Chapter 2 – Beginnings

Nanay’s full name is Tarcila Bohol Llevado and Tatay is Loreto Esquierdo Llevado, both of whom have many generations of ancestors in Samar.  We lived in the house in Guinob-an that my mother grew up in, which was the house of her mother, my grandmother, Sylvestra, whom we call Inay Sylvestra.

Guinob-an is a coastal village (we call it barangay but sometimes also use the Spanish word barrio, or the English word village) that lies within the municipality of Lawaan in Eastern Samar — directly on the Leyte Gulf.  Bt as soon as you go a few hundred yards from the water there are steep hills covered in coconut trees and thick vegetation which quickly becomes the Philippines’ largest true rainforest — a place of dense vegetation, waterfalls, huge limestone caves, and exotic animals including the Philippine eagle, monkeys, wild hogs, tarsiers, lemurs, flying foxes, and snakes — especially Asian cobras and king cobras.  Ours is a large island surrounded by sparkling waters that teem with marine life, and a vast, largely unpopulated  mountainous, rain forested interior.