TRAVIS, MY GRANDSON AND HIS INFECTIOUS LANGUAGE

by: Norberto Betita

Travis Betita Preciosa

I felt worried when I was told by his mother that the result of the ultrasound revealed that his kidneys differ in size---one is bigger than the other. I feared because his grandmother and aunts had histories of kidney problems. While his parents may have been praying for him, I did my own sincere personal pleadings to Heavenly Father for the foetus to grow normally and to be born healthy. My fears slowly became extinct as I was told after each scheduled visit to the doctor that the baby is okay. His father blessed his mother right on the day when he was to be delivered. Indeed, he was born normally, healthy and strong on June 28, 2001. I was relieved, although his parents were advised to have him checked by Pediatric Nephrologist after two years for any possible kidney problem. He was blessed and given a name of TRAVIS BETITA PRECIOSA by his father, who was the Branch President in our branch on the fast and testimony Sunday immediately following his birth. His name was historically known as being used in America in honor of William Travis who was the commander of the Texan forces in the Battle of the Alamo. It is meant to traverse or cross---the act of passing through.

It’s been five years since, but there had been no visible signs of kidney malfunctions in him. Penury deprived him of the needed check-up by an specialist. But his parents are looking forward to have him brought to Cebu City for Pediatric Nephrology.

Dancing with Ate KayAn

He is now five years old. Our noses bleed as he speaks. We didn’t know how he got his English language and accent that even if he speaks in Visayan his intonation is still the same. Instead of saying tambay for medicine he would say tsambay. When his cousin told him, “this is a gift”, he responded “no that is a present”. While strolling around the city with his parents he saw scattered garbage and he told his mommy “it’s disgusting”. Perhaps he had learned the language from the educational videos which she daily viewed and some children’s video games that he was viewing. If we talk to him in Surigawnon---our local dialect, he will not respond. We all speak in Surigawnon at home, but we have a hard time influencing him to speak the dialect. Instead we are the ones infected by his extra-terrestrial vernacular. We sometimes thought he is an American or English spirit who mistakenly entered his mother’s womb probably thinking that she was an American or an English woman because of her fair complexion. It is no wonder though that he has a brown hair, because his maternal first degree granduncle was born and grew up with a curly brown hair and white skin tall and handsome like him.

Once he was brought by his parents in a mall. While he was being cuddled by his father, whose complexion seemed to be even darker than the brown Filipino race because of the nature of his work, a saleslady asked if Travis was a son of a foreigner. His mother interrupted; and the saleslady grinned as she was told that the one carrying him was his father.

He started his pre-school at four. He did not resist being left alone by his parents during his first day in school. There he learned to associate and slowly absorbed and communicate d the local dialect. Until now he still has a hard time conversing fluently the local language at home and school, but he now understands when we talk to him in the dialect. We don’t know how long he will be adjusting with his school classmates and what will be the measure of his competence.

His language is truly infectious. At home his cousin Cian seemed to have been confused of the two languages we are using, that he adopted also the English language, especially that they are always in company. When his first cousin Jelliene came to study in a local public school, she was also infected with Travis’ English accent. Because of these two that seemed to have been born with English as their lingua franca, all the more that we are using the language now. Even our about two year-old granddaughter Zaina Viveca is now learning the language because they are usually together at home most of the time. However, what is most important is we understand each other. 

Today, June 28, 2016 is his 5th birthday. We are not sure what will be his future, yet we are happy to witness his wonderful growth and development daily, while he hops and pops like the “Five little monkeys dancing on the bed” who sometimes fell down and bump their heads. We are hoping and earnestly praying that God will bestow through His divine providence that which is best for him. As grandparents, I and my wife may not have the opportunity to see him grow to maturity, but my undeviating wish is for him to be nurtured in the gospel by his parents to help him grow in righteousness and virtue and worthily serve in the Church and Kingdom of God. May the meaning of his name be a daily reminder for him to pass through every gate of adversity and cross the chasm that may divide along his route to the marvellous prospects of his future. It is my ardent hope that he will be able to read this article about him when he becomes old enough to understand and I am gone.

TO OUR SIXTH GRANDSON TRAVIS, HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!