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Monday, January 16, 2006
Editorials: Sinulog through the eyes of niños
Yamada San is a senior bureaucrat in Japan. His typical work day begins precisely at 8 a.m. Cooped up all day in one official meeting after another, he goes home at around midnight. (Name of source withheld.)
A few days ago, he took his first trip outside the country of his birth. After learning that this was his first jaunt abroad in nearly six decades, his hosts assumed that he came to Cebu to take part in the Sinulog revelry or sample local hospitality.
However, less than 24 hours after taking off from Narita airport, Yamada San and his companions were on the road to an upland barangay in the southeastern tip of Cebu. Unlike the residents and tourists flocking to the city on the eve of Cebu’s grandest festival, Yamada San was traveling in the opposite direction.
As a child
What things were on his mind?
Like all first-time travelers, Yamada San only physically left behind his home country. Accustomed to Japan’s super highways, efficient traffic systems at every intersection, and strict pedestrian regulations, he was intensely curious at the number of people dawdling near the main thoroughfares: promenading, selling food, even drivers chatting while their motorbikes idled and vehicles whizzed by.
But the ones first responsible for pushing Yamada San out of his natural reserve were the dogs. After the first mangy mongrel slouched from nowhere to cross the highway, the miles became regularly punctuated by bursts of Japanese, interjected with cries of “a-so! a-so!”
Temporarily distracting Yamada San from the dogs were the coconut trees.
Observing that houses outside the city were nestled in coconut groves, the visitor asked if such “plantations” earned a tidy income for its owners. He was told about tenancy arrangements, how, even on land too small to meet a household’s needs, the tiller has to shoulder cost of production and share the produce with the owner.
Enunciating carefully, Yamada San observed that this was unfair to the poor.
From babes
Making the trek to Guadalupe, a barangay in the uplands of Alegria, the visitors met with the Guadalupe Elementary School (GES) students and their parents. In their midst, Yamada San showed that, far from being an accidental and naïve tourist, he, too, came to take part in the Sinulog ritual of prayer, offering and thanksgiving.
Distributing raincoats and resources raised during a benefit concert staged in their parish in Saitama, Yamada San and his fellow volunteers showed their community with the sons and daughters of farmers, part-time construction workers and household helpers.
Like many public schools, specially those serving the hinterlands, the GES is challenged to motivate learning while helping students cope with hunger and malnutrition. According to the Social Weather Stations (SWS), the level of hunger among Filipinos has reached a record high for the first time since the SWS started monitoring hunger in mid-1998.
In its Dec. 2005 survey, the SWS said the hungry in Visayas rose from 13.3 percent to 14.3 percent. There has been a shift from Moderate Hunger (families going hungry once or a few times) to Severe Hunger (families going hungry often or always) in the last quarter.
Noting there are limited public funds for supplementary feeding, a group of Cebuanos sponsors feeding thrice a week for GES’ 223 students. Despite the economic depression, the group believes in saving P30 every month for each pupil’s vitamin-enriched porridge. Raincoats to keep 60 students dry during their long walk to school in rainy weather cost less than a pair of branded denim jeans.
Volunteerism, the group believes, can make a difference for many public schools.
Child’s desire
Those devoted to the Sinulog processions know that, whether by the road or by the sea, every procession ends up where it started: the Church.
More than a place, the Church is the people. The Church is the child who, despite having no slippers or no breakfast or lunch, affirms in all candor, “Eskuyla ko (I want to study).” The Church are parents and teachers who want something better for the next generation.
For Yamada San, first-time traveler, the Church is found thousands of miles away from home, among the niños and niñas of Guadalupe, fettered but groping towards the light.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (January 16, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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