commiting to society

thanks to immersion, i'm skipping regine's self-proclaimed final major concert. hooray. $%*# and where is this immersion going to be? in pampanga, paying visits to the OFW communities there. i would have appreciated it more if we were able to choose the fisherfolk community in laguna or the farmers within the same area. fine. it's good enough. rather than sleazy bar-hopping in ermita or a visit and service to amang rodriguez public hospital in marikina, where we'd be assigned to help in the pediatrics department, SURGERY WARD, and of course, the EMERGENCY ROOM.

when we were freshmen, for intact (which is intro to ateneo culture class-- a zero unit mandatory class for the freshmen. and no, we weren't taught how and why ateneans have become branded as elitists, or coños, nor were we taught about how to deal with bench trespassing. from how i see it, the class is very idealistic. it wishes to bring out the men-for-others, for the greater glory of God, ideally atenean qualities... ahem. if they indeed exist. reality check.) on one sunday we went to a small community in libis (not the e rod. jr. ave libis). we were supposed to bond with a family assigned to us and get to know their lives more, their hardships, etc. etc. of course, we were expecting that they were really "filthy poor". but surprisingly, they were rich enough to afford vcd players and components that functions too as their videoke machines, big television sets, (if flat tvs were already trendy then, perhaps, they would have them too.)

i hardly remember the name of the family i stayed with. but they were nice people. i remember chatting with the mother. if i remember it right, her husband is a seaman. he goes home only once or twice a year. he gets to spend time with them only a maximum of 15 days when he's here. they have a lot of children. and one of them, a boy, is feared by the mother as gay. i remember he even danced for us that day. the other son played chess with me the whole time. and of course, he didn't want me to let him win easily, so i seriously played the game with him. when i was about to leave, they even gave me a piece of paper fold.

they were too nice that they made me want to promise them to come back. and that was one of the biggest mistakes i ever made. i wasn't able to keep my promise. that's what all the facilitators keep reminding the students who visit such communities--no matter how much you want to, never promise them (especially the kids) that you'd go back and visit them. they'll sincerely wait, and if you don't come, they'll really feel depressed about it, validating their feelings of being unwanted, outcast members of the society.

just last sem, for abnormal psychology class, we went to the national mental institute in mandaluyong. (just to correct the public knowledge-- it is an institute, not a hospital) it's huge, with more than 20 pavillions each catering to different subcategories of different illnesses. and yes, it's old and dirty. but, they really are a family there. there were even stories of nurses and patients who fell in love with each other. i must admit that i was a bit scared, especially when we went to the male ward. but during the open forum with one of the main psychiatrists of the facility i felt sad for the patients. she said that place was bought by a realty firm, and they have plans of putting up a mall there. the patients will therefore be relocated to some smaller institutions around the world. thanks to gloria macapagal-arroyo.

the immersion's coming up. and it's going to be a new adventure for me. it might not be as exciting as the fisherfolk or the farming community, but i'm hoping that i'd get to learn something new again, which i can never learn from somewhere else.