Understanding Work at the Duquit Work Camp

This summer, I joined in Kapuluan s Work Camp activity, with Brgy. Duquit, Mabalacat, Pampanga as the lucky venue. On the night before, I have no idea as to what I will do in the work camp other than hard, manual labor.

The Work Camp is one of the long running projects of the University Center Foundation. Since its conception in 1981, the Work Camp project's 3,500 or so student volunteers have given their service to over 55,000 families to date, in different barangays in the country. As I and my comrades passed through the days in Brgy. Duquit, I realized that there was something more in the work camp. It was something that involved less of the barangay and more of us, the participants. As participants, we were given many opportunities for formation. The end goal of the work camp is to form the student volunteer into becoming a true man living the life Christ wanted him to, with public service being the means for that particular goal.

Activities for the molding and refinement of our spiritual lives held more time in the itinerary than specific labors. The amount astounded me a bit, speaking as someone just beginning to get used to Catholic norms. For some time, I even had in mind that maybe this shouldn't be called a work camp. But the name fits, doesn't it? Work should not only attribute to the external, but also to the internal. Formative activities aside, everyone participated actively in the work activities, pitching in wherever we could. We did major cleanups in the schools, and along the streets and canals of the barangay. Not only did the work activities strengthened our muscles, they also built new friendships and strengthened the existing ones. Tutorial sessions for the incoming high school freshmen were conducted for three straight days, and this, I would say with all enthusiasm, has been the most rewarding of the tasks. I found happiness in knowing that I was able to contribute in the formative years of kids who would someday take up arms and bear the Philippines' future.

As a fitting end, a quiz bee for the tutees, smartly titled "Let's Do It, Duquit!", was our culminating activity for all the lessons we tackled. It was also the time when we had to say our formal goodbyes to our tutees. Aside from giving them school supplies as tokens of appreciation, courtesy of Mr. Abong Tayag, we also left their hearts and minds some lasting words of advice.

All the formation we get is infused in our actions as we progress through our tasks. Personally, I've observed it reflected mostly through our time with the tutees. It was easier to deal with them because we gain strength and wisdom from the Source. We aimed to mold them, and in turn let ourselves be molded into better individuals.

Students of the martial arts, particularly those under the tutelage of renowned sages, have chores as a basic, integral task. It is a classic scene in kung fu movies, for instance, for the student to be made to carry buckets of water up and down the 300 steps of the temple mount by his master. Not only do these repetitive and boring tasks in it provide for a good warm-up, they also build character. Discipline, perseverance, and a reflective attitude, among many others, are developed through the repetitiveness of chores.