What
Profit Selflessness
carmel villar
It’s just another summer vacation for Ilaw V. Dia. But it was a vacation
like no other she ever had.
“Why were you named Ilaw?” She would often be asked whenever she
introduces herself or when she is introduced.
“Because I was born in daylight,” she would reply hoping that they will
catch the humor in her name. She has
gotten used to being teased because of her name. Like when lights suddenly go off because of
brownout, her classmates or friends would call her, “Ilaw! Ilaw! Where are you
hiding! Show yourself!” Now this is
really a joke, because you see, Ilaw does not possess a fair complexion.
“And you still want to spend your vacation in the province?” Her friends
teased her. “You’ll get even darker.”
“Can I get any darker than I am now?” she shrugged off their concern.
The vacation was actually a mission trip to a remote barrio in Leyte. In
Sambulawan, Villaba, Leyte Ilaw went to spend a two-week vacation as part of a
reading-literacy outreach program. Their
team of ten young professionals were distributed to ten different villages.
This means, Ilaw was left by herself to integrate and adjust to the village's
way of life.
She came to Sambulawan equipped with books and lots of teaching aids for
the class. The Barangay Captain has
already toured her around the barangay and assigned to her a place where she
will hold class.
She woke up early and went to the classroom as she waited for her
students. She has scheduled her classes
as such: in the morning, she holds reading augmentation program. In the afternoon, the class will for
out-of-school youth and adult literacy class.
So there she was waiting for her students, but minutes passed to hours
until it was already noon. But no
children came to her class. She felt the
frustration rising up. Where are these
children, she wondered.
She went to her host family. On
her way, she saw the field was bustling with activity. It was only then that it sunk-in: she came to
Sambulawan on harvest season. And on her
first day, her host family was having their field harvested. Did they
just miss to inform or warn her? Or was she
so dense she missed all the signs that people were busy for harvest? She
tried to keep her cool as she put reign on her thoughts. She saw the children
in the field helping in the harvest. What
are they doing in the field? Shouldn't they be in class instead of under the
heat of the sun? Whew! She could feel her blood boiling with the heat of
the sun.
"Here's Ilaw," Ya Vencia called from the window as if giving a
signal to somebody inside the house. As
Ilaw entered the house, the long table was already set for lunch. She counted the plates and there were more
than a dozen plates set.
"Is there a feast here?" she asked Jocelyn, Ya Venciang's
daughter, who was setting the table.
"We have to feed those working in the thresher and the winnowing
machine." Jocelyn replied. "You may eat first, Ma'am."
"No, I'll wait. We can all eat together." Ilaw scanned the field around the cogon
thatch that is the house of Ya Vencia and Jocelyn. There is no "man" in the house. But Jocelyn's older brother, Roberto, manages the 1.5 hectare of ricefield
for the family. She saw Roberto walking
between the thresher and the winnowing machine. She saw men and women, young
and old bringing piles and piles of palay to the thresher. The thresher operator feed stalks after
stalks of palay into the thresher. The thresher threshes the grain from the
stalk. The machine spits out the stalks
while the grains go straight to the pail.
Then the operator carries the pail full of palay grain to the winnowing
machine where the fine palay stalks are blown-off.
Ilaw noticed that there are older women and children gathered around the
pile of stalks blown off by the thresher and another group around the pile from
the winnowing machine. “What are those
children and women doing around the pile of palay stalks?” she asked Jocelyn.
Jocelyn looked at the direction where Ilaw was pointing, “Oh, they are
the manghahagdaw. [1]”
“Manghahagdaw?”
Ilaw asked confused.
“They are farmers here who have no ricefield to work on. They are neither sa-op or tenants nor do they have prendes.[2] In order for them to have rice during
harvest, the men are taken as laborers and the women and children glean. They pick rice stalks that fall on the ground
during harvest. Then they sift through
from what is left of the thresher and winnowing machine.
“Is this customary here?” Ilaw asked.
“I guess so. I grew up with this
practice. Some prendes would intentionally leave behind stalks for the manghahagdaw. It’s our way of taking
care of those who are very poor, the widows and orphans. Other manghahadaw
come from places where there are no ricefields.
They come here during harvest time to glean.”
“And the farmers allow those from other village to enter their ricefield?”
“Well, I’ve never heard any one prevented to enter the field. Harvest is a happy occasion. At the end of the day, when shares are
divided, all the workers, prendes and
manghahagdaw get drunk.”
“Who’s sponsoring the feast and celebration?” Ilaw asked.
“Well, at first, the farm-owner buys food and drinks. But later, anybody can pitch in until almost,
even the women, get drunk.”
“What about the women, the children, the elderly? What do they get to eat?”
“Of course they eat whatever is there. As for the drink, the women can
drink tuba and the children,
softdrinks. The farm-owner makes sure
that everyone gets something to eat and drink. It’s our way of thanking those
who worked and helped so that they get bountiful harvest.”
Somehow, Ilaw now had an idea.
There will be no classes until perhaps the end of her stay here. Will she ever accomplish what she came here
for? She watched the farmers, women,
children and farm workers sweat their way through their work under the heat of
the sun. Nobody seemed to mind the
heat. They didn’t even take refuge under
the shade. While they were working, they
were laughing as jokes and anecdotes are passed around.
At the end of the day, while the men and women were laughing and
reveling, five children and 3 youths approached her. Tentatively the older one said, “Ate, is it ok
if you teach us now?”
Ilaw could not believe what she heard.
The sun has started to go down.
But she could smell that the children have freshened up. She looked for a place where they can have
their class. As if on cue, Jocelyn
cleared the table and the children took their place around the table.
Into the night, Ilaw taught the school children to read while the older
children copied words and sentences written in Manila paper.
All of a sudden, the children laughed.
Ilaw wondered why they were laughing.
They just pointed at each other’s faces.
Then they all pointed at Ilaw. Then she looked closer at her students. She burst into laughter. They doubled-up until tears fell down their
cheeks. Ilaw wiped her face and her hands turned black from the soot caused by
the gas lamp. After a while, they settled for serious reading and writing.
Ilaw knew this is some vacation like no other she ever had.
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