Spoiler alert for the would-be volunteer

“Dear Teacher Ross, patawad dahil sobrang likot ko at hindi ako nakikinig sa’yo. Salamat nga pala sa lahat ng itinuro mo sa amin! Marami akong natutunan. Noong una, ay ayaw ko sa math pero nang ikaw ang nagturo ay madali akong matuto. Pinaka-paborito ko na math, Ma’am” – From my Grade 7 student

(Dear Teacher Ross, forgive me for being naughty and for not listening to your lectures. Thank you for all that you have taught us. I learned a lot from you. I didn’t like Math before but when you became my teacher, I learned math. It’s now my favorite subject!  – From my Grade 7 student)

Tell my Math teachers that I would one day teach the subject to Grade 7 and 8 students and their eyes would’ve popped out of their sockets. A BA Psychology major who crawled her way to pass Algebra and Calculus? SERIOUSLY?

Add that to the fact that I have done crazier things over the past 6 months than I ever had in the past 6 years of my life. For starters, I quit my job as a human resources officer, dropped my 4-year budding career in the corporate world, filed a leave from my Masters, and jumped into a job with stipends smaller than my previous tax return. And then by sheer divine intervention, effectively brainwashed some students to love numbers – a phenomenon I never even experienced myself when I was their age.

Perhaps if I could talk to my younger self a year ago, as I sat on a cubicle in the 6th floor of a Makati office, panicking about month-end office reports, exams for MA class, and deliberating whether or not to join the Jesuit Volunteers Philippines (JVP), maybe I wouldn’t have had such an excruciating time choosing between life as I knew it at that time and some silly fantasy of changing the world.

“Oh quit the melodrama and just do it!” I’d snap at myself. An adventure beckons. Now you have this romantic notion of living in a hut and walking for miles to get to your work area with the Aetas? Well spoiler alert, but you’ll kinda end up being a Volunteer Math & Science Teacher and Guidance Officer – blabbing about venn diagrams and atomic models, counselling 50 angsty teenagers, and living in a dorm directly beneath your classroom.

A lot of things you expect from volunteer work won’t turn out as you imagined, but I promise you: It would be so much more.

1) You will shout with much gusto that it is, indeed, more fun in the Philippines!

You will immerse in a culture so different from your city life. You’ll learn Surigaonon and realize that your students’ shouts of “Ay, ay, kamatay! Taglibog kami sa Math, Ma’am!” actually means “Math is so difficult, Ma’am! It’s confusing!”

You’ll experience town fiestas (festivals) with all its colors and magic, with lively street dances, river parades and eating enough lechon (roast pig) to last you for the next month! Plus with only 25 cents in your pocket, you can go island hopping one weekend, swimming and snorkelling the next, and surf the waves of Cloud 9!  

2) You’ll meet people who share so much even if they have so little.

This would be the elder community woman, who will break her only piece of bread just to share merienda with you, and the neighbors who’ll bring the manghihilot (masseur) to your dorm when you are down with the flu. You will meet missionaries with the same passion for service, who walk for kilometers to teach children, and co-teachers who spend candle-lit nights preparing for the next day’s lesson.

3) You will experience first-hand the joys and challenges of teaching.

You will come to love your havoc-wrecking yet endearing students. Get horrified when Chris punched a classmate in the cemetery, but melt with his teacher’s day card saying “Sorry and I love you teacher, ma-miss ka namen” (We will miss you).

You’ll be excited to show red blood cells to Roger, but disdain the tediousness of lesson plans and grading. Rejoice at Hazel’s topping the 4th exam after nearly failing the last 3. Sigh with relief as Jason finally comes to class, winning the battle with computer addiction, but cry because Zena dropped out despite your best efforts to keep her.

4) Occasionally, you will get disheartened by the grit and grime of the job.

Issues you see on TV will have faces and names; of great gaps in our education system, high school pupils who cannot multiply, spell or read. Your heart will break for your students that are so hungry for affection and proper guidance.

Like Joy whom you’ll find drunk and crying saying her parents do not understand her. Jap-jap who found out he was born out of wedlock and that his father has a “first” family. Dong who’d rather go to the sabungan (cockfighting arena) than go to your class and got held at gun-point in some drug-related fiasco. There is so much to do and there’s just little you that some days you’d feel as though you were trying to empty the Pacific Ocean one spoonful of water at a time.

The greater value of volunteering

But all these frustrations will sear in you that there is more to volunteer service than just heart-warming stories. That real lasting change is not just about falling for lofty ideals, but more about persevering through the many inconveniences, disappointments and failures that comes with it.

To sometimes cry in frustration and feel like quitting. To let go of city leisures and live with only a few thousand pesos for a month – because you’d need nothing more than what the place offers: fresh fish and vegetables! To patiently tutor kids with special needs. To not give up on those who have already given up on themselves. To drop everything just to listen to the woes of teenagedom – from problems with square roots and first heartbreaks, to getting hexed by aswang neighbours, to lacking money for tuition fee and tatay’s (father’s) new kabit (mistress). It means getting your hands dirty and your heart scarred in attempting to deliver genuine service to people who deserve no less.

I’d reassure my anxious younger self to let go and just jump. That you’ll find out it’s true: when the universe asks you to let go of things you dearly hold on to  – like a promising career and illusions of control over your life  – it’s actually just itching to give you bigger and better things.

Like being happier with less and finding peace no amount of pay raise can buy. Then to truly learn not just how to fall in love with crazy dreams of serving those who need it most, but more importantly, how to stay in love with it. To be able to savour its many perks and quirks, along with embracing and soldiering through all its grit and grime.  

Or then again, maybe I’ll save my younger self all the spoilers. I’m here now after all and I can’t imagine betting my life anywhere else.  – Rappler.com

Ross Laurenne Fortunado is a Batch 34 Jesuit Volunteer assigned to the island of Siargao. Not all JVPs are teachers. Some are sent as Social Enterprise Program Facilitators, Parish Community Organizers and Youth Formators.  Similarly, not all development partners’ areas are tourist spots. Some are high up in the mountains and even inside the New Bilibid Prison compounds.  Simply put: JVP sends volunteers to where they are needed most.

Do you want to be part of Batch 35? Email jvpfoundation@gmail.com. Learn more about JVP on Facebook: Jesuit Volunteers Philippines.