A glimpse of the past
It has been about 41 years since some of the Maryshore graduates met last.
Excited to join the happy reunion, Orly and I travelled from Toledo Port, Cebu, to San Carlos Port in Negros Oriental. Then we took the land trip through Escalante, Cadiz, Victorias, Silay, and Talisay, to Bacolod.
One has to prepare for a long trip via this route. Seniors may wish to make some stops here and there. For those visiting this island for the first time there was so much to observe and ponder upon.
There were actually two worlds of the past I was drawn into for this trip. First, there was the fellowship of the Maryshore graduates, former priest mentors, kitchen, and other staff. The CICM seminary, located near the shore (hence the name, Maryshore) was home to youths 12-13 years old, interested to train for priesthood.
Having just completed elementary and, for many, their first time to away from their families and homes, there was much nostalgic recollection about buckets of tears shed after their short vacation home, before returning to the seminary. Generally, those who came for the reunion remembered funny moments, naughty acts punished by superiors, and most especially, their beautiful, strong friendship and camaraderie.
There were those who became priests assigned to various parishes in Africa, Japan, and the Philippines. One became a bishop. Others migrated to the USA, working for various companies. Others remained here for business and supervisory jobs. The graduates had two very distinct, conspicuous common features: Wherever they were led, whatever type of work they undertook, the sense of sharing their lives with others, their original goal of wanting to be missionaries in the past, they continued to practice.
They remain on active mission for the Lord! And they love music, they love to sing!
It was a wonderful experience for spouses and children to be welcomed into this past world of their partners. Despite decades of not having met, solid friendship and fellowship remained strong!
Then, the second world of the past that left pain my heart was seeing the continuation of inequality. Of large landownership of a few to the exclusion of millions of actual tillers of the vast sugar lands. Imposed by colonizers interested in exporting sugar and continued until now by landed elites, so much continuing poverty ought to be urgently resolved, in favor of the deserving farmers and tenants.
Seeing the tenants harvesting the sugarcane, bundling them for transport in American vintage trucks headed for the milling companies and observing the hard work of our farmers under the sun was painful. Why have we allowed unequal landownership system to persist?
If the 1,328-year-old Canlaon Century Balete tree (known as lunok in Hiligaynon and dalakit in Cebuano) can only speak, we can learn more deeply about the painful struggle of our poor to survive. This tree is now protected amid rice and coffee plantations in Oisca Farm in Lumapao, Canlaon City.
Mount Canlaon (also spelled Kanlaon) the highest point in Negros as well as the whole Visayas, with an elevation of 2,465 meters (8,087 feet) above sea level, continues to be a silent witness to our people's stories.
Life proceeds for our people, however deeply entrenched the gap is between rich and poor. The huge haciendas, the solid, massive Spanish-style homes of the rich stand out in stark contrast to the small, unstable huts of the poor.
The world of the Maryshore graduates was uplifting for the heart. The continuing conspicuous world of inequality and division among the rich and the poor in this island, however, was heart-rending.
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