Next Chapter: the Unturned Page

Next Chapter: The Unturned Page

By Rhema Espanola and Denise Yzabel Salinas

PANAY- They were done with Yolanda’s chapter, and their next goal is to turn the next page and start another story of their life but they can’t seem to see a period to just end it all.

Students from the only high school in a village with 7 hamlets dare to put everything behind and start all over again but they practically have to start on scratch. They got no books left, where could one start having them?

“Wala nagid bilin nga books diri. Was-ag gani ang pader ka ang library,” (There are no books left in here. The library is even destroyed and its walls rumbled to the ground) said Janice Mosqueda, a teacher from Tambaliza National High School.

Students need not just books to satisfy their thirst with knowledge and hunger of wisdom and if they’re not determined enough, they will not even cross an island and walk far away from their home just to get to their school. Some would even left their home as early as 5 am and start walking all the way and arrive at their destination around 7.

The books are scattered everywhere and left on the ground to dry. Ms. Janice said they have to make use of materials that could still come in handy and save those books that could still be of use.

Those books were soaked by the raging water of the typhoon and the dreams of the students drowned with them. Every scribbled letter on that page spells hope for these children and now they’re gone. Does this also mean that their hope will be gone? Is there no other way out in this misery?

One student said that they will go back and will start having classes and that she is very hopeful to be able to learn something despite the fact that they don’t even have school supplies, uniforms, and books to start with.

They don’t know where to start but they will definitely figure out where. Some where there, their dreams are already waiting for them. They may have scarce resources and difficulty in coping to...