The
invitation to partake in an organized trip to interview and award the sponsorships
of student fund for school year 2019 to 2020 by the aloha.org was such a delight as I wanted to know more
about the people from ground zero of the last Ompong (Manghut) disaster.
Itogon, Benguet have always been known to be a mining area, so landslide
occurrence is not a surprise.
The Benguet Volunteers
I
was at the Clark International Airport at around 4:45pm looking at the wrong
area J then I met Tempi Raziel and Hiromi
Takahashi at around 5:30 pm where most Filipino would wait for their relatives,
did not expect them to be there J then we rode the bus
heading for Baguio City, it was not an easy travel but hey we arrived safely in
Baguio City at around past midnight, hailed a Grab taxi bound for # 17
Pointsettia St., Monterrazaz, Tuding, Itogon, Benguet. The home of the Benguet
Volunteers from February 21 to March 1, 2019. After meeting the caretaker,
DenDen Magpilly our next team mate arrived past 2am. Now we are complete.
Our destination
alejo n.
pacalso national highschool is located in bua, itogon, benguet, this is the only public school in the
area and most children of the miners came here to study. As it is a mining
area, migrant local miners came to get their hand on the Baguio silver and gold
that the area has been known for. The school was the brainchild and the
namesake of the then Mayor Alejo N.
Pacalso circa 1978. His family donated the area with the initial intention as a
vocational collegiate school but was not given the accreditation as Bua,
Itogon, Benguet is about forty minutes to Baguio City where most city colleges
are located.
Mt
Province is pre-dominantly IGOROT, and it is to my understanding that the
indigenous community takes pride in being self-sufficient and very industrious
people. Self-sufficiency has always been the trade mark of the IGOROTs but the
recent events led them to be more receptive and less sceptical with outsiders. The
landslide in Ucab, Itogon, Benguet is the location of the ground zero due to
incessant rain of Ompong.
Ground
Zero in Ucab, Itogon, Benguet is located in the center between two adjoining
mountain so no wonder that most people have died during the landslide, whereas
the Alejo N. Pacalso National Highschool is strategically located on top of a
steep hill in Bua, Itogon, Benguet.
Going
to school alone takes a lot of hard work and patience, as most of city dwellers
will not understand that some children need to go to the city so that they can
go home in the next town. Imagine a straight line, you are already in Point B
but you have to go back to Point A so you can eat at Point C. Kudos to the
resiliency of these children. I take
pride in myself that I do a lot of mountaineering in Central Luzon, but dang, a
few days of uphill/downhill walk in Mt. Province just proved that the oxygen in
that area is a lot thinner than what I am used to.
The Program
All
I know is that I have to accompany guest from aloha.org, one American and one
Japanese to validate sponsorship of the local student to their prospective
sponsors.
As
I am listening to the encouraging introduction of Tempi Raziel on his journey
in making his project a successful one, made me realize that I am indeed lucky
to participate in the project.
As
he has said, he had experienced poverty and bullying but it never stopped him
from making his dreams a reality. He had sent himself through school by
enlisting in the army, after which he had planned to make his foundation a reality.
Aloha.org is a culmination of one man’s dream to help a child go to school. His
foundation started about 3 years ago helping out impoverished families in Tondo
to which he ventured further and have found Benguet to be a good place for his
project to take roots. He clearly has resonated, that all monies he was able to
collect will all be spent with the chosen students of each sponsor. What made
me admire the man was when he said, that the money he will be spending up to
the last centavo is not his alone but from all the people who have believed
that paying it forward is a lot better than doing nothing.
First
world countries does not understand poverty as we do in the Philippines. Hence,
looking for donors is not as easy as it was assumed to be. What he wanted was
for the students to understand that the aim of the program is paying it
forward, the program shall enable a child to study and make good with their
lives but also in the hope that after the education given to them they shall
also help the foundation to grow by helping the next generation in the school.
A
hope was provided by aloha.org to indigent students it will be up to them to
make that hope a success so that the next batch will be given a chance to
succeed as well.
The task
The
task is simple, we have to validate about 860 student to be included in the
program. Our team leader, Tempi Raziel will video each student to introduce
themselves to their probable sponsors, Hiromi Takahashi is our Japanese Teacher
instructing the students on the proper enunciations of Nihongo, DenDen Magpilly
and I will be the English tutors.
What we did as volunteers for
aloha.org
The
task was very educational. We have to divide and conquer as the saying goes.
DenDen and I would switch classes to keep students occupied while the others
are being prepared for the interview.
Being
an inquisitive person, I have literally probed the lives of each Grade 7 to 12 students.
Each student has varying hopes, dreams, stresses but all have one thing in
common they are depressed over their inability to eke out a living for
themselves and family. Their situation is not so different from the lowlanders,
but theirs is not a choice. The natural disaster made it for them.
What
impressed me the most was their ability to communicate well in English sans
grammar and enunciation which made my exercises easier to deal and a lot
funnier, I hope. We did converse a lot and it was as eye opening experience for
me as I hope to them as well.
They
did open their hearts bearing scars of a life so hard for them to fathom and
yet so yearning of hope, my experiences were put to shame.
If
I was asked again to comeback, and ask what continuing program will I do, I
most definitely process each child so that each one of them will understand
their emotions and how to face that conflict. Their scars was left with me
unintentionally, I think it is what you call transference?
