Dyan Geleen B.

Tuble 3rd Year- ABMC/ Irregular Schedule: Wed & Fri (7:30-9:00)

July 10, 2012 Ms. El Mithra Dela Cruz

I am NOT a desperate creature What do I live by? is not a matter of some final purpose to which a life maybe directed as of the mental fuel that keeps a life alight day-to-day. For there are, as we know only-too-well, desperate creatures who waste away, consuming themselves like lamps without oil. Let me start by explaining how my first service activity relates to the passage above. Many times, we ask ourselves, What do I live by. For me, the answer to this question does not end upon answering the question itself. It is not enough to say that I live because I am physically healthy or I live because I ought to do something. Answering the question, what do I live by? is a motivation; motivation to know yourself better. And by knowing the real you, you could reflect on the real essence of your life. This is not the first time that I do charity and volunteer works. And every time I work in a community, I take it as an opportunity to help them. I tutor poor children to help them cope up in school, I donated books in a public school library to help the teachers and students in searching for knowledge and information, I helped farmers harvest their crops, and so on. But this service learning activity is something exceptional. I realized that doing charity and volunteer works is not merely about helping. Tahanan Sta. Luisa (TSL) is a center for physically and sexually abused girls. These girls are neglected, exploited, and worst, prostituted. During our

orientation, I was scared to know that the TSL girls are just about our age, 11-25 years old. The fear on how to approach them eats me up. I do not know who to talk to them properly, I do not know if they would participate in the activities that we prepared, and I do not have an idea on how to start a conversation with them. I thought that these girls are not the same as the poor children, aging from 5-10 years old, that I tutored. I thought that these girls are completely different with the hard working farmers on the province. But those were all in my thoughts. As I was learning Philosophy, my mind opened to a bigger reality. I realized that these girls, just like all the other girls in the world, have dreams. And it is our responsibility to make them realize, that despite of their difficult past, they still have the ability to dream and the perseverance to fulfill it. Honestly, I do not really have a clear vision of what would happen to us that day until I stepped out of the car and saw these gentle faces smiling at me. Although their smiles could not hide the scars of their painful past, we could sense that each of them is trying to change and adapt to their new home and family. Thinking about it, my mind flew out of the room and sets of question came upon me. Why did people abuse these girls? Where are their parents and why did they left their children here? How could they do such things to these girls? I snapped back to myself when I heard one girl said that I want to be a doctor, then the other one said I want to be a teacher, I want to be this and that Yes, their dreams. They have dreams. And what matters now is fulfilling those dreams, making sure that they would not end up being muted and abused forever, or the other way around. We can no longer do anything to the people who abused and exploited them, but we could do something to make them realize that their dreams are not far from being possible. After eating our merienda, we started another activity. We asked them to draw who is God for them. The results of this activity are out of our expectations.

Their view of God is even deeper than ours and their reflection on life is even more meaningful than our reflection. One of the works that influenced me is the work of Lanie. Lanie wrote her name on the paper and then smudged all the colors on the space left, creating a very disturbed background with her name as the foreground. As she explained it, she said that, the disturbed background are the pains and troubles she encountered, and no matter what happen, there will always be this Lanie (pointing the name that she wrote) who would stand up and fight because God is always with her. We almost cry when the girls shared their own stories and interpret their drawings. After explaining their works, we said our closing prayer and made a one, big group hug!!! We felt that they need it. They need to know that there are other people who care for them. Upon leaving TSL, we realized a lot of things. We realized that they are not hard to approach and that we just have to be in our true selves when interacting with them. We also realized that we should give importance to their dreams because it is something that would motivate them to move on and persevere. And above all, we shared one same thought: Nag-punta tayo doon para turuan sila. Pero pag-uwi natin, mas marami tayong natutunan galling sa kanila. Going back on the question what do I live by, I must say that this experience motivated me to know myself better. I realized that charity and volunteer works are not just a matter of helping but also a matter of experiencing and reflecting. And with that, I am proud to say that I am not one of those desperate creatures who waste away, consuming themselves like lamps without oil.