The Interviews - A Jake - Joyfully Story

Mom and I had a difficult year in Gensan. I was never sure why we couldn't go back to tito and tita's but mom said we couldn't.

I remember I was always hungry, even before when we lived with tito and tita's. I also remember that I had always had to share a bed with many people. I had no privacy unless I was in the CR.[*11] But everyone was just like us. I knew, most of the kids I grew up with never went to school beyond sixth grade. If they did and they were lucky, they might get a job as an OFW. That meant it was best not to have a family back home because you would probably never see them except for a few days every few years. Mom hasn't seen her mother in over fifteen years.

Mom didn't tell me much about Jun's school when we first applied. I am not sure she knew much about it. When we went to the orientation, it was like living in a fantasy novel. We would do all sorts of nasty things but we were going to the USA and it was all OK.

The ten months at the school were unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life. Let me tell you about the dormitory. For the very first time in my life, I had my own room. The mattress was soft and comfortable. The CR had nice showers and the toilets were flush toilets. All of this was new to me.

We ate three meals a day! I was full in my belly. Some of the moms were good cooks. Some were horrible cooks in the beginning. But it seemed that the mom's who could cook taught the others. By the end of the school year, every meal was fantastic! I had never even dreamed of so much food and so good tasting food.

We wore uniforms, as all Filipino children do when they go to school, but we didn't have to buy them, they were given to us. And they were really pretty. The teachers were really smart and all the kids were really smart. Being first in the class wasn't going to happen for me for the first time in my life. We all studied together after classes were over. Every one of us was intent on getting straight A's and we did. We were special and we knew it.

The teachers also taught us things that the Church would be very unhappy about. Our teachers always told us when we were getting a lesson different from what the Church taught. They told us what we would hear from the Church and then they explained why that was wrong and what they needed us to know. We were sponges. We soaked everything up.