Volunteer reflections
Cath Bamber
Cath, a teacher from Liverpool, is starting her second year as a volunteer in the Philippines. She writes:
Looking back to this time last year I was frantic trying to leave my job, spend time with family and friends and wondering exactly what I was about to let myself in for. Time has really flown - in many ways it doesn't feel like those days are all that distant but in others it feels like a different world now. I eat rice three times a day, and like a true Filipino I feel sick if I don't. I fetch my water from the bubon (well) and wash my clothes there and I am truly thankful every time it rains, even if it's in the middle of the night and I rush outside to collect the rain water in the buckets! We cook our meals using uling (charcoal) - it's like having a BBQ every meal time! I drive like a Filipino on the rocky and muddy roads here. I manage to live on 2500 pesos a month (about 25 quid!) and my ears and lips are slowly opening to hear, understand and speak the lilting sound of our local dialect here, Illongo. I teach in an elementary school and have discovered new levels of patience I never thought I had - my heart has expanded to embrace and love these children immensely.
Cath with some of her pupils
When I begin work again my role will be slightly different. I hope to be able to teach a bit less and focus a bit more on the school administration and management and, more excitingly, give some time to developing the outreach programmes for our community here. We held the first summer programme and youth camp here this year, both of which went really well - so hopefully we can build on this over the next year and develop a full programme for the youth here throughout the year. Also, hopefully we can try and reach out to the parents and plan a programme to support them also. It'll be great going into my second year here and I feel really geared up for it - I know the place, the people, have some insight into the challenges that people face here so I feel in a much better position now to consider this kind of mission work.
Having said all that - I have learnt to accept that anything is possible here! Plans change or do not materialize at all and everyone just seems to sit around talking about things but never actually doing anything. This can sometimes drive me crazy but I am slowly learning to adjust to these cultural differences - the work ethic I had in the UK is worlds apart from the Filipino work ethic. It's been quite a challenge to shift from a very task-orientated, driven way of working to working at a much slower pace. Sometimes it feels like I haven't actually achieved anything. I remind myself of something a friend wrote and told me in the early months here - "it's not what you do, but who you are that's the most important thing." Being present to people is much more important than ticking off a list of jobs and achievements.
The school and convent
So it's been a good year but also this has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. For now, I feel rooted here, grounded here, I feel alive, in a way I have not experienced before. I have grown in ways I hadn't expected, I have felt intensely vulnerable at times, at times utterly powerless, at times isolated and lonely. But it's been at those times, the lowest times, when I have experienced the most growth, the greatest awareness and understanding and most importantly, new strength and energy to move forward. These times never last for long - something will happen, a hug from one of the children, shared banter with the teachers or even an exhilarating ride on a motor bike along the coast stopping for a swim along the way - and I am brought back into the present and am full of joy once again! I am blessed to be here, to be here at this moment, in this time, to share a life in community with the Sisters and the teachers and to share in some way in their mission. I am blessed to have been welcomed intimately, into the lives of our families here, blessed because in some way I can share with them their joys, their struggles and their challenges. I am blessed because I know that my family and friends remain close, despite a physical distance, the support I receive (even if it's just the occasional bag of Haribo or postcard!), is at times tangible and often carries me through the day! Above all else, I am blessed with an overwhelming certainty that this place is the right place for me, this work is where I can be of best service, this is where I am called to be. For now...