So Say We All
dgo@theguidon.com
Check, check, check. There goes my list for immersion, I packed everything, planned for everything, and was ready for anything.
I arrived at the bus terminal at 5:00 am, unaware that the call time was 5:30.
Due to the lack of sleep – caused by my fear of arriving at the bus stop late – I spaced out. I had a mini-immersion in my head and saw what I might encounter in the community – rice, cows, dogs, cats, fertilizer, fields, and fields full of poop. During those few seconds, I thought: how hard could this immersion be?
During the immersion briefing back in Ateneo, OSCI told us about the area – the houses, what to do and not to do, what to say if we can’t eat something, and all the standard operating procedures we might need.
We were also informed about the living conditions in the area – there might not be electricity, or water, or toilets and other facilities, but, I’ve been through other immersions before. How can this be different?
OSCI told us that we would be going to a rural poor farming community. They did adequately explain what we might expect regarding living conditions, but my expectations were shattered early in the immersion.
A house with a poso negro and a toilet was what I anticipated, but I ended up in a bahay kubo that had no electricity, no water, no toilet, and was far away from any trace of civilization. If you’re passing through NLEX and you see a lone bahay kubo in the middle of a field, that’s exactly the type of house I was assigned to.
Life in the area is simple, yet incredibly hard. They work for every bite they eat, under the sun for most of the day, walking barefoot on fields filled with sharp shells. Each taniman session is a struggle. These hardships paired with the government commandeering their land, and banks piling them with interest, one may ask how they manage to just keep on going?
The things we consider necessary in the city don’t exist in the rural poor areas. We may have an image of what this area is, but images never capture the experience of living there. Immersions shatter our expectations, but cannot fully grasp the difficulties of life in the hard areas of the country where there is no electricity, no water and no toilets. Immersion lasts for only three days; we don’t experience what they go through, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
I thought I had my immersion all figured out, but it turns out that the only thing I figured at the end of the day was how hard life was. I was placed in an unfamiliar place. I was put in the middle of the lives of other people, where every day was a struggle. Seeing their hardships and how they cope, one can never really whine if the weather’s too hot, or if class is too boring. There are people who struggle with just providing food for the family table, while some face bigger difficulties unknown to most sheltered Ateneans. With most of them going through such challenges with neither complaint nor sulk, can one still whine?
