In my
previous blog, I wrote about my recent trip to Tacloban as one of the medical team volunteers for the Papal 2015 visit which was organized by Balsa and the
SAMIN sisters (Sisters Association in Mindanao). We stayed in Tacloban for 6 days and one of the activities is the community immersion.
The Beginning
Along with the members of SAMIN sisters, we were divided into five groups to be dispersed to different communities in Tacloban. My group was assigned to Brgy. Cogon, Tanauan. We were supposed to leave at 3pm, but because of some transportation problems, we left the city around 7PM.
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| My group: from right, our guide Ate Gina, Sir Dolping, Sister Skola, Sister Ali, the group leader Sister Mafe, Sister Sharon, Sister Maris, Sister Didith and Father Ruben. Excited! |
It was almost 9PM when we arrived in Brgy. Cogon. The first thing I noticed was the immense darkness. There were no street lights and only few of the houses had electricity where a single light bulb serves the whole house. Our car stopped in front of a house where a group of people are eagerly smiling and seemed very excited to meet us. After we gathered our things, we were led to a house where a group of families were waiting for us. Since it was already late, we quickly introduced ourselves and picked our sponsors. Sponsors are families that will adopt us for the night. Since there were 8 of us, we divided ourselves into four groups so that each of the families will have at least two of us. I was partnered with Sister Maris.
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| Sister Maris with the family that adopted her and Ate Gina (our guide), far left white shirt. |
The Conflict
Sister Maris and I's sponsor family immediately had us rest in their house. While they were preparing our bed, an old lady in her 70's, carrying a big flashlight came to talk to us. She was wondering why she didn't receive any visitors. She got dismayed by that because she already prepared food by 1 pm, expecting us to arrive at 4pm and that she would be adopting some people for the night.
While I focused my attention on putting some comforters on our makeshift bed so that my body won't ache and charging my tablets to my powerbank, sister Maris was busy apologizing to the old lady, explaining that there were only eight of us instead of 15 and so the group only needed 4 houses. The old lady who was obviously upset and wouldn't budge, wouldn't take no for an answer. To my horror, sister Maris asked if I can go with the old lady and sleep at her house.
At the risk of sounding like a total drama queen, I almost wanted to cry when I heard the question. It was my first community immersion, I didn't know a single soul in the area, the only person familiar to me was Sister Maris whom I met roughly two days before so she was basically still a stranger to me, electricity was not a popular need, and one important lesson I learned from watching horror films filmed in remote areas is to never leave your partner. If you die, you must die together.
When the old lady pleaded for us to at least eat the food that she prepared for dinner, we finally gave in to her request to her delight. Nanay's house was no different from our sponsor's house. It has the same size and design. Sister Mariz then explained that the house was a donation from The UN Refugee Agency.
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| Blanket with the UNHCR logo |
First thing that Nanay did was to re-heat the instant pancit canton when we arrived at her house. She kept on apologizing for the inconvenience and for the absence of electricity that we had to repeatedly assure her that it's not a problem. I was not really hungry but I had to eat what Nanay served to show respect. While eating, I noticed a Gardenia loaf bread on the table. Minutes later, Nanay offered us the bread, pointing out that she had to travel to the nearest town to buy that special bread for her visitors to eat. Not for her, only for the visitors. Visitors deserves the best, she said. My heart immediately melted. Judging her living condition, a Gardenia loaf bread must have cost her a lot. When Sister Maris asked me again if I can sleep at Nanay's house, I finally agreed after negotiating to have Ate Gina (our guide) to be with me.
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| The bread that nanay bought for us. Credits to the owner of the pic. Got this from Google. |
I guess I got melodramatic with the whole thing because Nanay (I forgot her name) was nothing but a hospitable human being. She gave us the best sheets to sleep on that I didn't even need to set my comforter, she gave us her smoothest downy smelling blanket, and she set us a
mosquitero.
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The mosquitero. You can almost see everything inside the house in this pic
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Our bed for he night.
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| The house was so small that when you get out of the mosquitero, you can already see the dining table. |
To my delight, Nanay served us nilagang kamote, fried fish, fried egg and bought us a "special" coffee which is Cafe Blanca by Kopiko.
I got guilty eating breakfast though because I heard nanay earlier that morning asking the fish vendor if she can score half a kilo of fish and pay it in the next days. I wanted to pay for the fish but stopped myself because she might take it as an insult. On our orientation the night before, we were informed that it is their happiness to serve the visitors. We must not show any signs of pity. I however took a mental note to ask Sister Maris if I can give Nanay some money before we go. I was not able to take a picture of Nanay because I got too engrossed talking to her that I didn't realize that it was already time to go to the community chapel for the Psycho Social Intervention with the children of the community which I am going to talk about on my next blog.
Do's and Don'ts when in a community immersion
(This list is made only from what I observed and learned during the activity)
Do's
1.
Respect - "When in Rome, act like a Roman." Easier said than done but this is a must when in a community immersion especially in a place where a tragic event took place. Most of these people are traumatized, they are usually sensitive with things. (i.e) If they eat using their hands, eat using your hands too.
2.
Observe. This is what I lacked when Nanay first expressed her disappointments of not getting any visitors. I was even annoyed. And that's where I failed. I failed to observe her needs of having someone at her house, of her efforts not being dump in the drains. Looking back, I wish I didn't have to make her plea for our presence.
3.
Listen. These people have gone through so much that having someone to listen to them and empathize with them is already a big help. I realized this when we spent hours of talking about Typhoon Yolanda, of how the government failed to help them, of how oppressed they are. I am usually the talkative type, but that night, I just listened. And I know, it somehow helped them unload their baggages.
Don'ts
1. Ask - There's nothing wrong in asking but when you ask for a spoon and fork when there is obviously non, putting the sponsor in an uncomfortable situation is a big no no. It's asking things like that and the likes.
2. Be stubborn - I admit, I am guilty on this one. I almost did not give in to Sister Maris's request to sleep in Nanay's house. I might have missed the chance of making an old lady happy. So don't. Just don't. Refer to Do's #1.
3. Pry - Pry, as in, asking the head of the family why he has 5 children when he's earning a meager salary. We are there to make them feel good, not to lecture them on their life choices.
The Realizations
The immersion was definitely a life learning experience. It made me think about my shallow problems like worrying about my almost emptied mac lipstick, when these families worry about what to eat and will they be able to buy fish for their meals the next day. Then again, I realized that we all have to cope with situations that's given to us. That's why we all have comfort zones. If you put a CEO of a software company in a farm, give him a mud tractor to ply the soils, he may figure out how to turn it on but he will never be able to use it like a pro. It will take days, even months for him to be comfortable with the heat of the sun, the mud's feel on his well pedicured feet and the weight of the tractor, but he will always long for his computers. Same with a farmer, if you put him in the CEO's office, he may know how to turn on the computers but it will take him months or even years to muster the codes and he will at some point wish he was still plying soils.
While the people in that community work hard everyday to put food on the table and eat three times a day, I work everyday to put food on the table, send my children to private schools, buy things that I want, have fun with my friends and it will never be enough, because that's my comfort zone. Being in constant battle with life. Life in that community may be simple, all you had to do is work to eat but I will never survive that life choice. I will die miserably, wishing I was running the world instead of settling for less, at least for me.
While I liked the experience, it is not my comfort zone but I will definitely be doing it again at least once or twice a year to keep me grounded.
Here's a picture of me and a very cute baby from the community to cap this blog.
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| hashtag no filter, no make-up. lol |
