A Jeepney Experience!

It was a rainy evening and I immediately boarded a jeepney going to Pala-Pala, Dasmariñas. I just got out of the Gate 1 of La Salle - Dasma and did not wait any longer for my classmates who still had to do something. It was getting late already and it rained, and thus the need to get home early.

As I was happ'ly seated on the jeepney's cushiony long-seat, seated along-side with a goony or 'medyo siga or angas-type' guy wearing civilian clothes on my left and a girl in La Sallian uniform on my right, nothing special is happening -- just the ordinary 'abot-bayad' (pass the fare to the driver) routines and the 'balik-sukli' (help pass the change to the other jeepney-farers) ones.

The jeepney then was near it's first of two stops or stations. It was near Waltermart Dasma. As I was seated there blankly, there was a sudden misunderstanding between the guy beside me and the guy in front of him. The older guy (who was seated in front of us) had a problem with how the other one looked at him. The guy beside me tried to protect his ego and answered back with force. It heated up -- the older guy wanted to hit the guy beside me. My insides began to react. To cut short, I stopped the two guys from fighting and from causing a scandal. I didn't want them to fight. I told the guy beside me to keep silent and not to react -- the guy in front seemed like he's got a big problem and since he's not the real problem, he should not get too much involved in it. I told the old guy to stay cool. I asked them if they knew each other -- and to find out, they never met before. I just told them to stay cool, since they don't know each other, keep it low "na lang sana". (Oh, I'm in the lack of words to express what really happened and the emotions I felt).

At last, the old guy was on his stop. Before getting down, he really wanted to hit the guy in front and like he was some sort of a gangster or a frat member, he threatened the guy beside me that he'd be back on him... good thing nothing worse happened... good thing I had the courage to 'stand up' and speak out... good thing there was somebody who cared wether it was the right thing to do or not - wether it was their own business or not.

We are all part of a single community (so to speak of the lessons in my REED class) and we are connected with each other. Don't treat others that you do not know of as nothing. In one way or another, if they are in trouble, you can offer them a hand even up to a limited extent -- that's better than nothing done for them. Let us show concern even to the strangers around. And, no, it is not opening everything up to a stranger but showing them what being a decent and caring citizen is. "A murder to a member is not a crime to that victim -- it is a crime to the community".

Hahaha, it was a heroic deed indeed and I felt good after having been able to help someone in a simple way. But, it doesn't end there. One of the students who unboarded the jeepney left his wallet! Since I was the one nearest the Jeepney entrance, the guy near the wallet gave it to me to sort of run after the kiddo. The stude wasn't visible by that time and the jeepney has moved a distance already. So, I looked inside the wallet and found the I.D.. It was a start of something called immediate-decisions and I was really tested in handling the situation. With us was the Jeepney Driver (of course), some La Sallian students, 2 ladies, and one was from the Campus Ministry Office. The driver tried to take the wallet saying he might be sued for it and they might search him for it (which is actually a fallacy since there are lots of jeepnies there and there is no actual jeepney station or assocation, etc, and the chances of recovering lost items from one is barely 0 if not for miracles and maybe prayers :p) but we decided, in the end, to keep it in the safe hands of the school or people from the school. There is the Discipline Office for the lost and found items, and there was someone from the Campus Ministry who took responsibility of the safe-keeping the wallet. The wallet didn't contain much amount of money, though, and I hope that the kiddo was able to get home with enough money to take him there. I took some important information found at the I.D. of the student (e.g. course, year, College, contact numbers if any) and asked the name of the Campus Ministry Personnel. I immediately tried to contact some people whom might be connected to the student. I hope I get positive results soon. :)

Disclaimer: I didn't have much time to organize the thoughts cos I still need to eat and need to do lots of stuff pa eh hehehe...