Teaching ‘Goodjaos’ to give and take

Tuesdays are busy days in the offices of Ms .Camila Estabaya and Mr. Roel Brillones, respectively the GKK Coordinator and the head of the Choir Ministry of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Santa Cruz. It is the day when the Badjaos (we call them Goodjaos) come to the parish for the “give and take” program.

What do they take?

The young ones (as young as 3 years old) receive noodles and the grownups as old (as 60 years old) receive rice and sardines. These are the goods the parish has collected from the mass offerings within the week.

Ms. Camila as everyone call her “ate Baby” gather them every day and set them aside for Tuesdays. Roel helps in the distribution.

They used to do it on Sundays, but noticed that Sunday masses are disrupted because they come in great number, as many as 60 of them, grownups and kids. Sunday is also the busiest day of the parish with masses going on and meetings of the different apostolates happening, so they decided to do it on Tuesdays instead.

Some Goodjaos come on any day of the week but Ms. Camila and Roel make sure they remain consistent with their rule, so they were taught to abide. While lining up to receive their goods, they are being taught to wait for their turn and not cut anyone else, thus teaching them to wait patiently and be considerate of the older or the younger ones.

Roel said that it took a long time for them to get used to a system but they managed to learn, a very slow process but they are getting there.

There are also some funny side of it, these Goodjaos are naughty sometimes that they come back in the line wearing a different shirt/dress but once recognized, they own their acts without hesitation and learn to apologize. While others do naughty tricks as well, of coming another day and once they were turned away, like Ate Baby or Roel tell them that beautiful girls (trying to complement them positively) only comes on Tuesdays (strictly insisting a rule here), they will say in return that the ugly faces come any day (that’s them). This indicates that they can also become wise and funny but Roel said, it is highly important for them to become consistent so as to train these Goodjaos to observe rules. These duo also ask them to come properly groomed yet they do, they come with their hair wet and goes back to the faucet when their hair dries up. That’s why we call them Goodjaos. They are our brethren, too. The church is thankful to the offerings every Sunday if not everyday so they can have something to give away.

Now what do they give?

They come and help gather the dry leaves scattered around, some girls sweep the backyard while the boys collect the garbage. They can also pull out some weeds if they are asked to.

You see, these Goodjaos are capable of learning some values. This is done because the church wants them to work on it before they get what they want and they have been pretty good at that. Like Roel said, it is a painful process, but they are getting there. (Blaze Cantaros | St. Joseph Parish Sta. Cruz SoCCom)