Diverse Experiences

On the day of the assembly, we were greeted by a cold weather and a heavy rain that if only weren’t for that, it was a good day to rest our tired body and soul, however, we need to rise, and do what needs to be done. Otherwise, time is ticking and we’re running out of it. Then, we were not sure if people are going to show up, since the weather wasn't so cooperative and the call for meeting was a little too abrupt. But, God is good, because, despite of the weather and our overwhelming anxiety we were able to gather more than 200 community people representing their respective puroks and the prioritization process with the people was pushed through, We started the meeting by informing them again about our presence and our purpose of helping the community, making it clear to them that we need their cooperation to sustain whatever project we will be able to make in the future. The response from the people were mostly positive, almost everyone is willing to participate and is rooting for a development in their barangay.

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Afterwards, we were treated with a free lunch by the barangay Captain, and so the day ended with one to do list down and still a long list of requirements to go. Don’t get us wrong, community medicine can be stressful, but, when you’re being socially aware of your social accountabilities, you know you’re doing your purpose in the name of God. And what’s more fun? Your community housemates, you create memories you know you’ll treasure for the rest of your life. Cheesy, But that’s it.

This is a not for the faint of heart, for this second exposure in the community we were tasked to get the primary data, this was through interviews. In short, we were going to interview at least 600 households out of 800 plus households. It was already impossible at first but wait there’s more. Our length of stay has been cut short, instead of the usual 30 days, we were told that we only have less than 21 days to finish everything. Talk about pressure. We were like “are they okay? do they even know the number of households we have, do they even care? Do they even know that the deadlines seem impossible but all we can think of is, welcome to Ateneo de Zamboanga University, School of Medicine. Can you imagine the things we have to meet? And after the 21 days, we though we could finish the requirements in the comfort of our homes, but no. We have to attend the week long activities for our 25th anniversary of the school. Can you believe that? 

 

But despite what we went through, we were able to talk to the people. It’s not everyday someone out of the blue knocks on your door and asks for your time to have an interview. These people, really love to talk, the average interview time is around 30 mins (according to the higher years) but in fact, it was almost around 45 mins to an hour. What we learned during the interview was not just the data gathered, but when living in the fast paced world, it’s nice to sit down, and talk to one another. So that’s what we did, we tried to have fun during our interviews, we learned about how creative they can get when we ask their names, when asked to spell most of the time we get them wrong because they pronounce the letters I and E reversibly haha. They were very hospitable as well, they always try to give snacks, or something after interview. Even though they only have few things, they are still the ones who give more. What strikes me the most was, even though most of them are below poverty line, they still find ways to keep them happy. Which is what all people lack nowadays, they search for happiness on the big things they forget how to be happy on the little things like smiling to one another despite the lack of teeth. The hugs you get after interview. The jokes they blurt out when they find the question too obvious or difficult. These are the people who also live the longest because of the simple lifestyle they have. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from these happy people. That the little things are the ones that matters the most.