I feel quite filled…. with mixed feelings but mostly joy from all that has transpired during our days in Leyte.
What struck me most is the comment that many DepEd teachers echoed about feeling grateful for the gift of laughter. They said they have not laughed as much since typhoon Yolanda. And it is in the spaces of laughter that much of the joyful learning has happened.
I feel there is a degree of compassion fatigue, helping fatigue, that many in the service sector, teachers included, experience because as much as there is a natural compulsion to work and address other people’s needs, sometimes it is at the expense of their own need to heal their brokenness.
Laughter generated by their collective creative and childlike spirit, sparked through arts and group games, was a respite from this fatigue.
For the past years, God has given us at YATTA (Youth Advocates through Theater Arts) so much, and it has been our prayer to be given an opportunity to serve others, and more specifically, the typhoon Yolanda survivors in ways that we know best, that we love most, and that is, through the arts.
God has answered these prayers through a series of trainings and small performance that opened up as a timely opportunity.
Earlier in February, it was with a group of Child Friendly Spaces facilitators in coordination with UNICEF. And then in May, through the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and a Korean foundation GFI with its project manager Byoung Gi Khang, it was with a group of pastors held in Dulag, Leyte.
Then a couple of weeks later, it was with 84 elementary school teachers in Tolosa from 13 schools namely San Roque Elementary, Opong Elementary School, Canmogsay Elementary School, Cantariwis Elementary School, Telegrafo Elementary School, Daniel Z. Romualdez Memorial Elementary School, Capangihan Elementary School, Tanghas Elementary School, San Vicente Elementary School, Malibog Elementary School, Olot Elementary School, Burak Elementary School and Barangay Doña Brigida Elementary School.
Our training was held in rooms at the Visayas State University, still recovering from the battering of the typhoon, with shattered windows and doors, with roofs still undergoing repairs so that we would shift our spots everytime it rained, or when the sun glared unforgivingly.
A single extension line provided us with access to electricity, but there were no electric fans until the last day.
But in spite of the reality of scarcity and making do with what was available, the spirit of the teachers, volunteers and facilitators were undaunted.
Young and old, those residing near and far, a few very pregnant women, some with health issues–who all said they wanted to come every day because they felt happy. They were singing more, they were talking more, while learning ways to apply these creative methods in their own classrooms.
In a sobering way, it also gave me so much pride to witness the amazing display of competence and generosity of the young artist-trainors of the YATTA team (Junsly Kitay, Earnest Hope Tinambacan, Nikki Cimafranca, Jhowelyn David, Onna Rhea Cabio Quizo, Benjie Kitay, Flintzel Dyan Diao, Liza Marie Ragusta).
As young educators and leaders, they also communicated to the teachers the immense value of empowering our youth–they demonstrated the blessing of helping shape a generation that is capacitated to give, to share, to develop their gifts in ways that serve others.
And like a perfect script, God orchestrated for us these few days to reveal how many people help the survivors through outpouring of kindness and compassion.
It takes a global village, after all, to heal a people who have witnessed such unfathomable destruction in their midst.
But for us, six months later, to see the teachers laugh with abandon is deeply poignant and precious that even their district supervisor Dr. Milagros N. Jamora lauded and appreciated the experience.
It is God’s life and light sprouting from the little cracks where hope and resilience will emerge and thrive.
