NSTP (CWTS) Journal 3

You and I Are Lucky and Loved!!! =)
Finally Exposed

It's really hard to wake up very early morning to go to the meeting place where we will be transported to our exposure sites. In my case, I need to wake up earlier to buy breakfast and buy the food for sharing for our host families because I only live in a dormitory and my home at the province is a bit far from Manila and would take about 2 hours of travelling if I will be asking for my mother or aunt to cook for our host family. The only fast food restaurant that is open at that time is McDonald's and there are sure a lot of people to buy for food. After waiting for the long line to reach our turn and buy food, my friends suddenly felt lazy and just rode "sidecar" going to Harrison Plaza. Upon reaching the site, there were already a lot of people and jeepneys parked all over the parking lot and of course, it will be a big challenge to find our section in such crowd and the jeepney that we will ride in the ocean of jeepneys. Thanks to our blockmates, they guided us the way to where our section is. A good news was delivered to me as we will pick our own partners, and finally departed from the site.

It was a long way going there or maybe, I just felt that way because of the traffic that we encountered. The place is very new to me as it was my first time to go to a place like that. At first, it was very uncomfortable because of the environment but soon, the host families gave us a warm welcome that made me calm down. My partner and I followed our host as she go through their place that is like a maze for me because there are a lot of turns before reaching her house. The moment we entered the house, it was quite awkward because of the silence but soon, our host family shared their stories and the youngest among the children of the family played with us. She is quite silent and shy, but later on, she started to share a little bit. Our other blockmates' host families are also near our host's house and soon, we decided to play with the children as a whole, and proceeded to an open space where we can play with them. We didn't mind the sun and just had fun with the children. Personally, I also enjoyed it because I had the chance to play the games of children that I missed the most during my childhood days. After having fun, we ate our lunch with our host families. We presented our food to share with them and they also prepared their dishes. It really made us feel that we are also part of their family and they always smile like they have no problems at all.

We made our way back where we meet for departure, and ended the our exposure day with a prayer and sharing. Some of our blockmates shared their experience with their host families, and their conclusions. The same goes with the host families. They shared that at first, they thought that we are very different from them, but they soon realized that we are also people with open hearts and that can put our shoes in theirs, and that we can connect with them. With that, we waved goodbye to our host families which we already became close with, and we left the site with a lot of learning and experience that is filled with love.

It was really a good experience to know and see what other families faces, and motivated me to help and to do what I can do in my own little ways. I realized that I am already lucky to be born in a stable family that can give me my basic needs and can send me to a good school. For that, the greatest gift that I can return to my parents is my studies. It made me remembered what they said in the past: "The most significant inheritance that you will get from us is your education. Remember that it is more important and has a greater value than gold and wealth as inheritance."