A Day with the Aeta Community in Zambales

It is but one great experience to us cadets to extend our felicitations and give back to people like the community of Aeta in Zambales.

Before such, we traveled from Pampanga to Zambales NOTC to interact with the PNOC cadets commissioned as probationary ensigns of the Navy. It was a fruitful endeavor for ideas were shared and friendships/connections were made in our counterparts. It was sealed with a boodlefight and our final interaction before we depart in the institution. Along our journey to the community, we were then toured in the facilities of the NOTC, and we get to see their gigantic aerostat, which looks like a typical kite from the above, the only thing is it has its functions in which I failed to ask to the people in there.

By 1400H, we arrived in this not-so secluded open field were we are waited with the community of Aetas in Zambales. Most of them are in their authentic dress codes (for the elderly wore their bahag and outwear made of malongs). I have been told that they came all the way down from the mountains where they are native, expecting to receive help and a good time. As I observed, most of the children are stunted, or maybe it's just of my ignorance of identifying children for I have not seen one for quite some time. True enough, according to a social worker from the area present that time, the residents have been identified, especially the children, to have been suffering from malnutrition. Most of the people depend only from the help they get from our relative sectors, the others, on the food they can get from their farms, which can be both inadequate and not enough for the people.

With all these differences aside, we cadets both from PMA and PNOCS conducted a small get together for the community. It is a gathering of talents, for the Aetas showcased their skills in dancing and singing along with us with the games we prepared for the children and the elders. Happiness is evident in their faces as we give away our individual gifts to them, along with the food prepared by the Social Psychology Department.

I was assigned to prepare a game, where I presented the infamous ''egg catch'' in which a lot of us enjoyed. afterwhich, I gave this prize to the winner, and I could never be more happy to see the look on the child's face: an authentic expression of a happy kid getting the spoils of his hardwork.



The day may come to as a tiring one, enthralled with the heat we do not usually experience in Baguio and the long hours of interaction with a lot of people, this sweet conclusion of going back to service with the people is a reciprocated relief among all these. It is one of the things I don't get to do everyday and I thank the tour for the opportunity to give back and reflect among the poorest of the people that acknowledges the little help people like us, cadets can do to make even their typical experiences receive the light of day.