(Photo owner: Eu Banatlao)
I just finished bathing at the salty and rocky shores
of Barangay Balatubat, Camiguin Island while writing this and it is with great
delight to tell you all stories not so much of my adventures but of people with
genuine hospitality.
But before anything else, I thank the Almighty God for
this opportunity to be sent to the Island. I was assigned to teach and I
realized that I was a student more than a teacher because the natives of this
place have taught me plenty of things which I consider priceless. After our
Solemn Investiture in Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, I told our Director for
Pastoral Formation that I was excited yet was filled with nervousness because
it has been my first time to sail across massive waters and to follow a
curriculum in teaching. He replied that it is normal but his reminder was that
I must instead cherish what God unfolds in this journey. And so, praying for enlightenment
from the Holy Spirit, together with my brothers, I conquered the tides of
Babuyanes.
One thing I realized was that teaching is not easy. As
a teacher, you really have to EDUCATE your students – literally, to lead them
away from ignorance. For everyone’s information, I am not a teacher by
profession [yet] nor had I taken courses like Certificate in Teaching Program
before. Almost everything was alien to me. What I carried with me were bits of
knowledge and experiences as a student and my ever-loyal friend, a journal
notebook.
June 6, 2018
Two days of teaching? Not a
piece of cake. I thought all the while that Creative Writing will be easy but
then I have to realize that I am teaching in a school in an island where there
is no electricity in the morning and text books used by advanced schools are
scarce. Students are competent and bright. But how can we say that we are
succeeding in teaching if our pupils are struggling? O my! I thought that the textbook
that I have in hand shall do the trick. I was wrong. I have to bring the
students back to basics. This is not a wish I myself ask to be granted, it is a
cry of grade 12 students who are eager to have a voice.
If people would ask whether I had been strict as a
teacher, I would answer that I wanted to but I had to think twice if I really
had to be or not to be. The people of Camiguin live a very simple lifestyle. No
wonder the Student-Brothers who grew up here wish to come back home if given an
opportunity. Comes with that simplicity that I was describing is labor
regardless of age. Teenagers would have to cook dinner, or feed farm animals,
or catch some fish or crustaceans once they are dismissed from school in the
afternoon. I never experienced such thing my entire life. I had all the leisure
of time to sit down and relax during my high school and college days to open
books and the internet to accomplish my paper works and lessons. My students
and I have the same desire to achieve as a bonus academic honors that is why
they are in a way competent. Because my students lack review materials, I
thought that the class would find it difficult to move forward but then God
made things easier for all of us and so I worked double time to make lessons
skillful and simple. The greatest consolation about the Grade 12 students of
Lyceum is that they know how to obey even if they find “their teacher” (which
is me) boring. “Love begets love”, as the dictum goes and that became an
effective tool. I did my best to learn to love them and so they did the same to
me.
Only in Camiguin have I experienced being a Brother, a
“priest” (because of their absence for the meantime), and a “matinée idol” all
at the same time. I don’t know where my photos with the students will end up
but I tried reminding my students to see and hear God’s message instead of
“God’s messengers”. And speaking of students and children especially those who
loved to play at Lyceum’s compound every afternoon, they allowed me to go back
to my childhood days playing and sharing smiles with them even if we do not
understand one another’s dialect. At least I was able to ask them one by one, “Anya ti nagan mo?” and when they ask me
in return I would say, “Siak ni Manong
Vince.”
As to how I would describe my overall experience in
Camiguin, I would say that it was like a paradise. People might think that I
exaggerate but no. If they would only have a chance to savor this Mount Tabor,
they would definitely understand why Peter, James and John would like to build
tents instead of going down. While people share their life stories, I feel that
I am being reunited with God. If I were the lost sheep, I am glad that God has
found me throughout my stay. If only we could read the contents of the
missionaries’ hearts, we would understand that there are plenty of reasons why
they wanted to be sent here. But just like Peter, James and John, I myself have
to go down from Mount Tabor because there are other people waiting, hopefully
this time not for the messenger but for the Message.
I thank the Lord for my missionary experience as a Corista. I also thank the people who
helped us throughout our stay: Nanay Anita with her daughter Joanna and her
granddaughter Mylene, our housekeepers who cooked for us and who hardly
digested their meals because of laughing at our jokes, Sir Anthony, a teacher
and all-around convent staff for making us feel comfortable even as guests, his
co-teachers who are dedicated and cheerful in educating the students, my Grade
12 students and the rest of the students whom I wish have learned more about
God than my kapilyuhan, to the
Capalaran and Pagaduan families who also treated us as their children whom they
want to gain weight, and to all the people of the Island who open their arms
and hearts for us to their home. And as I pack the precious memories which I
will bring with me back to Coristado,
I pray that I will have a safe trip for another long ride and I tell myself
that I will “Camiguin”!
