RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD

This weekend was a blessing in disguised. I went to Mapayao, a village accesible by truck, to assist my friend, MB to make the people in that area be responsible parents. Hehehe!!! Yup, I went there with the rest of the ladies in our compound to help conduct a seminar on Responsible Parenthood. Of course I could not have anything to say about that topic because I am not yet a parent so even if I might have an idea or two, I feel that I don't have the authority to say it, obviously due to the fact that I am not one. It is good that the speaker included a subtopic: "How to be a good wife." Ahahaha! But it is good my husband was not there or else he'll get some ideas what a bad wife I am. Well, he came a few hours later so I behaved the rest of the day. (Best, Peace!)

What was that thing that I am supposed to talk about? Oh yeah, the blessing in disguised. You see, I went there with a bit of an empty mind. I had no expectation and nothing much is expected from me. I did not want to do much thinking because some of the issues that come to my mind these days are stressful ones so I went there to just be available to take care of the technical side of the seminar and that doesn't call for much mind-use so it was all good. I did not expect that it will get better... but it did.

Well, nothing extraordinary really, just some little things that touched my heart.

1. Three or four husbands were there to cook lunch for 56 women, 4 of whom are their respective wives. We had very tasty chopsuey and kamatis at sibuyas sa bagoong.

2. A very ordinary, sleepy, old lady took the stage and said something so profound. During the Discussion Time, I keep looking at this old lady, my mind going, "Oh my goodness! She is surely not getting anything. The concepts are too 21st centuryish for her!" But when she spoke up, I almost hide my head in shame for being quick to judge her on the minus side.

3. Kalanguya mothers are now starting to be open to suggestions to help them understand their children who are growing in this age of multicultural exposure and crosscultural living.

Some people might not believe it but Kalanguyas get culture shocked too when they go and live with people in the lowlands. Yes, they are all Filipinos but as it is, there is not only one kind of Filipino and Filipino culture. The language learning may come easy but the ways of the people can get confusing at times. I remember a comment made by my younger sister saying that she still gets tensed and pressured everytime she goes to the marketplace in spite of the fact that she has been in the lowlands for most of her life. We live in the lowlands, but in a fenced-off compound where we don't get to talk much with the lowlanders. Yet some Kalanguyas are so adaptable that they seemed to no longer have the ability to identify which is Igorot and which is not. This further results to misunderstanding between them and their parents. It is not therefore surprising that a seminar on responsible parenthood would cause many Kalanguya mothers to shed tears as they realized how they have been short-changing themselves in not even trying to see where their children are coming from, for them to be able to understand what their children are thinking or why they are behaving the way they do.

Someday, I hope to be a good parent. Sometimes the likelihood of it throws me into a panic. But sometimes the unlikelihood of it takes me down in the dumps, even to the point of depression (sometimes anyway, when people choose to be cruel teasing me what a failure I am.) Most of the time, I just don't want to think about it -- both the likelihood and the unlikelihood of it...

Well, God has His reasons... and I know they are for the best.