GKYB 2007 in Video : Episode 5 : Immersion

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"Immersion" as defined in the dictionary is (n.) The state of being overhelmed or deeply absorbed; deep engagedness.

For a week, from sunrise to sundown, we were in the Gasan Village in Marinduque. Alongside the manongs (our elder brothers) and manangs (elder sisters), we exchanged stories and joked around while helping them build their houses. We never realized and never cared that for hours, we were under the heat of the sun. The sharings with the villagers were enough to while the time away. It was always a "good tiredness" when shared with people you care about.

As the children came from school, Angel played with them, Christine had sessions introducing Canada and Aldrich and Norson were there to teach them new sports, like Hockey. For the mothers in the village, Therese conducted Jewelery making which hopefully would be a potential livelihood project for the village.

With our conversations with one of the villagers, Aling Amalia, we were introduced to GK, the first baby to be born in the village. GK, being Gian Karlo is the youngest of the 2 children of a household whose house was blown away by the Dec 2006 typhoon. Now they have a much stronger house, Aling Amalia is thankful to GK that her husband can concentrate in his fishing instead of trying to find ways to build one temporary albeit unsafe shack after another near the beachfront.

The lives of the villagers have been changed. Their dignities as human beings restored. The future of their children has been assured. One villager mentions that "at least, her children will know how to live with dignity and pride, and with visitors like us, can learn new things."

We were deeply overwhelmed with the experience. As they learned from our workshops, we learned a lot from their sharing too. In the end, we both had deep appreciation of our blessings.

It was indeed a true immersion.