On the 29th of November, our section and 9-SAJ had our recollection immersion. But before we could meet our “foster parents” we headed to the Inayawan Dumpsite first. We weren’t allowed to go out of the carpool, and we didn’t really go ‘in’ to the dumpsite, but from where we parked, I could see mountains of trash and it was really horrifying to look at.

Then we headed to San Pio Village, where families living in the dumpsite were relocated. It was a nice looking subdivision. The houses were made of sturdy concrete, they had a park, a basketball court, and even a small building and turned it into a school where preschoolers could go to.

My Biplop Immersion Mates: Stan & Yan
Immersion Mates

They also had this hall where they held masses, and that’s where we were gathered together. The Campus Ministers briefed us with what we were going to do there today and then they started to assign us to our foster families. My group mates, Stan and Iyanla, and I were assigned to a woman in her late-20s carrying a toddler.

She introduced herself as Castanares and she escorted us to her home. Once we arrived there, we met her son and husband. We had our faith sharing, and she shared to us that they were lucky to have been relocated in the village. Back when they were still living in the dumpsite their eldest son died after being run-over by a garbage truck.

I didn’t know how to respond after she said that. I’ve never really been good at social interactions, especially at situations like this, so I was glad that Stan was able to carry the conversation. After the sharing we asked her if there was anything we could do to help. At first she was hesitant in letting us do the chores like fetching water, her reason being is that she thought we weren’t used to it and was scared that we would hurt our hands. But we insisted so we borrowed pails and head off to the nearby water pump.

The pumping was fun to do as it reminded me of my childhood days when I pumped water at my grandparents’ house back in the province. The carrying though, not so much. I wasn’t used to carrying really heavy pails of water, so it took two of us to fully carry it back to the house. When we arrived at the house, the three of us started to wash the dishes and also prepared the food. We brought with us a pot full of mongos, courtesy of Iyanla’s grandmother, and some eggs and beef loaf. Iyanla was in-charge of cooking the egg and beef loaf combination, Stan was in-charge of cooking the rice, and I was in-charge of mixing the iced tea.

We ate with the whole family, her other son arriving shortly from school. She toured us around the village, and we were really shocked to see how big the village was. After the tour we stayed in their house until three o’clock before we bid our goodbyes and went back to our meeting place.

I know it would have been a different experience if we were immersed in the dumpsite itself, but by interacting with the families in this village I can tell that it’s not easy living there. People lost their families there, their children, their brothers and sisters, and they can’t do anything about it but continue on living.

This immersion had me open my eyes and acknowledge the real struggles of life and how lucky I am just to be able to go to school, and eat three times a day. Now I’m even more inspired to study hard, not just for my future career and financial stability, but also for the future opportunity to able to help them and make their lives better.