Mindanao - Where on earth is our paradise? The southern island of Mindanao, which is part of the Philippines, despite of its rich resources and beauty, has become one of the most troubled areas in Asia. The Join Together Society, an international relief agency, is helping local residents and indigenous people to reconstruct their paradise in remote villages of the war-ravaged Mindanao.
So far, JTS has built 64 classrooms in 29 villages of Mindanao. On March 27, The Hankyoreh and JTS officials visited one of the small schools in the remote village of Alawon, which is located 2,005 meters above sea level.
From Alawon, some 20 to 30 nest-shaped wooden houses can be seen on each mountainous slope surrounding the village. When the rain falls, these slopes are surrounded by mist from a 100-meter-high waterfall.
As a group of foreign visitors approached to the center of the town square, the children of the indigenous inhabitants gazed at us full of curiosity. Behind the town square, a group of young people were singing and playing a guitar on a grass field were cows are also free to graze.
For the foreign visitors who arrived in the town after a journey of more than four hours that took us deep into the jungle, the inhabitants served a bowl of cooked kamote, or sweet potato, and cups of coffee grown from wild coffee plants. With nothing more to serve, these two things are the best they have to offer.
In this remote, impoverished town, there is a small school with three classrooms. One wonders how a school was built in this town where policemen and postmen, let alone government officials, are reluctant to go. From generation to generation, the people indigenous to this region have lived in this out-of-the-way town. On August 2006, the Alawon tribe`s school was completed nearly one year after the JTS provided materials and began construction. In the process of building the school, residents were able to deepen their sense of cooperation by hand-delivering bricks to the village.
The school was a long awaited dream for the people of Alawon. While elementary education is mandatory in the Philippines, the government has no desire to build a school in this remote town, and lacks the necessary resources. The residents of Alawon do not have
the money that would allow their children to attend at a school in another town. Out of some 70 children aged between 5 and 12, all are illiterate.
As construction was completed, expectations for the school were high, but Alawon`s dreams for the school have yet to be realized. Though construction of the school is complete, there is still no teacher. What teacher could embrace a life in this town? One recently-appointed teacher left after just two days.
The people of Alawon, including the tribal chief, went to the Venerable Beomnyun, the founder of JTS, to ask for help, saying, “no teacher wants to come to our town.”
Ven. Beomnyun, who had built a school for people in one of India`s lowest castes, said, “I cannot forget the Indian people. They gave us barely-edible wild acorns because they had no sweet potatoes to serve.
“To help a teacher overcome the sense of isolation and cultural conflicts, you must have sincerity, just as you built the school and road.” Tears filled his eyes as he finished his sentence.
The leaders of the tribe then returned to their homes, seeming to have understood the monk`s message. Later that night, their children played in the town square. As darkness fell, the eyes of a seven-year-old girl named Eladi shone like the stars.
Overhead, a number of stars shimmered in the sky as though wanting to shine the light of peace and harmony on Eladi, who is on the brink of being lost between civilization and her own reclusive world.
Source: english.hani.co.kr (16 April 2008)