Exposure

Uplifting the Spirit             Gawad Kalinga’s house building program, Tatag, gives the volunteers a physically challenging task of constructing houses while Sibol, a nursery school, offers a more intimate interaction with the kids and mothers of the Sibol kids. These programs give the volunteers rewards not in the form of material things, but by uplifting their spirits and I, myself, received this gift.             As a member of the Youth for Christ, we are asked to visit at least one Gawad Kalinga site to assist them in the activities and also, to be exposed and learn a lot of things. We went to Talanay GK site located along the road of Batasan Hills going to San Mateo to assist the Couples for Christ and other volunteers in their activities. House building is one of the programs they needed support from those who are physically able to handle tedious activities. Sibol, on the other hand, required a patient person to assist the teachers in taking care of the little kids. Both were a challenge to us all but Sibol made an impact to me in that visit.             It was my first time to join the Sibol program on that National build and it was a great opportunity for me to interact with the beneficiaries of the Tatag program and the other people from the village who have not yet received a GK house.             Everything started with a prayer in the form of singing praises for the Lord. When I joined the Youth for Christ, I had a hard time singing praises for the Lord because I was shy to sing, lift up my hands, and even dance with a crowd just near my age. It took me some time to get used to this kind of prayer and now that I am the head of our chapter in Filinvest 2, I began to lead these prayers and sing proudly for the Lord. I consider this prayer very intimate because you don’t care what the people around you think of; you are in front of the Lord, talking to Him passionately.             After the prayer, we went inside the room and gathered with the Sibol kids and their mothers. We cheerfully played a spelling game to get to know each other. Games really liven up the kids and even me, since I don’t have a younger sister or brother to take care of. It was a perfect activity for the kids to open up and recover from the shyness they felt when we first went inside the room. My first realization of that Sibol experience is being contented with what you have. Children nowadays are having tantrums just because their parents didn’t buy them a Playstation 2 CD while the Sibol kids who don’t even have a computer to play with are contented with just a mere Spelling game. Isn’t that ironic?             After the game, we divided into groups to teach the children basic things. In my group, we decided to show picture cards and ask them to name what object, animal or person is on that card. They were really loud because the kids assigned to my group are Sibol kids within the ages of 3 to 4. Kids at these ages are really restless because they have short attention span and their mothers are just near the vicinity of the school. But we just found out that the reason for their restlessness is because they haven’t eaten breakfast yet. This saddened me because they should be given enough food for their nutrition but they don’t get enough. I ate fried rice with longganisa before going there while they only dream of what they want to eat. So after we taught them those things, we had a little salu-salo which was prepared by the mothers of the kids.             The mothers of the kids prepared breakfast using the fund given by Jollibee to the Couples for Christ. They gave out lugaw and water to the kids and just watching them eat their breakfast made us all happy. They gave us lugaw too but I just gave it to one skinny kid I saw outside. I have a soft heart for kids like them and just by participating in this program made me feel fulfilled and contented.             We then continued to teach them and we even gave them a short test to get response from what we did and gladly, they did well.             After everything was done, we bid farewell and left them a little something. We gave them a gift bag with papers, notebooks, pens, pencils, and coloring materials. And as expected, they were really happy with those little offerings. We didn’t get any material things in return but we did get one thing from that experience, it’s our uplifted spirits.

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