Immersion

From May 29-31, I was not at my home. I packed my things and headed for an adventure.

Our YMA team, together with other teams, headed to Consolacion for an immersion.

The stay was really fun. At first it was not comfortable to be in someone else's house. I mean, staying in a unknown community for 3 days and 2 nights is not like staying in your friend's or relative's house. Of course, it is different. I found it hard to socialize with the people around. Yeah, there were lots of people because it was the birthday of our "nanay". On the other hand, we were kinda lucky because we had a lot of food. That night, I just thought that tomorrow would be worth another try to talk with them and socialize with the family and neighbors.

Saturday. Luck was really with us. That day, a relative of our parent was getting married. So we had to head to their house for the reception. There were lots of food, so we really took the opportunity to eat a lot. Though we were "living there", we still had to do some community research. Oh! Once again, I'd say that luck was with us, we had lunch and dinner at the wedding reception, so we had a lot to consume, and to fill our hungry stomachs.

Sunday. We woke up at around seven to go to the market with our nanay. We rode a motorcycle for more or less 20 minutes. At the market, bought the food we need for the day and the next days. When we finished buying things, we headed back to the house to say our goodbyes for later that day. We had to leave at two so that our adult anchor could meet us at the brgy hall at 3. So we had a "despidida lunch" and had some photo shoot with the family and neighbors.

The real adventure started here. We reached the barangay Hall at around 3, as agreed. We stayed for more or less an hour before two of our group mates decided to go to the other team's place to check if they've already left. Only then they found out the the team was stuck in the middle of wilderness because the rented jeepney broke down. I think it was already nearing 5pm when we decided to head to where the other team was stranded. When we reached there, the jeepney was not yet good, so we waited. The first attempt to start the vehicle was not successful, so our adult anchor decided to leave us behind and look for motorcycles to take us to the main road. While she was away, the jeepney driver attempted to start the engine, and this time, it was successful, so we got in the jeepney then headed. Unfortunately, we headed the wrong way so we had to move backwards. And another unfortunate thing, the driver and we, don't know the directions. It was such a sad fate, we went to the dumpsite area. So we had to move backwards again. Not knowing that the terrain was "hill-ish", the lower back part of the jeepney was stuck. We pushed the vehicle but our combined strength was not enough. The jeepney has to be raised a little bit to prevent it from gettin stuck the same way. Suddenly a group of men and boys circled us which was a bit weird. Some of our younger team mates got really scared, that they looked pale and disturbed by the presence of lots of men with rude tongues. But actually, they were good because they helped us push the vehicle so we moved down the mountain, heading this time, the right way. We were supposed to stop for a while just to wait for someone, just a while, but then, the jeepney stopped totally, so we had no choice but to get to the other vehicle, leavin the old driver behind. I kinda pity the driver because he was not familiar with the place and he's already old. We just gave him 200pesos. Though, it was also his fault that he didn't check the car first. We rode the multicab back to the city. We were still good and safe. Some went home with "trauma", and some, or we ate dinner at a fast food, then went home.

It was nice to finally be home after that heavy Sunday.