Part of the Chain

This post has been delayed because of school work, and to delay further would just be ironic.

I went to the Gawad Kalinga Bayanihan Build last July 31, the Ateneo St. Ignatius day holiday. My involvement in GK has been a long time plan ever since last year, but I've never really gone for it because of academics and general lack of will power. Much to my happiness this time I've finally managed to go. A day of manual labor always appealed to me.

It turned out not exactly like how i imagined it to be. We went there, 100-something Ateneans and commenced our "build" where basically all I -or most of us for that matter- did was be part of a human chain passing along half-filled buckets of sand. We had a pretty long break where I ate lunch twice thanks to the very gracious hospitality of a local family who took our team in. An hour or so later we resumed our work then ended before the rains came with a Mass with Fr. Nebres.

I was a little disappointed, having just passed sand all day when I was expecting more hard work. But as the whole GK experience was concerned, I was pretty content. I made alot of new friends and finally got to experience what it was like to work as a volunteer.

on Wednesday I attended their Villages and Programs Orientation talk, and this is what I really wanna share. First, much to my amazement I found that the most of GK Ateneo's Village Coordinators are sophomores. Their already responsible for some of villages under GK Ateneo. When I saw that, I was amazed at the commitment and passion they must have that I said, "Damn, I want some of that", because for them to be VCs at this point they must have worked hard and trained when they were still freshmen. Arwin is also one, and I'm not surprised since I already saw how much he committed to GK last year.

Next was their programs. Much to my happiness and excitement they had their own Environment program, which if you know me by now then you'd know this is my passion. Being the pseudo-unofficial ESS representative to GK I found something I can help with that's my expertise. I realized integrating my ESS life and GK life won't be that hard at all and I saw this as a good challenge for me to do.

And then there was their last speaker, who's name keeps eluding me but who's speech doesn't cease to blow my mind. He was the most inspiring speaker i've ever heard - and that's saying a lot already coming from me. I don't get swayed by propaganda or get riled up from speeches from politicians, and not even Aragorn's speech in the RotK thrilled me much. But his speech was hair-raising in it's passion that it actually gave me a headache repressing the passion and fire I'm already experiencing right there in my seat. It's as if the Blue Babble drum line was playing a rallying beat in my head. He made our sand bucket relay operation that was terribly inefficient in my opinion sound so patriotic. One of my favorites was "You became the light and hope of the people that day, because you showed them that 150 Ateneans choose to help them build their houses during their holiday instead of just sleep all day."

The Bayanihan Build and the talk changed my opinion of GK. The 3 things I mentioned above showed me the passion and the commitment of their volunteers that when I see that, I become excited myself and become filled with the same empowering passion. Now I'll really become active in GK. Expect me to become unavailable in the near future because of attending builds and start expecting posts concerning my experiences in helping to build the nation.