Being raised up with little or no household work assigned to you really takes its toll on you when you encounter courses like NSTP. I never did much around the house since there were almost always maids to do everything, and I suppose that breeds a person who becomes weak in the face of manual labour. Naturally, I knew what the whole deal with NSTP was – it was compulsory, it was learning life support techniques, it was either teach children or do community service (I chose the latter since I’m pretty bad at dealing with kids, which is why it was a godsend that we had actual manual labour instead of the feeding program, but that’s another story) – and I was aware of what I had to do, but you know how you’re never ready until you’re actually there? That was basically what my situation was. I thought I was more than up for whatever task given to me, but I still struggled hard.
In hindsight though, my experience with NSTP wasn’t bad. The first semester was filled with an orientation, modules, and a seminar, and those were sort of fun I guess, in a stressful kind of way (or maybe I’m just really biased against learning that takes place in an online community, but that’s just me). We didn’t have a fieldwork then, for reasons I’m not particularly aware about, and I’m not exactly sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Well, it seemed like a good thing back then but you know. Experience and all that. Especially when one is a person not accustomed to work. But the seminar that made up for it was alright too, and at the very least we got to do at least one kind of hands-on woark: the DRRM. I remember being haunted by thoughts of failing that practical so hard. I was never particularly aware of most things that a medical technologist should probably be aware of (strep throat? Meningitis? Blood count? What in the world are those??) and the fact that DRRM was about first aid in the face of disaster was just the icing on the cake (remember that this is a girl who has done little to no work and is not aware of a lot of things, much less of survival. If a calamity hit I would be one of the first to die, no joke). But the practical didn’t end up too bad – having other people in my group who knew what to do helped out a lot – and the entire ordeal turned out to be fun after all.
Since we didn’t have a fieldwork during the first semester, it was practically guaranteed that we would have one on the second semester. And we did have fieldwork, two separate days, at Nueva Ecija, with one day being the day before our preliminary exams no less. I’ll be honest and say I was expecting that we would have to clean the streets. Although it wasn’t a necessarily bad thing that we got construction work instead since I was basically expecting a job that involves a lot of sweat and hard work. At the site we were had to mix cement and paint framework, basically help out the construction workers in making classrooms.
Since my group had the most women, we were assigned to painting on the first day, and that ended up being pretty fun. On the plus side it didn’t involve carrying a lot of heavy things, and painting is fun. During that experience I discovered that when I do something, if it isn’t done right then apparently I just can’t let it go.
I remember still staying there for a bit longer when most of my other group mates already left for a break, wanting to continue painting because there are still white streaks on this thing and it should have an even coating, why does it look so ugly. And that was sort of funny, I guess. The entire experience was a funny experience in general, actually. Especially with the way we would twist and turn just to prevent paint from getting on our pants, but paint still spilled anyway.
The second day of fieldwork was filled with actual construction work this time. Since we had already painted on the previous meeting, we were no longer allowed to do it again. That day was the day all my expectations of NSTP had come to life. Basically, there was a lot of sweating and lifting and mixing. We had to mix cement, and for the life of me I truly, honestly had no idea what in the world I was doing. I mean, I was doing something, but whether the thing I was doing was right or wrong, I really had no clue. To this day I still feel amazed at those construction workers at being able to do something like that so quickly and efficiently. I only kept up with it for a little more than an hour I think, probably even less, and once they came over and started the job was done in no time. I guess that moment gave me a sense of what NSTP really means and what really happens in that course. Immersing yourself into programs that enhance the living conditions of people – I guess that’s what it’s about. It was about helping people and working hard for the good of others, and I was far from ready but that was okay because it didn’t turn out too bad after all, and at the very least I was able to help out and do my part of the contribution.
Looking back, I sort of miss having fieldwork. I wouldn’t mind having another one, in all honesty. Yes, I’d act like it was a total hassle and a pain in the butt, but you know. I wouldn’t really mind. Helping out is fun, and helping people is even better. I remember how our professor told us that they’d write our contribution down: with the help of the students of UST-CWTS-CPHA1, or something like that. One small inscription in the midst of others, but still there nevertheless. If I was given the chance to help out again I would take it, no matter how small that impact may be.