MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS...
That's how I felt about the Vietnamese Refugees
in P.F.A.C. Palawan, Philippines.
"I'm indeed grateful to God that at my very young age He allowed me to
experience something that was truly remarkable and that I believe
very few human beings will ever experience in their lifetime".
Andrew Taylor
These were the faces of the people I served. They did not look like me, but I called them brothers and sisters, or probably friends. I even called the others mothers and fathers, or sons and daughters. There's no word to explain but when I was working for the Vietnamese Refugees Centre in Palawan, I felt as though the Vietnamese people in the camp were my own blood... my own family.
.
To be exact, I
started working for the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on June 24, 1980. It was not easy for me to forget that day because it was Saint John the Baptist Day. I remembered traveling on a tricycle from the center of Puerto Princesa City (Palawan, Philippines) with two other volunteer English teachers (Benny Ong and Zenny Beran) on our way to the refugee center or camp as they used to call it. When the tricycle pulled in the so-called V.R.C., I was astonished to
see over nine thousand (9,000) political refugees, who were obviously very much
aware of our coming, eagerly waiting for us.
.
Yes, indeed. They
knew we were coming. Apparently, the camp chairman (Dr.
Ky) had announced
to his people that there were three teachers who had offered their services,
which was to teach English as
a Second Language on the volunteer capacity. We were then
introduced before a congregation of about six thousand Vietnamese people,
exceedingly anxious to see us and hear what we had to say.
.
At that momentous gathering, I gave my biggest audience (6,000+ people) a
rendition of my favorite song "All
I have to do is dream." The song caught the attention of Van Le, who also loved the
song. He immediately became my first Vietnamese best friend. (Van Le now lives
in Austin, Texas
with his wife Tien
and their kids, and has a master's degree in computer engineering). That was
the biggest round of applause I've ever been bestowed upon- truly inspiring and
unforgettable.
.
On the same day, Dr. Ky
took us to the Catholic Church (in the camp) and assisted us as we started
registering the students (ages 4 to 16) in our classes. As expected, we were
bombarded by hundreds of enthusiastic Vietnamese children waiting in line and
very eager to get into our classes. Dr.
Ky was so proud of the enthusiasm
shown by his people; he gave us all the support that we needed. The following
day (June 25) the two other volunteer teachers and I started teaching English
using the Catholic Church as our classroom. we started with 72 students in one
class and the following day, the attendance rose to 107.
.
After a week, our
class had over 300 students and we could no longer fit them into one classroom,
which was the Catholic church. Dr.
Ky suggested that we divide the
students into three groups and hold classes under the trees. We were all open
to anything so we obliged. We split the class into three and each of us had our
own separate groups of students.
.
The students had
to sit on rocks as they learned listening, speaking, reading and writing. We
had to use portable blackboards, ones that we then put against the tree trunk
in front of the students. The students had to move around with their rocks to
follow the shade as the sun moved. I found that situation unique and I'm indeed grateful to God that at my very young age He
allowed me to experience something that was truly remarkable and that I believe
very few human beings will ever experience in their lifetime.
.
Six months later,
the two other volunteers left the camp for personal reasons. I was left alone
with Sister Tomasa (our School Manager) but I stayed because I found so much
joy in serving the Vietnamese refugees, who gave me love and respect and filled
my life with an enormous feeling of satisfaction. Yes, the job I was doing gave
me a sense of fulfillment... something that was definitely worth more than any
material thing in this world. My job made me feel complete as a human being.
And how could I leave those people who needed me?
.
Eight months later, two other volunteers arrived. They were Marian Lynch and Muriel Knox both from the United Kingdom.
These two B.V.S.O. volunteers brought new energy in the camp. Then before we
knew it, the UNHCR had already started constructing a school building for us.
The new school building had twelve very spacious classrooms to the delight of
our students. The school's population quickly increased to an astounding 1,200
students.
.
Dr. Heracleo Lagrada,
who was then the president of the former Palawan Teachers College (now called Palawan
State University) joined our school as a consultant and initiated the
development of our school curriculum with the assistance of Marian Lynch,
Muriel Knox, and myself. Then we named our school Vietnamese Refugees School for Children.
As the school grew further our school manager (Sister Tomasa Rivera, O.P.) had
to hire two exceptionally competent Filipino teachers- Rubi Diao and Ramona San Luis. The
following year, two other volunteer teachers arrived, Adrian Seviour from England and Ann Cusack from Australia. A few months later, my brother Sammy Taylor arrived in the camp and brought renewed energy to the students with his enthusiastic teaching style and his guitar and songs.
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