Reaching Out in Ganzon, Jamindan, Capiz

Last February I decided to go to a remote school on the mountains of Jamindan. The purpose was to give books to Manuel Ganzon Advincula Elementary School. It’s totally a different world. Children were shy yet unaffected by what we city dwellers see as bareness in their existence. For them, nature makes them abundant and so I think. I believe there is an eagerness in them to learn but for some reasons, like the lack of learning materials, the need to help their parents at work and their isolation, education becomes just a secondary or even a tertiary priority.

The trip from Roxas City to Jamindan took me three hours. I was joined by one of the teachers of the school, Michael John, affectionately called Bade by his co-teachers. He lives just outside Roxas City but has to travel to the remote community of Ganzon in order to teach. The stories of teachers like him who have to exert time, effort, and money to reach farflung areas confirms the nobility of teaching. Almost all the teaching staff of the elementary school and the nearby four-room high school are either lowlanders or city dwellers who have to take the 5-6 hour trip to reach the school every Monday and then another 4-5 hours every Friday just to reach their respective homes. When the weather turns from good to bad, they also have to endure rain and the dirt road that really gets nasty after a downpour.

From the town proper it is another 2-3 hours of motorcycle ride, a trip that  led us to the muddy trail and ascending, steep roads that seem to be never ending. Many times our trip had to halt and we had to get down from the motorcycle to walk until road is in a less sorry state. Rain poured in the night before so the road was very muddy and they would splatter on my face. I would laugh incessantly and Bade was puzzled why.

"It is a very liberating feeling!" I told him. "The mud on my face, the rough winds, and the endless view, I feel like a bird free to roam the sky."

While it was a physically exhausting trip, an exciting view awaits in the community that sits on the foot of heaven! The dirt road and rice fields all lead to a scenery of mountains and mountains. The tall trees and the cool breeze are welcoming respite. But an even more heartwarming feeling came when the teachers warmly greeted me and these were all enough to leave any guests with that familiar feel of being at home.

About 5 pm, Bade and his co-teacher, Roldan, invited me for a walk in the village so off we went to the community teeming with afternoon chatter. Kids were playing outdoors, something that children from the city rarely enjoy these days. A little trek from the school is the highest part of the village where one can have a breathtaking view of the mountains. It was a fairly cloudy afternoon, though, so sunset was not at its golden state, but it was still a landscape worth staring for hours and hours. I paused to take a deep breath and appreciate all that I laid my eyes on. I could stay there until dusk settles but Bade and Roldan invited me to visit the home of the village entrepreneur—Unevel Pelayo.  

Unevel Pelayo made the most of the money she received from the government's Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), to include extracting abaca fiber, nito craft making and raising pigs. Her determination to provide for her family and make use of whatever’s around her enabled her to win a regional competition organized by DSWD. She received a sizable prize which she used to start a cooperative of nito weavers in Ganzon. Her products are now sold both in Capiz and Iloilo.  

When evening drapes darkness in Ganzon only the moon would lighten up the community that otherwise treats the night as an opportunity to lull after the day’s toll. The street is empty but you’ll know somebody is walking because of the illumination coming from flashlights. At about 7pm, school teachers would gather in a small hut to talk away their cares for the day. Teachers would converge in the kitchen that also serves as dining area on meal times. There is no table or chair so they eat in squatting position. One room is allotted for some high school students that the teachers send to school, while the other room is where the mentors sleep. Dinnertime means incessant laughter filled with jokes and hilarious anecdotes. Theirs is a tenacity beyond compare. After dinner, schoolboys would strum their guitars to lull themselves to sleep.  

Am I happy?

Definitely! It was experience to cherish and I am thankful that my very first outreach was in that place. It made me appreciate even the littlest blessings that come my way. The people in Ganzon smile no matter how simple their lives are, so why shouldn’t I smile? I have a roof over my head, I eat more than three times a day, I have a work, so why should I be sad? To live, after all, is to embrace the moment, make the most of it, and do something that the world will thank you for. 

What did I learn?

Service to others gives you that unexplainable feeling that only selfless devotion does. We were born not to be self-serving, but the real essence of existence is when we devote our time helping others in need, passing forward the blessings no matter how small or insignificant it may seem to us. For others, simple acts of kindness may actually mean a lot. We enrich the meaning of humanity when we give someone else the reason to keep living. Just like in reading, I saw the glow in the eyes of those kids as I laid upon them books upon books that show pictures and tell stories that would ignite their minds to think, dream, and do something to achieve that dream. That “do something to achieve” may be studying harder to better themselves? Who knows? It may be… or it might not be, but at least, I tried to give them to option that there’s a huge world out there waiting to be explore.