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| Fig. 1 A welcome after 8 hours of travel |
With the sight of my parents’ silhouettes fading as
the bus began its course, it dawned on me that it would be futile to turn back
now. Countless things enveloped my mind. What have I gotten myself into? What
would be waiting for me at the end of this stop? How many days would it take
for me to call my parents and beg them to bring me home already? EXCITEMENT - I guess that made to the top of the list.
I’m ecstatic that I would be in a different place and with a different society
– free from the pressures and burden of Zamboanga City. I could live without
taking heed of the demands of the people around me. I could move with ease. Who
wouldn’t want that?! However, the excitement of something different comes with
the fear that ‘different’ may mean adjustment. Thus, my first week of community
exposure is devoted to meeting and greeting with the word ‘adjusting’.
Roofless bathroom, foamless bed, cable-less TV (if
there is such a word), not that I’m exaggerating or anything but add “less” at
the end of any household structure you could think of and voila, that would be
my home for the next 4 weeks. How far apart I was from the amenities of a cozy
home, the closer I am however, to touching the hearts of people of Pangulogon.
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| Fig. 2 Pressured to learn house chores |
I turned into a HYPOCRITE overnight. I became overly
conscious that I won’t soil my
clothes so I won’t have a hard time washing it
while I really didn’t give a second thought at smearing ketchup or any
condiment for that matter on my uniform back at school. I pitied Manang
Labendera back home every single time I get to wash my clothes. I walk 16
kilometers going to the Rural Health Center and back while I was used to just being
a dial away for my dad to fetch me from school. This made me appreciate the
effort he made each time he would pick me up. I wake up at 5 in the morning to
prepare breakfast while I use to smirk when my mom would forget to make me my
coffee. Thank God for Mothers!
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| Fig. 3. Titong |
FORTUNATE - that pretty sums up my feeling for the
week that transpired. While the kids here needed to walk kilometers after
kilometers and ride a ‘gakit’ to cross the river just to get to school, my
father never failed to get me to school in time. While Titong and Jambert, our
expert tour guides on life in Pangulogon, needed to get to school at 8:00 am
despite the myriad of chores that they need to finish at home, I just needed to
study my lessons and pass my exams. While Ric, our ever handy man, needed to
stop his college education because he didn’t have enough to support him
anymore, I’m here studying still wanting to have a post-graduate degree,
studying medicine and shelling out 63,000 per semester for the next 5 years.
I associate Barangay Pangulogon with GRATEFULLNESS. Grateful for the opportunities I’m blessed
with, thankful for all the comforts that awaits me when I come home and not to
mention appreciative of the hospitality that the people here extended to a
stranger trying to make her way into life – finding meaning and finding purpose.
I hope I’ll find it here in Pangulogon, the place I’ll call home for the next 4
years of being a medical student.
Contributed by:
Mary Antonette Torres
