REFLECTION

Community Engagement is the process where we collaborate with everybody who has the same

dream and better plan to help for the community become successful, especially those that are lack n

support and in attention. As a future community organizer, is it part of my job to deal with different kind of

people, who networks and mobilize the community to develop programs and to support a cause, best

example for that is the Adopt a Family program as our main ground for the On Job Training proposed by

our school SCMSI.

For the past month, I've been in my happiest and loneliest part of my life, it is an experienced that I

truly want to treasure for the rest of my life. I am grateful that I was able to join the On Job Training program

for all the graduating students in our beloved school SCMSI. We were all excited, I am excited not because

it is one of my steps to finish my college degree but also our program is all about helping people especially

adopting a family for a month, and that what’s make me so excited and happy, that for once in my life I

have given this opportunity and privilege to extend my helping hand to the community.

The day when our coordinators announced that we will be having our OJT at Barangay Lamdalag,

everybody in my group were all happy to hear it, as we all have the same goal for this training and that is to

give love and help to our fellow T'boli people. But before we went to the community, we were being held for

a couple of hours to fix some issue on our group because the community we chose did not meet the

requirements of the school terms. Our coordinators talked to the Barangay Captain that they are going to re

assigned us to a new sitio and it was approved immediately though it was so inconvenient for us because

we've already chose the family we are going to adopt, an unfortunate one and we felt embarrassed that the

school turned them down, we did not.

And so, we talked with the Barangay Captain, welcomed us to their community and assigned us to

Sitio Basag Nofok , where we all going to experience the unexpected things for our group (Group 5).

We went straight to the sitio assigned for us and met the Yatan family, actually it was just a family

of a widowed Yé Tina and a lot of granddaughter and grandson, I don't remember counting it but it was a

lot of kids, one of them is a child that has special needs. Our first day went so well the grandma welcomed

us wholeheartedly and she was so hospitable, but she kind of talked a lot like a story teller. She can talk

with you for hours; I am not shocked because at her age I know she experienced a lot in life and she wants

to share it with us as a lot of my groupmates are still young. We explained what we are going to in their
house for a month. We are going to help them do a backyard garden for them to have something to harvest

and teach them make profit from it, so that they can learn how to earn money just by a small garden.

I think for the past 3 days we did quite well and were slowly having trust between us trainees and

our adopted family. But then I notice that the ambiance felt wrong and awkward when the grandma treated

us badly by not talking to us, I mean it’s kind of disrespectful but we shrugged it off because we thought

that everyone has bad days but then she started talking nonsense and it distracted us for doing our jobs

there at their house. So, for the past days we constructed their kitchen, their storage for kitchen utensils but

never did we hear a gratitude from them. I have been patient for the rest of the week but I am only a

human and I cannot handle everything that we are going through, that is why we decided to talk with our

coordinators to transfer us in in another sitio to avoid conflicts with the family we adopted. But of course, it

is not easy to do that, because we have to consult the Barangay Captain again for our request to transfer,

he did challenge us, heard a little criticism and insult but we never mind it because I know people has their

own ability in dealing with people and it is in our nature to also be impatient sometimes when the things go

overboard. He let us transfer but, told us that we cannot make or build the house in just a few days left. But

we proved them wrong, because everyone in my group did their part, even the women in my team helped

us carry those 12-20-foot-long bamboo trunks and I am very proud of them as they did it to show how they

are also determined to finish this project and to prove that we can make it.

I am just grateful that I am able to fulfill someone’s dream on of it is the Sequinan family at Sitio

Sarisa, who we chose as our second adopted family. Seeing them in that kind of situation made us all cried

so hard that it hurts. They’ve been living in a smallest house I have ever seen in my life, with a family of 4, I

couldn’t imagine how hard it is for them to stay there, how hard life for them. They have a 5-year-old son

which has a disability, he can’t walk or even sit. He is always laying on his bed or sometimes in a

wheelchair, the first time we saw him breaks our heart, it is sad to see how a young boy cannot experience

life of being a child, he told me a wish he said, “I want to live in a new-comfortable-spacious house” I think I

cried that time and that inspires me to continue this project and help them from the bottom of my heart.

I want this experience of mine to be an example to other people, and that we can be someone’s

hero. Sharing our blessings will make our world a better place to live in for children who are the future of

our community. It will teach them how to be compassionate and empathetic to every kind of person.

I thank our coordinators ma’am Stephanie Layol and sir Ian Mark Kamangkang, also our adviser

for a continuous support, love and patience they have given us for almost 2 months.