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Thursday, May 03, 2007
Friends, supporters honor slain US Peace Corps volunteer (10:05 p.m.)
LEGAZPI -- Typhoon survivors, students and teachers at a Catholic school, local officials and others gathered Thursday for an emotional tribute to a US Peace Corps volunteer slain shortly before she was to end her stint in the Philippines.
Julia Campbell, 40, of Fairfax, Virginia, was beaten to death April 8 while visiting the northern province of Ifugao to see its famed mountainside rice terraces. Her body was found in a shallow grave 10 days later.
A 25-year-old woodcarver surrendered and confessed he killed Campbell in a fit of rage, claiming he mistook her for the neighborhood bully.
Nora Gallano, an assistant dean at the Divine Word College in Legazpi city, said Campbell was "very friendly and had a ready smile" for everyone at the Catholic school where she taught English and literature.
"I believe that she was not given to us by chance but as a blessing," Gallano told the gathering. "Julia was a stranger, but it did not stop her from extending help and sharing herself without expecting anything in return. Julia will continue to be an inspiration."
About 300 people, most with pink ribbons pinned on their shirts, gathered for a "prayer for peace" at Legazpi's Penaranda Park with the near-perfect cone of the Mayon volcano looming in the background.
Organizers bused in some people who were aided by Campbell and other volunteers when Typhoon Durian slammed into Legazpi late last year.
Fr. Francisco Estepa, president of Divine Word, said in a Mass that Campbell's life was "reflective" of the values of Jesus Christ -- service and respect for other people and the environment.
Organizers showed a video montage of Campbell, while Peace Corps volunteers showed a separate presentation accompanied by American folk music.
Overcome by emotion, Linell Jacinto--librarian at a high school that Campbell helped restock with 2,000 new books--cried on the shoulder of one Peace Corps volunteer.
Seated beside her, wiping her own tears, was Basilia Soriano, Campbell's foster mother in nearby Donsol.
Her voice breaking, she said Campbell "would have gone home alive and told happy stories about her life here in our country."
"We treated her like a member of the family. It is painful to think that this happened to someone so good," she said.
Campbell -- a former journalist who worked for the New York Times and other media organizations -- helped establish an ecology center in Donsol that has been named for her.
Campbell came to the Philippines in March 2005. She was to leave in early June for graduate studies at New York University.
One of her best students, English major Ariel Velasco, said Campbell taught Afro-American literature with a casual style that put students at ease and spent her own money to have her reading assignments photocopied.
Under a moonlit sky, Campbell's friends and supporters lit candles as "Amazing Grace" was sung.
Catherine Quayle, a close friend of Campbell from the US, recalled visiting her hut in Donsol.
"As a tall, blond American woman who could speak Tagalog and had voluntarily given up what must have seemed to her neighbors like a life of American luxury to exist in very meager conditions, Julia was something of a celebrity there," Quayle said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
She said Campbell always made herself at home in any community and was unafraid to try new things, but also felt lonely and isolated here and "never really reconciled some of the more restrictive and unforgiving aspects of the (Filipino) culture."
"But she said, 'This is what I came here for. This is the real Philippines,’" Quayle said.
Another friend who lived in the same Brooklyn apartment building, Tracey Keevan, wrote that as a journalist Campbell was known for expressing her opinions "with conviction" and liked to "challenge the status quo and stick to her beliefs to the very end."
"She laughed easily and kept us all entertained and impressed with each surprising new thing she tried: windsurfing, tutoring, belly dancing, traveling, novel writing, triathlon training, learning Tagalog, and teaching yoga, to name just a few. Julia unquestionably lived life well, following her heart in many different directions," Keevan said. (AP)
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