Dumalag- Hmm, do you even know where it is?

By Carlos A. Arnaldo
Roxas City-Capiz
August 23, 2015



Two arrived late. “Where are you from?”

“Dumalag, Sir, about 3 hours bus ride from Roxas.”

“Three hours bus, and you really wanted to come here? To this writing clinic?”

“There are no workshops or clinics in our area. This  is our only chance to learn new things.”

One of these was Alleikka, kayumanggi as the sun, tall as a majorette, athletic and intellectually alert. Her presence seemed to electrify the atmosphere and induce an open and dynamic learning arena. We did exercises on short writing, US style editing, French editing, local articles from Manila dailies, writing sharply and forcefully. Two students worked on cartooning.

Some months later, Alleikka’s English professor, Mr Ronald Garcimo, in attempting to stir up a sense of patriotism and nationalism in his students asked his class: “As a student, how can you solve current issues and problems in our country?” A big question! Especially after Jose Rizal kept pointing to the youth as the hope of the country!

I teach college students in the Life and Works of Jose Rizal and this is the same question I ask my own students, though in different ways and I often get quite different answers.

Mr Garcimo’s student, Alleikka answered this way, in her utterly simple way:

“1. Study Harder--- as a student, my number one role is to study hard in order to become a successful in my chosen career someday. It will be the key or stepping stone to help our motherland in solving the problems in the future. 2. Get Involved--- I will support projects in solving in our problems nowadays. And be a volunteer. 3. Be a Role Model--- I myself will start to become a role model to my fellow youths. Encourage them to be like me in helping our country's progress. 4. Conduct an Advocacy and Campaign--- I will let my voice be heard to influence others for a change in solving our current issues.

I KNOW IN THIS SMALL WAY, IT WOULD BE A GREAT HELP TO SOLVE OUR CURRENT ISSUES AND PROBLEMS IN OUR COUNTRY. THANK YOU. . . .”

Dumalag may seem to be a minor rural center one third of the way south from Roxas to Iloilo, but these words  of Alleikka tell me it is the epicenter of  new and fresh learning among our young people, led by dedicated educators, like Mr Garcimo, who do not teach formulas to be memorized but who lead their young ones to learn from their own situations and their own intellectual resources.