When we arrived earlier at the camp, we were greeted by a new set of DSWD administrators who were obviously complete strangers to us.
-A CFS session in Daanbantayan Camp
Since there was a new set of them at the coordination tent, we needed to introduce ourselves again without the presence of MERCY Malaysia (since they were still at the Daanbantayan camp) and state our intention on the camp as well as our roles as facilitators. We expected to start the session right away as usual, but the new administrators made us undergo a formal process of registering our program again as facilitators—or let's just say we started from the start earlier—but some changes were presented.
One of our first dismays during the session earlier was that we were told to have our session for today and the following days from 4:00 to 5:30 in the afternoon. From a 3-hour original session, it turned into a one-and-a-half-hour session, which was scheduled completely far from our morning time. So earlier, we had a long break from 8:00 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon, and we needed to be all together wherever we went since we had a meeting concerning the new rules given by the DSWD. Also, some of us are residing in far towns, so going back home and returning to the camp by 4:00 would be a waste of time and transportation costs. Hence, we decided to find some place for our meeting and rest.
We immediately headed to the municipal hall of our town for a meeting regarding our Structured Learning Activity (SLA), which we should plot for nine days and submit in our session today. There, we found a grassy area covered by a tent and asked permission to use it. We spent the rest of the hours inputting our SLA so that we could print it in the next few hours. Then we had our lunch since most of us were already hungry.
After lunch, we went back to the grass meeting place to complete the task. By quarter to one, we decided to go to one of the facilitator’s houses to rest and get ready for our session. Today was a sacrifice of our time since most of us couldn’t go home for the session in the afternoon, so we stuck together—spending our time either in waste or in purpose. At our co-facilitator’s house, we rested for a while and ate when she served food. We were relaxed during our stay, and I loved the peace I felt in their home.
When 4:00 in the afternoon arrived, we headed immediately to San Rem Camp, which was a 15-minute travel from the house. It was drizzling by the time we rode the tricycle but eventually stopped when we arrived at the camp. The weather knew the assignment.
We started our session with attendance checking and a physical check-up concerning their nails and body care. There were only a few of them for today's session, which I guess was caused by their expectation that we wouldn’t be around anymore in the camp after four days of hiatus. Tomorrow, I believe all of them will attend the session since their friends also shared with us how they already miss us, but some didn’t know we were there today.
After the attendance checking, we immediately conducted a physical stretching and a Zumba session to stimulate the children’s brains for the upcoming activities.
They danced joyously to the songs Golden by Demon Hunters and Girl in the Mirror, which are the kids’ favorite music for Zumba in our sessions.
My niece was also there at the camp since she wanted to be with me while facilitating with the kids. I also wanted to let her play with the children at the camp and have fun even in this state of calamity. She was shy at first but later on adjusted to the environment and played and even danced with the kids during our Zumba session.
Then the kids were gathered at the center by the head facilitator from the Daanbantayan camp. When he told the kids who among them wanted to group with a specific facilitator, the kids would run to that facilitator—but only those who wanted that person. When my name was mentioned, almost all of the kids ran toward me since they already knew me. During the four days of absence, I was silently visiting them every afternoon to play, and I had built a rapport with them already.
Then after the groupings, we conducted a name tag-making activity, where the name tags will be used until the initiative lasts at the camp. We were given bond papers and coloring materials at first, then some stickers and materials for designing our name tags, and lastly, yarn and scissors for the final step of our name tag making.
Among the fifteen kids who ran toward me, only five of them stayed with me since I needed to give the others to different facilitators who had none left to handle. I didn’t want to be a hoarder of kids since my energy left was not enough for all of them.
We only had one hour and a half for our session, and this will be our new time until our last day. Constructing our program flow every session was quite challenging since our original timeframe was cut in half, requiring us to adjust the number of activities in our program to make them concise but comprehensive for the students.
While making our name tags, we didn’t expect time to fly so fast. We consumed the whole hour making name tags and had to end the session already since it was 5:20 in the afternoon. Our performance today in controlling the flow was not efficient because of the changes in schedule and timeframe.
We told the kids to form a big circle for our closing activity. This time, it was a bit dark when we closed the program, so we quickly attended to this closing activity. Afterward, a private group approached us and told us they would distribute food to the participating kids in the camp, and instead of leaving, we still assisted them in managing the children.
That’s how our first day of the new schedule in the Child-Friendly Space went. It was not actually smooth but still joyous and meaningful. We just need a little bit of adjustment, and everything will follow smoothly. Tomorrow, I hope we will have our best shot at giving light to the children and find something new to offer them. Each day may come with its own changes, but our purpose remains the same—to be there for the kids, to see them smile, and to let them feel that even after the storm, they are never alone.