I didn't have the time to correct my grammar here.Please bare with it. LOL
There were so many exciting experiences
and realizations when we had our 5 day immersion activity in Botolan, Zambales
with the indigenous families of Aetas from October 17-21, 2011. In these days,
I lived, together with Fray Ian, to a very simple family with 4 children. My
foster-parents were Nanay Leonida and Tatay Nestor and their children, Violeta
(11 yrs old), Leo (8 yrs. Old), Vic (7 yrs. Old), and Gil (6 yrs old).
We had to eat our dinner before the sun
sets because there’s no electricity available in their area. However, before we
could eat we have first to look for the food. So there was once a morning that
we had to wake-up early morning and walk for almost twenty minutes and harvest
some vegetables to a private land property, where our foster father worked as a
caretaker, since he is the one tilling the land. We then have to finish all
necessary things before evening and the rest of night is an opportunity for us
also to talk with them. Moreover, Food for them is scarce. There was also a day
that we are not suppose to have a breakfast but a concerned neighbor shared a
little for the family.
Of all the experiences, there’s one
particular experience that I considered as a treasured moment in my journey as
a servant of God. To the family where we stayed we were not given any task so
we mostly do things out of our own will and persistence. So in a day we are
left at home with the children. Violeta is studying and the rest of the
children are at home. We learned from Nanay Leonida that one of the programs in
the community is to prepare young children to schooling. So every Friday a
teacher goes to their place and teaches them the basics of education. However,
it’s been months that they were not visited. They are irregularly visited and
it tends the children to easily forget what they have learned. Leo, Vic and
Gil’ ages are supposedly enrolled to elementary but they are not yet ready
since they can hardly learn the basics of education like writing and counting
the alphabets and numbers respectively. We decided then to help them a little
with this given days. As to the children’s attitudes they are willing and eager
to learn and that’s an important requirement in teaching that we met. However,
they are easily discouraged because they find time in remembering the letters
of the alphabet and even associating it to a thing. So we had to explore
different methods to make things easier for them. But out also desperation we
surrendered. I don’t what to do anymore and wonder who committed the mistake
them or us. I don’t who or what was the problem. And so, I asked in my mind, Are
our teaching methods difficult or they are just hard to be taught of?
I got frustrated with them and so there
was a time that I just left them took a short rest and lie on the wooden table
and told them that let’s do it the following day. I want to shout and scold
them but I’m afraid and shy to the parents watching and listening to us.
However, while teaching them I tried to
extend my patience and innovate methods out of nowhere in order to improve my
teaching style. I think I was ineffective because they hardly can remember the
little things I taught. I tried being creative also. They already know how to
draw the alphabets but they don’t know the name of the letters. So in order to
help them remember it, we have a game that they are to guess the name of the
letter that I am going to write on their back. Yet, they still find it
difficult.
I was suppose to give up but I didn’t
show it to them but when they were the one who look like not interested anymore
and felt hopeless to learn, it gave me a cue to stop and give up also.
With this experience, in teaching and
preaching there must be patience however; there is also an end to it. One may
prolong it but there might be a time that one gets filled over it and explode
it like a bomb’s blast.
No comments:
Post a Comment