July-August 2011

By ‘Laura’

The author is in 4th year college in Bacolod City, majoring in Information Technology.

In my early years I could clearly tell how difficult it is to be born into a family where you long for love and care. Where there is only a little food that can satisfy your starving stomach. Where you can almost feel your world is spinning upside down because you can no longer stand the scarcity. Where you walk to school empty-handed, no ballpen, no trendy bags such as your classmates have, no paper or whatever.

My mother had to scrimp from her small wage. I tried selling ube candy in grade school when I was just a Kinder II student. I can vividly remember how my classmates laughed at me because I used a Lady’s Choice Mayonnaise jar for my water. To make the humiliation even worse, the jar broke because I was too careless. How I was so envious of my classmates having everything they needed. If only I could, I would work more than my mother did every day and every hour of her life. I used to cry a lot in silence thinking how my life was a mess. Like any puzzled kid, I protested, ‘Why me?’

By Daisy Badilla

The author, a chemical engineer by profession, is currently doing doctoral studies at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. She is from Ozamiz City and is a member of the Teresian Association.

I am fond of quotes. They are truly, for me, words to live by. Unconsciously, I get to memorize those lines that I like. My all-time favorite is the one on inner joy from St Pedro Poveda, a priest, educator, humanist, and founder of the Teresian Association (now in its 100th year), a Holy Association in the Church.

St Pedro Poveda once wrote:
‘If joy is based on something external, it will come and go according to everyday events. But if joy is rooted in the heart and the heart is well-protected, there is nothing to fear. When events around us make us unhappy, we can turn our gaze inward to the depths of our soul and we will find joy.’

By Veronica Ugates

The news of civil unrest in Tunisia and Egypt had but started to impinge on our consciousness. My husband and I decided to stock up on rice, supplied mainly by Egypt, as we were sure the price would go up. We bought five sacks, 125 kilos. As a further precaution we bought about 20 dressed chickens, meat and canned goods. The freezer and kitchen shelves were full and we went on with our normal life.

On 17 February the trouble in Libya started, first in Benghazi. We were apprehensive but hoped everything would be fine. Then classes were disrupted with parents taking their children out of school. Our daughter who worked in an international school reported until 27 February but no longer received her salary. Nobody was there to pay it.

By Kurt Zion V. Pala

The author, from Iligan City, is a Columban seminarian and recently went to Fiji for his two-year First Mission Assignment.

I had only been two weeks into my first missionary assignment here in Fiji when I witnessed an Indian wedding for the first time. Fiji is multicultural society – the population is composed of ethnic Fijians, Indo-Fijians, Chinese and others. Most of the Indo-Fijians are descendants of the girmitiyas, indentured laborers from India who came to work in the sugar fields of Fiji more than a hundred years ago. Within the Indian population here in Fiji, one can also find diversity in ethnicity and religion. Their ancestors came from different parts of India. There are three major religions practiced by the Indo-Fijians namely Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Christians in Fiji comprise many groups, mainly Methodist, Catholic and Pentecostal.