More bullets than patrons for this hardy Marawi vendor

MARAWI CITY — There are more bullets flying over 57-year-old Limba Luge than patrons coming to her store, but she still chooses to reopen every day to maintain a sense of normalcy.

“There are more bullets flying over my house than people coming to buy foodstuff and other needs,” Luge said in Maranao.

That may sound like a joke, but Luge said it was now the reality she faced every day as she continued to tend to her neighborhood store in Barangay Matampay.

“Most of our neighbors have gone to the evacuation center. My two children and husband are also there,” she said. “[But] I refused to leave because I feared that thieves would enter our house and take away everything we worked hard for.”

She admitted being afraid of the bullets the Maute Group might fire in her direction because of the military camp right across her house.

“But I have to brave everything, including the almost daily bombing runs. I just can’t leave our house behind,” she said. “I want my life to have a semblance of normalcy.”

That is the same answer she gives to soldiers across the street who also ask her why she continues to open her store although there are no customers around.

“Sometimes they would check my house and I allow them in. It’s better for me to let them in all the time. I am not hiding anything so they are welcome here. Especially when they buy something,” she said.

Luge recalled when the fighting started 32 days ago and said it was the first time she saw so many people in shock, some even panicky as they fled the city.

“Every individual I saw wanted to get out as fast as they can,” she said.

Her family and neighbors urged her to leave with them because the fighting was just a few kilometers away but she chose to stay.

“They tried to convince me to join them but I did not budge. I reasoned that I’d rather stay to look after the house and my store,” Luge said.

“So I just continue to open my store everyday,” she said, confident the soldiers will keep the Maute gunmen away from her home.

Luge has grown used to the daily explosions and rattle of automatic gunfire but she yearns it would all end soon.

“There’s an ongoing war so of course you will hear these things. But I really hope that our lives would return to normal in the coming days,” Luge said.

“I hope and pray that this will end soon. I want my family back home and, of course, the children who would rouse me from my afternoon nap because they want to buy candies and other stuff,” she added.