birth for the baby’s needs),” said Norinsha.
The future is uncertain. But whatever happens, all Norinsha wants is for her family to stay together.
“Marami akong pangarap. Hindi maubos ‘yan eh. Ang pinaka-importante, buo ang pamilya ko. Kung may trabaho, maganda ‘yun (We don’t run out of dreams. The most important this is we stay together. If we have jobs, too, that will be really good),” she said. – Rappler.com
Top photo: TENT CITY. Jomar and Norinsha Saumay are among 40 families who continue to live in tents in Pantar town in Lanao del Sur. Photo by Carmela Fonbuena/Rappler
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