IN PHOTOS: Brigada Eskwela for the Kids of Nangalid Elementary School

March 25, 2020 Charity , Outreach 0 Comments

It was 03:00 when my alarm rings. A sign that we have to get up and prepare our things. I had a little sleep as the night before May 19, 2018, we are still printing additional T-shirts for our club members who will participate in the outreach program in Sitio Nangalid. And just before the dawn breaks, we're already on our way to Marilog District.

Disclaimer: This was originally posted on my steemit.com blog last May 23, 2018. Steemit.com is a decentralized blogging platform where you can earn by blogging or sharing anything. 

3 long hours of journey we reached Barangay Datu Salumay of Marilog District. Many locals there were waiting as if they know we are coming. And by the time we took off from our service truck, they welcomed us and offered a ride. Our truck could not penetrate the rough road since it rained hard the other day making it hard for a 2x2 truck to trail the muddy road. We decided to avail the ride for our things since we have four big boxes containing school supplies and sacks of donated books. Then we traveled on foot to Sitio Nangalid. Along our journey, some skylab drivers offered free ride to us which we happily availed.
As we arrived at the Panayangan Shelter of the Happy Forest Kids, our team LUMOC, together with TRIMMOC and Black Tribe Trekkers, started preparing the foods for our feeding program. All of us are hand-in-hand in preparing the foods for the children of Nangalid. The feeding program is also a celebration of our member's wedding anniversary. Our menu consists of Fried Chicken, Bam-i, Rice, Macaroni salad and a packed juice. Our barber friend "Frandy" was also busy doing haircuts for the children.



while most LUMOC members are busy cooking the food, Clifron and the members of TRIMMOC are also arranging the school supplies and the donated books.

The program started at 12 noon, in time for lunch. It was cloudy when we decided to start distributing the school supplies and the food. We need to do it simultaneously in fear of rain. A prayer of appreciation and guidance was offered by Datu Dangkay to Panayangan before we formally started the distribution.



Just before the heavy rain started, we were able to finish our activity program with a huge success. All the school kits were delivered to all the children enrolled in Nangalid Elementary School. All children including their parents also had their equal share of the food we served. All the donated books were turned over to the library of Nangalid Elementary School and Happy Forest Kids shelter. A new flag was also turned over to the school admin. Two different vegetable seeds were given to Datu Dangkay. And of course, everyone was happy albeit tired.
With this fulfilling event I just took part of, I realized that a happy life isn’t always about how successful you are as an individual but how far you can reach out for others to be happy. It isn’t always how deep your pocket is but how enormous is your impact for other people’s lives.
Seeing them happy seems like the most beautiful scene I’ve always wanted to see. That warm feeling I get from the big smiles of the little kids enjoying their presence delivers a unique fuzzy sensation that surely melted my heart with overflowing joy. I am not living a wealthy life. I am a slave of my own work. And to be honest, I am not happy about how my life is going. I am not happy of my work either. Maybe, doing charity is my only liberation from all the stress life jabs on me. Somehow, whenever I am away from the civilization, immersing with the IPs of the highlands is my total peace of mind. It feels like an emotional therapeutic nourishment, where, a session is needed from time to time to feed my dreaded soul. I don’t know how to sustain the resources to keep this vice going but I know for sure that I will find ways to fulfill this altruism. For living life with a purpose is living a happy life.