SECOND HOME: The Community
By: Jenny Claire Manalo
Home is a place where one’s true identity lies. It is not just a house that encompasses all the conveniences that life could offer but rather a place which makes an individual who he is. As the group journeyed miles away from their respective homes to explore and go beyond its four corners, their hearts and eyes were opened to learn more about the reality of life in the community setting than books, television, internet, or newspapers will accommodate.
Travelling or seeing places is one of the vital aspects of learning. “One cannot believe a fact to be true unless one sees it”, as quoted. The curriculum of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University School of Medicine involves an experiential education in the community. This will serve as the laboratory of learning for the students to holistically learn more about the purpose of their medical journey. The group’s one month stay at barangay Lower Sto. Niño, their second home, added a purpose to their individual character and built a strong foundation to the development of their abilities and knowledge to the essence of providing service especially to those that were underserved in terms of the medical aspect particularly in the Zamboanga peninsula.
It was the group’s first time to experience such immersion. To live miles away from the comforts of the city for a month was a challenge. Vast emotions fluctuated, different thoughts and perceptions pondered in their individual minds. To mention some experiences, they spent endless efforts walking across rice fields, endured the heat of the sun as they travelled house-to-house, crossed narrow bridges, and spared meals just to finish their survey, but this taste of hardship did not hinder these medical students to sharpen the edges of their lives. The group able to gradually adjust with such changes in their environment, overcome those rough times, and stood to become a better individual. It is by this moment that they realized that true happiness is not confined with the material things they owned, with the luxurious lives they dreamt, rather with the thought that living simple lives with dignity and a sense of purpose is worth living.
