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?Spell ?Ondoy??? I asked the student in an interview.
?ONDOY: G? E?N?E? R? O? S? I? T? Y?? he answered.
?Spell ?Ondoy??? I asked another eager lady volunteer.
?ONDOY: S? A? C? R? I? F? I? C? E?? she replied.
?Last one who wants to spell, ?Ondoy??? I looked around the students.
?ONDOY: O? P? T? I? M? I? S? M?? he proudly said.
These individuals are not special students who don?t know how to spell a simple name. When I interviewed these college students about their experiences of volunteering in shuttling relief goods, helping victims clean their houses and move their furniture, and joining the many medical teams, etc., none could spell ?disaster,? ?sadness,? ?boring? or ?punishment? from the unprecedented effects brought about by typhoon Ondoy (internationally known as Ketsana).
I was interested to know how this meteorological catastrophe had shaped their character and views about life. For the great majority of the students it was their first time to be involved in such a large scale volunteer operation. This required a lot of time and sacrifice on their part: staying up late at night, having very little food and water, being deployed to almost any point with unknown shift hours, and being exposed to elements that their ?university shells? had kept from them.
?The most difficult task for me,? Iñigo shared, ?was seeing so many people hungry and tired. We didn?t have enough relief goods. But it moved me how disciplined and how they patiently waited for their turn.?
?I was involved with organizing the distribution of the relief goods,? Calai, a young professional said. ?It was quite a headache to determine how to systematically distribute the help and to those who really needed it. All this, however, was so fulfilling!?
?At first, I was all excited and geared up for this new adventure!? Jake said. ?Imagine? it was my first time to be deployed and spend ten to twelve hours just ferrying people and goods! I was also excited when I learned we were going to ride a helicopter. But as the hours of work piled upon my shoulders, I began to be more consoled to see the people?s generosity and cooperation.?
?Yup, that?s what I thought at first,? Iñigo interrupted. ?But when we saw that the bigger picture didn?t allow us to make our own choices or simply to enjoy the ride, I became aware of how serious things were and how much people really needed our help.?
The experiences of these students, however, do not remain on the experiential level. Many of them share how it has contributed to a deeper spiritual conversion.
Iñigo, for example, said, ?Hey, dude, I?m not saying that I want this stuff to be a lifetime thing. But it has helped me to be more generous, to think more about the others and always to be ready to give a hand to anyone, anytime.?
?I agree with you,? Jake said. ?I guess only a few of us [students] will really get into this stuff professionally. But, like when I went home dead tired to rest for a few hours, I was lying in bed. But I just couldn?t rest thinking, ?I can?t just sit comfortable here while a lot of people still need help?. I immediately left the house and reported to the Red Cross to be deployed again.?
I then asked Jake if he could say something to the other young people who didn?t have the chance to get involved in such a lifetime experience.
?I guess, it?s simply that they shouldn?t wait for something big to come along in life. Anyone is already helping if he really strives to do the little things well. And doing this everyday in the most ordinary things at home and at school, like studying well, doing their chores and whatever.?
The idealism of youth has converted this disaster into an opportunity to discover and experience more than what they could get when listening to their iPods, going to malls and watching movie houses, spending hours of surfing the Internet in Facebook, Multiply, Flickr and Twitter, or worse, and spending a week-long of suspended classes in a moldy couch watching cable TV or playing video games. These young volunteers, as well as many others, have discovered something more than what a ?virtual life? could offer.
Ondoy had given them entirely new and priceless lessons in generosity, sacrifice, service, compassion, prayer and love. It is precisely this experience that helped them realize that they can answer a call to greater adventures ? both human and divine ? in life when they open their hearts and minds to the God?s invitation and their neighbors? needs.
