I had just finished Talk 10 of the Parish Renewal Experience (PREX) weekend seminar being given to some parishioners. I looked for a chair to rest for a while at the Secretariate corner. Five children coming from the side of the Parish Center slowly approached me. Two were probably twelve years old; one small girl was being carried by another bigger girl in her arms; the other was just following them.
I looked at them as they approached me.
"Sikayo may pari dia, awa?" The bigger of the girls asked me if I was the priest of the parish.
"Yes, I am", I said.
That started a conversation between me and the five little girls.
"Akin et anggapo kayo ed eskwelaan? Agkayo manaaral?", I asked them wanting to know why they were not in school.
Big girl said, "I am not going to school. I have stopped going to school."
"Why?" I asked her.
"My mother wanted me to wash clothes." She told me, as a matter of fact.
"Lots and lots of clothes." Volunteered the second big girl.
"And, how about you why are you not in school?"
"My mother said we do not have money for my education."
"But, it is free."
"My mother could not afford to buy notebooks for me to use in school."
'Your mother? Where is your father?"
Big girl: "He died already."
Second Big Girl: "My father also died already."
"And what do you do?"
"I sell native cakes near the school."
She continued, "At least I go to school still even if I am not studying! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
She laughed.
