Unfamiliar Community Barangay 74-AEssay Preview: Unfamiliar Community Barangay 74-AReport this essayIt was nice to be able to go to a different place. It was a good experience to be able to visit an unfamiliar community. The place we went to was Barangay 74-A located at Matina Crossing. It was the first field trip of the second semester and I was quite amused. Surveying the community area was the first thing we did. The area was much cleaner compared to other communities that I visited before, despite the dirt path was a little bit muddy because it was rainy week, I can still appreciate how the community kept their area with less garbage on the pathway. The following week, we went back to the same area and interviewed some of the people who live there as we were told to do so. Most people near the entrance were already interviewed so we had to go deeper in the community. I noticed that most of the people were busy doing their daily chores – mostly swiping the ground using “walis-tambo”, and doing the laundry using their hands. It was hard to find a person then that was not busy. When I found a person to interview, I felt quite awkward approaching her since she was busy with her laundry. It was quite hard to ask questions since the interviewee was not really paying much attention; still I continued to interview her and received short answers from her. I learned some few things about their community, how they survive in their everyday living. I realized that I am blessed and thankful to my Creator that I am not experiencing the things they are in, like not enough medicine when they are sick or not enough money to see a doctor when they need one.
After a few weeks, we went back to Barangay 74-A. In their barangay hall, we were taught about first aid by their volunteers. The training we underwent was like a crash course, the training that needs to be taught for 3 days was taught to us in just 3 hours. I had Red Cross training before so the training we did somehow just serve as a refresher course and my memory about first aid came back. The class officers planned to buy headlights as a donation to the barangay, the whole class raised an amount of money to buy the item. March 8, 2013 was our final visit to the barangay. It was the day we gave our donation. The experienced was unforgettable; NSTP was the subject that woke me up to appreciate the life I have.
PERSONAL STUFF
We were told the staff was not all that pleased with how we behaved. They took the entire class as a test to see how their students react to the situation. While I was sitting in front of a table we saw that there was a child hiding beneath the table and that the officer who was trying to make it over was already on his feet. We were told about 10 members of their class, all with special needs and also some of the officers who worked the corridor at the barangay. We took notes of how each member worked as a volunteer, how they behaved and the way in which they treated others as part of their families. Our friends were all very friendly and easy on one side and hostile to the other.
I am so grateful to all of you, but I wish to stress that in these days of a military base with 300-500 soldiers deployed and this kind of work, the police will not see these incidents, most of them will be overkill for a little while. All these years have passed, and the police were still doing their due diligence on our family. They asked us to wait until we came out to a restaurant for a drink, and when we came back about 3 hours later, it was raining outside and it turned out to be a wetter night than I remembered. We were also told that all security staff, who had come to be on duty to enforce the law, were also here. At least one of them wore a vest, and the officer who was working the corridor outside was wearing a different one. As the time approached, the officer who was working in the room was asked to give his credentials. We looked around and we were told that we should have done better but we were told that that was it as we were waiting for the officers. We were told that this was going to be another problem that would take a little while to resolve. Then they would have the car towed out of the property and it took us over several hours to be able to get inside the building.
There was just one problem at the center of the parking lot – two guys driving bicycles to their place. The driver has a short black hair and doesn’t have a white mustache. This is why we are happy to work with the city and the police. There was no violence, no arrests. And we all felt thankful to be given this opportunity to work for our friends. I also hope to do many good things for the city, too; I will continue to look through the documents, check people out and go further to work with the local police. Also, I hope to share the fruits of my efforts with others who may not have been able or willing to work out of the bar