“Nganong wala pa man atong module oi, nganong dugay man kaayo niabot karon, pag abot ato ha atoa dayong humanon kay mamaligya pa bya ta ani” (Why is it that the module is not distributed yet? What’s taking them so long? Once it arrives, we need to finish it fast because we still need to sell these products.)
While walking along the corner of a typical street on our way back to our place, I reflected on the words I heard from students. I was with my best friend, who is also a teacher. We laughed because we could relate to the teachers who could not distribute the learning modules yet. After all, coming up with one and creating a learning material is challenging and time-consuming.
It was funny, but something was pinching my heart.
WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER, so here we are ALL STRUGGLING.
I always try to be POSITIVE during these adverse times. With loads of work to accomplish as a teacher, I always take them as learning opportunities. As a student finishing my postgraduate studies, I always inject into my system any sort of positivity to keep myself pushing and fighting to realize my dreams.
Every day and every night are planning and experimenting sessions on HOW TO MAKE THINGS WORK in this new set-up, in this new normal, and in this chaotic teaching and learning process.
I always try to be STILL because taming my emotions can be very helpful, especially when negative ones are here and there, thrown by social media posts, ranting students, complaining colleagues, and crawling Internet connection.
How do we deal with all these challenges when the heart that can pump us all relies on our digital competency? And this is not a one-lane road because teachers and students should exhaust all their efforts to reach their destination.
We are all on this intellectual journey with a crooked and winding road.
Poverty has become more powerful now. Procrastination is luring us every minute of every day, just waiting for us to give in and be devoured by it.
Yet, giving up should not be part of the option.
Every day, we need to make one step forward, even how slow our pace is.
A step each day still matters. It can still take us somewhere.
Again, we are in this together.
It is somehow comforting to reflect that no matter how difficult the roads we are journeying now, we are not alone.
We can always find help.
Let GIVING be our strong weapon to defeat POVERTY. Let technology be the instrument to tame our laziness – finding the best way to do things because we are lazy with the old ways.
The goal is not CHANGED. We are just laid with a different route.
Together, we’ll make the best story of how we survived these difficult times.
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