Magis

THE interaction we had with the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) sheltered in the covered court of the university had me thinking of the task remaining. There is still a humungous scale of work that needs to be done to help these IDPs.

House. They badly need a house. Not a tent. I can attest to how pathetic it is not to have a house because I once lost our house to fire nine years ago.

And how many IDPs need houses? Thousands. It makes me wonder how many days do they still have to endure living in tents. It makes me wonder how many days does it take to finish a single house. It makes me count the days it take to house ALL of the IDPs.

But more than the physical structure of the house, these people need a home. Home may never be the same again for these people because they might have lost a member or two of their family but at least they have people whom they can pour out their emotions to.

After our short intervention with eight of the IDPs, one came up to us and with a genuine smile and tone of her voice she said Salamat. That was so sweet to our ears. From my end, I do not know exactly what we have done knowing that it was too short a time to prepare but the response was a gauge of our efficiency.

The intervention was simple. We had it focused on living with each other in harmony. But it achieved its purpose. After the Trust Fall challenge, they started processing the activity. They talked. We listened. We learned.

Sendong may be gone but it left everyone valuable lessons.

I remember. After my Curriculum Development class, I hurriedly went out and headed to the covered court for the final rehearsal of the Broadway presentation for the university-wide Christmas party slated on Dec 17 2011. I was pumped. At home, I had my black satin long pants, vest, white long sleeves, black shoes, and to top it all, my fedora hat ala Bruno Mars ready.

New York, New York. It seems that I have raped the play button for that song in my brain. I just could not get over of Frank Sinatra’s song that celebrates the city that never sleeps.

But that party has to be canceled and so are most of the Christmas parties I know. It would not be right that we will be partying while there were many on that night who were disturbed from their sleep, who were carried away by the deluge Sendong brought forth and some were found and some were not even up until now.

These are the days, I reflected, when we think less of ourselves and more of others.

This is a reflection paper submitted for Education 010 Community Immersion and Participation.