Day 3: First Encounters

Today is the first time that the Filipino Volunteers of ICS teams for Cebu and Bohol had an encounter. Many of them came from Luzon together with the Youth Coordinator of VSO. They then invited me to join them having a photo taken in front of  Betania Retreat House which is indeed a very Filipino Culture (refers to the Filipino Habit of always taking photos) when visiting to a new place.

I haven't taken my lunch yet so I excused myself for a while then got back and found Sonny who is a Filipino Deaf Volunteer from Ilo-ilo (A Friend I had during our Assessment Day). I was really relieved knowing that I have someone familiar among the group and happy that he also felt the same way.

Sonny, deaf volunteer from Ilo-ilo

Together with Sonny, I went to introduce ourselves to the group outside the retreat building and shared to them a little about sign language. We introduced ourselves and I tried to interpret what Sonny was trying to sign. About 30 minutes later, we were told to go to the conference room for the session about the Basic Filipino Sign (FSL) Language.

I learned about the A to Z of American Sign Language (ASL) from high school because it became viral to just learn it for fun. Some would even use it for cheating during exams since teachers don't know about it. I never forget signing even after more than 5 years ago because I usually talk to myself using my hands especially when I'm alone traveling home from university. Also, I had exposure and field trips to SPED centers during my college days learning Psychology which really inspired me a lot.  Learning more about Sign Language has always been a dream I always wanted so long long time now.

Our session was very enriching and having met new friends kept me excited and challenged to go beyond the borders. For me, it's something unique because people gathered in this program came out of their will to create something better for the whole humanity, if not best.

Indeed, Filipinos as we are, diversity across the subcultures that we are coming from is very evident. Even though, I felt like we have known each other for a long time now. Is it because we came for a common purpose?

Later, 5 of us went to join the Mass since it's a Sunday. I had a glimpse of a church nearby the venue we were conducting our orientations.

Dinner was a lot of fun and as I observed , if not all, everyone was trying hard to learn signing even though half of us will be in Bohol for the Environmental Sustainability Project. My roomate , who is named "Denven" is very friendly. He is very sporty. I wish to know more about him in the upcoming days.

They say that first encounters are crucial when meeting someone because "First impressions last". Yes, it can be true, however, if we even said it's just the "First" then there will always be "Second", "Third" and even "Fourth". And hopefully, as we have more and more encounters, we are able to understand one another and we just all hope that the next ones will be beyond the shallow waters.