In my last days in the Philippines Sir Butch asked me to write kind of an essay about my experience in batang pinangga. I was confused because it showed that the end was near. Very near... could it be true? One year is already over? It was true! My last five days started and consequently also a process of thinking, a process of memorizing.

I remember like it was yesterday. After
three weeks of preparation in Negros I
arrived in batang pinangga. I came out of
the van and all the farmboys were running
to me. They took my hand, lead it to their
forehead – 'bless te bless'. I tried to
remember what it means. I knew we talked
about that during preparation but...nothing.
My head was full with everything and at the
same time completely empty. So much
impressions. I was nervous, I was
happy – everything. I finally arrived in my
home for the coming twelve months...
Elbert, Jessie gamay ug Allan took my
hands, talked something in visaya I did not
understand and pointed to my room.
Michael, Jun², Robelle first observed. The
rest of the evening we were spending to
bring all my stuff to my room and – of
course – for playing! 'dula²?' 'what??'
'dula²?' 'what is that in english?' 'mmmh
nag play ta te?'

It was funny in the beginning. I did not
understand a word besides salamat and I will never forget one of the first sentence of Sir Butch: 'so that´s their kind of English. You have to adjust ha?'
oh yes. I had to adjust. And sometimes it was not easy. A German girl with a completely different cultural background in a small barangay up in the mountains. In the beginning I asked myself if I will make it here. Will I adjust? Learn the language? Become part of the life? But every time I was in doubt I remembered why I chose to come here. I wanted to support. You start to live fully if you do useful things. And I thought coming to batang pinangga was something very useful. It is like a value for me. Everybody can support somebody in a way. And there are so many ways. It has nothing to do with money. It just has to do with finding your talents and make people happy through it or help them coming through life, improve their situation. This reminder gave me power everyday. Power to adjust and at least, batang pinangga made it easy to adjust, too. All of them, the staff and the children, they treated me like I was part of the big family from the beginning. They were very open and interested in my background, my culture and everything else. It is such a wonderful atmosphere in batang pinangga. I met a lot of people with the same opinion about caring and supporting in batang pinangga. And all of them are fighting for the vision. . They are working so hard for the children in the center, in the communities and also for the children who are still living in the streets. That impressed me a lot and I learned a lot from them. Every outing, every party, every lesson, every play, every launching or forum was a challenge and together we made it. One of the most important things I learnt during my year about the Philippine culture is that it is all about love. You have to love life, to love your job and to love children to do what all of you are doing!

I´m proud that I could be part of the family for one year. I learned very much about life and what it is all about. I got a completely different view on Germany and the rest of the world. I will never forget this interesting, incredible, wonderful time and want to thank you for everything! Salamat sa hosting, luto, driving, istorya, caring, sige joking, katawa, challenging, trusting, integrating and loving! Salamat kaninyong tanan para usaka tuig that I will never forget. Babay batang pinangga, babay Pilipinas,
makita ta sunod!

(Written by Rebecca Reiff, a young German volunteer from the organization GIZ or Deutsche Gesellschaft fürn Internationale Zusammenarbeit,who stayed with Batang Pinangga from August 2009 to September 2010.)