Tap on the Shoulder

I jumped out of the bed this morning looking for my cellphone to check the time.

Am I already late?

It was 6:27 in the morning. I let out a sigh of relief. Having only four to five hours of sleep in the past days, I was worried that I might oversleep and not hear the sound of the alarm. I was fortunate because I was able to wake up 3 minutes before alarm sounds.  We were going to visit the poor children in Delpan, Manila so I didn't want to be late. The outreach is a program of L.I.V.E. (Life Improvements through Volunteer Experience).

As I was sipping my coffee, I wondered.

What will happen today?

Looking back to our past visits to the poor children at Delpan, I remembered the time when I didn't know what to do because one girl was crying. She was punched by one of her classmates. Then the girl wanted revenge so she pulled her classmate's hair. Then they started fighting.

Really, they gave me headaches.

Many times I asked myself. What is the purpose of all of this? Why am I still joining the visits to those children?

There were times when I would get disappointed because even if we have planned the activities "perfectly", at least I thought the plans were perfect, there seemed to be something wrong. We couldn't organize the children!

But I was a little child once too. Like them, I was adventurous. I also asked many questions, sometimes too many questions. I bet, I was annoying as a child. I bet I was a headache to my parents like those children were to me. So I just smiled. I gave up on trying to fix them. It was a moment of surrender to me.

I finished my coffee then prepared myself to go to the outreach.

While travelling to the outreach site, I expected it already. I envisioned the children pulling each other's hair, pushing each other, crying, shouting, and, you know, makulit (What's the English of Makulit?).

When we were at the site, we proceeded with the plan. Our topic was on the "Creation". We taught them how the Almighty created all things, and aside from that, how we can also be co-creators of God by taking care of the environment and all creatures. And so we let them unleash their creativity by doing creative things.

To my surprise, the children were more orderly. They sat down in circles while the volunteers taught them and made friends with them. When it was time to distribute gifts to them, they lined up orderly. When it wasn't their turn yet, they waited patiently. (By the way, the gifts we distributed to them were given by donors, not from the volunteer's pockets.)

I was surprised by the improvement. I was happy for them. I still am.

It proved that if we have perseverance and patience, and if we have charity in our hearts, miracles happen. Change can happen even if some of those children were once rugby boys or girls, even if we might have thought that it is impossible for some of them to learn because they never went school ever since the day they were born.

Just when I surrendered, the thing I so longed for to happen happened.

So today, I want to give myself and the volunteers of the outreach a tap on the shoulder. And I want to give a double tap on the shoulders, left and right, the volunteers of VIDES Philippines because it was them who visited the children every Saturday.

Taking a Peek at the Future

Have you ever thought about death?

Don’t get scared with my question.

It’s just that it is the surest thing about our future.

 It is so hard to take a peek at the future because we are so caught up in the present. We think that we will never get old. We think that we will always be as strong as we are now. Some even think that they will never die.

What does it feel when we are nearing our death? When we are nearing the age when our parents or grandparents died?

I invite you therefore to join me to take a peek at our future. What will we be 20 years from now? 30 years? Or  50 years from now? Will we be like the groovy lola Nanay Dionisia? Or like the vendors in the street of EDSA? Or like the elderly we visited in the Home for the aged in Pasay?

This morning, we were privileged to visit the elderly in the Little Sisters of the Poor San Lorenzo Ruiz Home in Pasay. I joined the outreach simply because I was curious about what brought the elderly in that place. I only wanted to be aware of what is happening in my society, and of course, I wanted to look at how my future can look like.

There were 44 abandoned elderly living there. Each of them has their own story. Each of them had different circumstances when they were younger but they ended up in one place. Some of them were abandoned and neglected. Some of them were picked up near the shores of Manila Bay living everywhere. Some lucky ones just chose to stay there because they had no family.

An elderly tending the plants in the Little Sisters of the Poor San Lorenzo Ruiz Home, Pasay.

An elderly proves that he can still sing and be entertaining

Groovy Grandpa sings Pitong Gatang

One particular elderly caught my attention. She was so quiet in her wheelchair. My friend Sonia said she doesn’t talk so much so I just approached her and sat beside her. I caressed her back. She looked at me, smiled and then she looked down again, like she was sleeping. So I just sat there beside her. Gosh, I even was not able to get her name. Let’s just call her Lola Patti. Then I engaged in a conversation with an elderly beside her. While we were talking, Lola Patti gave me a sign that she wanted to go to the restroom. When I tried to help her, it seemed she didn’t want to be helped. But then she kept on looking at me. So I pushed her wheelchair to the restroom. Surprisingly, she was receptive to the help. I pushed her inside the restroom. She could not carry herself so I carried her to the toilet bowl. At that point, I smelled something different. It was disgusting that I was tempted to go out of the room. But I came to my senses and got ashamed of myself. What was I thinking? When she finished her thing, I again helped her get back to her wheelchair. Then she looked up at me and smiled. It was the sweetest smile I have ever seen in my whole life. It was a smile of gratitude, a smile that showed how much she appreciated the affection and the love that I showed her. It was a smile that can melt one’s heart. I smiled back at her and pushed her back to the dining room.

While I type, I can still smell Lola Patti’s odor that lingered in my clothes and in my skin. But I am not disgusted anymore. In fact, I think that it is the sweetest smell ever. It is that smell that showed my future. Perhaps, when I am as old as Lola Patti, when I cannot take care of myself anymore, when I  cannot take a bath, when I cannot put lotion on my skin or put perfume on my clothes, I will smell like soil. Then, when that time comes, I would also appreciate anyone who would not show disgust to me, accept me despite my condition and love me unconditionally.

Is there any Lola Patti in your life right now? Show affection to them. Sure, it will make them happy. But I believe that it will make you even happier.