Yesterday, I took a detour from the five days I allotted to be spent at home in Naga. By late afternoon, I travelled all the way to Lupi, my old hometown, upon the invitation of the Lupi-Iligan National High School (LINHS) to join them in the celebration of the school’s 25th foundation anniversary.
Mama was LINHS’s founding school head. She was among the stakeholders who worked hand in hand to establish a public high school in the vicinity of the Poblacion. LINHS eventually opened in 1997 and held classes in a large makeshift room made of light materials and lined with woven coconut leaves.
There were so much remembering last night as we held the program. Some stories were happy, some were recollections of challenges, some, funny, and everything was an expression of gratitude and of commitment to do more.
For my part, I just couldn’t help but remember my late mother. Here’s a portion of what I shared:
“I am filled with great joy in this recollection of how LIHS began. For this remembering of the past is also a remembering of my mother and those times when you were doing everything together to raise LIHS despite all the difficulties, challenges, even ridiculous oppositions.
“I was a witness to the hope that was unleashed in Lupi when LINHS finally opened. On its first year, along with regular students were some twentysomething, and even older ones, who took oportunity of coming of the public high school which they couldn’t enjoy before.
“I remember in detail all that [Mama] went through to make possible this school that brought the public secondary education to this part of our town of Lupi. All the characters of LINHS are also Mama’s. She was a teacher faithful to her vocation. I can never remember LINHS without remembering Mama; I can never remember Mama without remembering LINHS. There were many times, and I say this without pretenses, when Mama and LINHS were one. With us all, this was her dream. And she dreamt of this so that others may also dream.”
More on LINHS: The school now has around 481 junior and senior high school students. Its senior high school offers technical vocational-livelihood (TVL) and general academic (GAS) strands. It serves as a source of empowerment for the local youth through public basic education.
About the author: VICTOR DENNIS T. NIERVA is the founder and editor of the Bikol language advocacy Magbikol Kita. He is a writer, translator, designer, and an entrepreneur. His two books in the Bikol language—poetry and translations—both won the National Book Awards. He contributes as an editor and validator of DepEd’s MTBMLE (mother tongue-based multilingual education) textbooks in Bikol, and in the programs of Let’s Read The Asia Foundation and RTI International. He is the co-founder of the creative content startup Creative Coconut Ph, the education startup Alab Ideas, as well as the history-oriented organization, Saysay Bikol.
Editors’ Note: Dateline Ibalon supports the author’s initiative to jumpstart a book donation drive for the LINHS library, primarily for the use of the senior high school students enrolled in the TVL strand.