WITH THE AGTAS AGAIN

This last two weeks have been both tiring and hard, but exciting yet a little bit sad.   Exciting because our topic is about exegesis (drawing out the meaning from a text as opposed to reading into it) and it is one topic that is not very easy to communicate mostly because of the many technical terms that you need to define, and the awareness that one has to have in dealienating it from the other thing (eisegesis).  It was tiring and  hard for all the members of the teaching staff because we had to prepare lesson plans to teach for the whole two weeks of the workshop.  We have had to prepare powerpoints and handouts in Tagalog.  Yes, in Tagalog and believe me, I and three others are very fluent Tagalog speakers (like Tagalog is our  second language) but how in the world do you Tagalogize personal cognitive schema, exegesis, eisegesis, hermeneutics, etc.?  Well, for the latter three words, we just changed the spelling and then defined it.  For the PCS thing, we have a whole paragraph of its Tagalog and a whole page of its definition. That can't be helped!

(It is good that they approved my proposed budget so that we had good, delicious food from day 1 up to now and surely for the next week, so even if it is so difficult for our heads, it surely is very enjoyable for our stomachs or probably our tastebuds cuz it must be a lot of work for our stomachs too.)


This is  the third time  that I lead a workshop for the Agtas and Aytas MTTs.  For those of you who do not know, the Agtas are the ones settling anywhere in Northern Luzon while the  ones from  the foot of Mt. Pinatubo but are now resettled in some parts of Pampanga and Tarlac preferred to be called Aytas.  (Note the spelling.  One participant during a previous workshop pointed out to me that she wouldn't want to see Aeta or Ita  anywhere  when I write the name of her tribe. )  :)  I do not see much difference in the physical features of these two groups although the ones from Palanan, Isabela seem to be much taller than any of the ones from Zambales.  

I felt sad when I received an email informing me that none of the Aytas are coming.  I thought of all the prepared topics, time, finance and it seems so sayang.  Ninong Dalmas (a member of my teaching staff ) commented that the topics are too difficult to prepare and yet there will only be a few pairs of ears that shall hear.  Even so, we went as scheduled because 5 participants from Palanan, 3 from Casiguran and 1 from Butbut, Kalinga came.  I also invited Norman from the Kalanguya team to come and listen to particular topics.

I praise God for my teaching staff.  They are all very amenable to my 'bahala ka sa buhay mo' kind of leadership .  Not that I gave them a choice! :)  Well, that sounds a little bit negative but most of the time, if not all, it works for me just fine.   I like it when my staff would do things on their own and asks for help when needed.   So that's what we did!  Well, I did a pre-draft of some of the lessons but most of it, the teaching staff had to put together on their own.   (This way, I have ample time to watch my soap op every night in youtube... hehe).

Thank you to all of my friends and mentors who've been praying.  We will conclude on Friday.

Pictures shall be posted soon.