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Zou Guifen has dedicated her adult life to teaching in an impoverished mountain village. In her years as a teacher in the remote village of Hubei Province, Zou Guifen has seen many people come and go, but no one has stayed around for as long as she has. Zou, 54, has taught primary students in Luoyan, an impoverished village buried deep in the mountains, for 34 years, bearing hardships such as lack of transportation and a rough environment for much longer than any other teachers. Zou now teaches all 16 students at the school, who are in different grades and courses. She sometimes also makes lunch for her students, most of whom live very far away. She also lets them use her personal home telephone to talk to their parents, who have left them to find work in bigger cities. To better teach students, Zou has never stopped improving herself. Four years ago, she began studying English and computers. "My students have shown great interest and curiosity for English and computers, even though they live in isolated and poor areas," Zou says. "As their teacher, I am obliged to offer them a channel to access those new things in cities." Zou is also very concerned about her students' safety. In the early 1990s, when the old school building was in a bad state of repair, she persuaded her husband to fix it up using their own money because the local authorities could not or would not pay for it. She also personally escorts the children across the river in front of the school, even though she has severe rheumatic arthritis that causes severe pain whenever the weather changes. She has won the respect of her students and local villagers for her selfless contributions over a long period. "I will never regret being a teacher in such an isolated mountain, and I will continue teaching here until I die," Zou said. Zou Guifen finds life's calling in remote mountain school Teacher

finds life's calling

in remote mountain school

Teachers have been known to devote their entire lives to their pupils. And then there are those like 31-year-old Gennie V. Panguelo of Capas, Tarlac who put their lives on the line in the practice of their profession. Panguelo has been risking her life for the past 16 years to teach at Tarukan Elementary School in a remote aeta (indigenous people of Zambales) community in Tarukan, Sta. Juliana, Capas West District, on the fringes of Capas, Tarlac.

At the start of the school week and again at weeks end, Panguelo takes a 30 minutes highway tricycle ride, and then a four-to-five-hour trek through the mountains. Dangerous journey Finally comes the most dangerous part of Panguelos weekly journey: She has to bodily cross a very wide and raging river and hike a 50 degree mountain to reach the community. In the same way that the communitys residents, including his young pupils, undergo this every day to get to and from the school, Panguelo and fellow teachers endanger their lives in trekking a desert-like dry land and hike mountains of sand. The treacherous mountains made of sand have claimed many lives from among the members of the Mag-antsi tribe when a stong rain comes resulting to landslide. When the water level rises too high or the currents grow too strong, the men would carry the teachers on their shoulders even if this means they would totally submerge themselves underwater. Panguelo herself has almost drowned. Far-flung assignment As a newly minted contractual public schoolteacher in 1996, the then 20-year-old Panguelo was assigned to the far-flung Tarukan Elementary School, still having difficulties to snag a permanent teaching post after struggling through odd jobs while taking care of his elderly parents since graduating in 2000. Panguelo, who had lived in the city all his life and regards the mountains as only good for the occasional hike, was so horrified he vowed to finish his tour of duty and endeavor to get reassigned out of Pegalongan as soon as possible. I never imagined I would be working there, that I would live there. No TV, no electricity, no cellphone signal, he recalled, with some humor, saying to himself six years ago. But he would soon realize that his personal discomfort and problems paled beside those of his pupils who walk barefoot in the mountains and cross the dangerous rivers to get to school where they would fall asleep from hunger and fatigue. Fate is sealed The graduation of his Grade 6 pupils in his first year of teaching sealed Halasans fate with the Matigsalog tribe. I realized what I had to do when they put on their toga. It was the first time they (the parents) saw their children graduate. They were crying, the parents and the children, he said. At the end of six years, Halasan has turned down an offer to be assigned to a school in the city proper and has chosen to remain in his first assignment. Because he has literally become the bridge for his adoptive tribe, helping them access services available from the city government and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to help lift the community from their subsistence-based farming and conquer their limitations. No matter how good a teacher you are, if the children, the people, are hungry, your efforts are useless, Halasan said. I saw that being a teacher is not effective if the people, the indigenous people are in a poor situation. You become the agent of change since youre already there, he said.

Halasan has helped organize the tribes members into Pegalongan Farmers Association to access government assistance. Where before the farmers planted only corn and root crops, with the cooperative, the community now has a rice and corn mill, vegetable gardens and nurseries for durable crops like cacao. The community, with Halasans help, has also obtained seedlings from the governments greening program. Im very much heartened because the people are actively involved, the tribal elders are open to change, he said. Halasan has been named head teacher and officer in charge on top of teaching all subjects for Grades 5 and 6, and recently, Grade 7 in the newly opened high school. Halasan was able to successfully petition for a high school to be built in the community, which was opened last school year as a satellite school of the Gerardo Atilla Sr. Cultural Minority High School. Before the advent of the high school, most of Halasans pupils effectively stopped schooling at Grade 6 as they didnt have the money to pursue a high school education and the nearest high school could be reached only after an eight-hour trek. Halasan has also gotten the Department of Education to build new classrooms. From three makeshift wooden classrooms six years ago, the school now has nine classrooms made of concrete. The school teaching staff now comprises six elementary schoolteachers and two teachers for the newly opened high school. Beyond the call of duty Halasan has gone over and beyond the call of duty as the young teacher has become a respected person in the community who is sought for advice and consulted on community matters. He ticks off his next goals for the community: to connect with NGOs to get some horses and carabaos to aid the farmers in farming, to get rice and corn threshers, and with concerned groups who could help put up a technical-vocational school in the community. He also dreams that other basic services would reach the community, including Internet connection. It is my dream for the children to get to watch NatGeo (National Geographic channel), for them to be able to see what life is like in Africa, that I will be able to show them these, he said. Dont forget bridge But the most urgent item on his wish list, he continually stressed, is a hanging bridge to cross the Sinod and Davao Rivers. When he came to Manila this week for only the second time in his life as one of the four recipients of this years the Many Faces of the Teacher Award, Halasan knew what his purpose was. They told me, When youre already in Manila, dont forget about the hanging bridge. That hanging bridge is my purpose, he said. Halasan said his parents and sisters cannot understand why he still has not left the farflung Pegalongan Elementary School where he sometimes stays entire weeks and even during the summer when there are no classes.

Since there is no cellphone signal in Sitio Pegalongan, this means he cannot communicate with his family whenever he is in the community. It was not until he was featured in the Edge Davao newspaper that his family began to understand why. My parents were getting angry. But when they read the newspaper story, my sisters cried. They did not understand before what I was doing. They did not realize this is what Ive been doing, Halasan said. Halasan explained that he was just helping the Matigsalog tribe stand up on its feet. Its very fulfilling. The children, they just make you so happy. I cant explain it, he said. The other teachers honored this year with the Many Faces of the Teacher Award are Teodora Balangcod, a biology professor at the University of the Philippines in Baguio City; Julieta Serrano, a grade school teacher at San Joaquin Central School in La Paz, Iloilo City; and Jesus Insilada, a writer in Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a who teaches in Alcalde Gustilo Memorial National High School in Iloilo.

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he Philippines: Between Mountain Villages

Monday, July 9, 2012 How love for others can heal even the most desperate situations. An elementary school teacher recounts one of 94 stories in the new book, Una buona notizia (Some Good News).

Im an elementary school teacher. Often, Im sent to teach in mountain villages. There are terrorist groups living in these remote areas, who call themselves liberators of the people. It happened that I ran into some of these terrorist squads, but I managed to escape by finding a hiding place in some rocks. But one time, unfortunately, I wasnt able to hide myself quickly enough. They caught me and brought me back to their camp. For days on end I was put through lengthy interrogations. Despite the fear, I tried to answer as repectfully and truthfully. One of them in particular tried to indoctirnate me with their ideology. He wanted to convince me to espouse their cause. When he asked me what I thought, I didnt want to comment. On the following day he repeated his speech. I objected that it was necessary to begin by changing ourselves if we wanted to transform the power structures that seem unjust to us.

What should change is the love we have for each other, I tried to explain. Perhaps my words touched something inside him, perhaps they made him recall things that he had once believed. The fact remains that after this interrogation they let me go. Ever since that day I continued to pray for that man and his companions. Recently, to my surprise, I recognized him on television, as the news was given of a terrorist who had handed over his weapons to the military and left the terrorist group. Nelda, from the Philippines. From: Una buona notizia, Ed. Citt Nuova, Rome, pp. 56, 57. A book that offers a positive contribution to the New Evangelization, in view of the October Synod. It contains 94 brief stories from around the world.