A Fulfilling Experience, Part Une
Monday, May 30th, 2011 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shiawasenajinseiI really don't have anything new to write about these days, and I still have a couple of papers that I think are worth sharing here, so that's what I'll be doing again today. This one is my reflection paper on part one of our exposure trip on BS155 (The subject focuses on deviance, as seen from psychological, sociological and anthropological views, although it's mostly psychological since we focused more on various mental disorders). The experience was very fulfilling for us, and I hope I'm able to convey that through my writing.
We had two days to go to four different institutions, and here's my first reflection paper where I detailed our experiences on day one of our trip.
February 23, 2011. On this day, our BS155 class set out to visit the CIW and NCMH over at Mandaluyong City. We first visited the CIW, or the Correctional Institute for Women, where 1797 women are currently detained. We were told that most of them are charged with crimes such as estafa and drug-related cases. In the orientation, we also got to have a glimpse on what life is inside the institution. They have schedules they need to strictly follow, and the women have different activities to do such as sewing, typing jobs, handicraft making, etc. They also have a school for them to at least be able to continue their education while inside the institution as well as chapels and mosques for religious activities.
After the orientation, we proceeded with meeting with a group of detainees. We got to interact with a group of mostly elderly women. The one I got to talk to, however, was a younger woman, probably in her late 20s or early 30s. She has two kids whom she is not able to see even occasionally as she hails from a Visayan province and transportation costs are too expensive for them to shoulder. She just hopes that when the time comes for her to be able to come back, she’ll be able to dote on her future grandchildren as compensation for the lack of time she was able to spend with her kids. I somehow felt pity for her because I think that most of them just committed the crimes they’re charged with (assuming they really did) as a result of poverty and other social factors. I think that Robert Merton’s Anomie theory (“deviance results as a way to manage social strains”) can be applied to their cases.
As I got to talk to her more, I realized that she has a love for learning, as we got to talk about how valuable knowledge is, even to people like them who are caught in unfortunate situations. We agreed that even though they are detained in the institution, there is still room for them to grow and learn.
Due to time constraints, we only got to do one activity which was the one called “Fear in a Hat”. In this activity, we all got to anonymously write down our fear/s on a sheet of paper. Each one of us then randomly picked a paper and imagined what it would be like to have the fear written down on the paper we got. Most of the fears shared were of animals, but there were also some who shared deeper fears such as failure, one’s own death and the death of loved ones. As we got to talk about each one of them, we not only had the chance to air our own views, we also got to have a share of the women’s insights.
After the activity, we all sang a song before ending the program. We also got to drop by and buy some souvenirs from their souvenir shop. I was amazed by the creativity of the detainees. I really would’ve bought a lot had I brought more money. The items they made were really unique and out of the box.
After visiting the women at the CIW, we then proceeded to the National Center for Mental Health or NCMH. We first went around the institution and got to catch a glimpse on how to deal with the mentally ill patients. Because of time constraints and some other conflicts, we weren’t able to proceed with our program. Instead, we just went on with feeding some elderly patients.
The food we brought had to be checked first before we were allowed to feed the patients, and while waiting, I tried to observe the patients inside the wards. I know that they are schizophrenic patients and I tried to distinguish which type a patient is. If I’m not mistaken, most of the patients in the wards seem to be either disorganized or catatonic types. I say this because I’ve observed that a lot of them have disorganized speech and behavior, two of the criteria in the Disorganized type. Some of them would just expose their private parts to people, while some would randomly talk about things or sing songs out of the blue. On the other hand, I’ve also observed patients who just sit in one corner and stare into space, either doing nothing at all or repetitive movements, some of the criteria for the Catatonic type.
When the dietitian approved of the food we brought, we were given several instructions to feed the patients before we entered the ward. Truth be told, at first I was slightly hesitant to go inside the ward. I thought I wouldn’t be able to tolerate the smell emanating from it because it was a bit too strong. But then, when we got in, I completely forgot about it because my mind focused on the patients who were asking for food. I got a refreshing feeling when I got to feed them, especially when some of them happily responded to us.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to talk to one of them because there were many patients in the area I chose and I couldn’t just focus on one of them while the others were still asking for food. Nevertheless, I was still touched when some of them extended their gratitude and appreciation of our actions.
At the end of the day, I realized that it was really refreshing to come into contact with these people. It was too bad we didn’t get to interact more with them, both with the women of CIW and the patients of NCMH, but we surely gained valuable knowledge in the short time we spent with them. We may label these people as deviant, as a result of a mental illness or the constraints of society, but they possess qualities that we can definitely learn from, and it’s great that we had a chance to have an encounter with them.
We've been on a lot of trips during the course of our lives in university, but this one is probably one of the most fulfilling ones I've had. Coming into contact with the people we've encountered really gave me a warm, light-hearted feeling :)
We had two days to go to four different institutions, and here's my first reflection paper where I detailed our experiences on day one of our trip.
February 23, 2011. On this day, our BS155 class set out to visit the CIW and NCMH over at Mandaluyong City. We first visited the CIW, or the Correctional Institute for Women, where 1797 women are currently detained. We were told that most of them are charged with crimes such as estafa and drug-related cases. In the orientation, we also got to have a glimpse on what life is inside the institution. They have schedules they need to strictly follow, and the women have different activities to do such as sewing, typing jobs, handicraft making, etc. They also have a school for them to at least be able to continue their education while inside the institution as well as chapels and mosques for religious activities.
After the orientation, we proceeded with meeting with a group of detainees. We got to interact with a group of mostly elderly women. The one I got to talk to, however, was a younger woman, probably in her late 20s or early 30s. She has two kids whom she is not able to see even occasionally as she hails from a Visayan province and transportation costs are too expensive for them to shoulder. She just hopes that when the time comes for her to be able to come back, she’ll be able to dote on her future grandchildren as compensation for the lack of time she was able to spend with her kids. I somehow felt pity for her because I think that most of them just committed the crimes they’re charged with (assuming they really did) as a result of poverty and other social factors. I think that Robert Merton’s Anomie theory (“deviance results as a way to manage social strains”) can be applied to their cases.
As I got to talk to her more, I realized that she has a love for learning, as we got to talk about how valuable knowledge is, even to people like them who are caught in unfortunate situations. We agreed that even though they are detained in the institution, there is still room for them to grow and learn.
Due to time constraints, we only got to do one activity which was the one called “Fear in a Hat”. In this activity, we all got to anonymously write down our fear/s on a sheet of paper. Each one of us then randomly picked a paper and imagined what it would be like to have the fear written down on the paper we got. Most of the fears shared were of animals, but there were also some who shared deeper fears such as failure, one’s own death and the death of loved ones. As we got to talk about each one of them, we not only had the chance to air our own views, we also got to have a share of the women’s insights.
After the activity, we all sang a song before ending the program. We also got to drop by and buy some souvenirs from their souvenir shop. I was amazed by the creativity of the detainees. I really would’ve bought a lot had I brought more money. The items they made were really unique and out of the box.
After visiting the women at the CIW, we then proceeded to the National Center for Mental Health or NCMH. We first went around the institution and got to catch a glimpse on how to deal with the mentally ill patients. Because of time constraints and some other conflicts, we weren’t able to proceed with our program. Instead, we just went on with feeding some elderly patients.
The food we brought had to be checked first before we were allowed to feed the patients, and while waiting, I tried to observe the patients inside the wards. I know that they are schizophrenic patients and I tried to distinguish which type a patient is. If I’m not mistaken, most of the patients in the wards seem to be either disorganized or catatonic types. I say this because I’ve observed that a lot of them have disorganized speech and behavior, two of the criteria in the Disorganized type. Some of them would just expose their private parts to people, while some would randomly talk about things or sing songs out of the blue. On the other hand, I’ve also observed patients who just sit in one corner and stare into space, either doing nothing at all or repetitive movements, some of the criteria for the Catatonic type.
When the dietitian approved of the food we brought, we were given several instructions to feed the patients before we entered the ward. Truth be told, at first I was slightly hesitant to go inside the ward. I thought I wouldn’t be able to tolerate the smell emanating from it because it was a bit too strong. But then, when we got in, I completely forgot about it because my mind focused on the patients who were asking for food. I got a refreshing feeling when I got to feed them, especially when some of them happily responded to us.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to talk to one of them because there were many patients in the area I chose and I couldn’t just focus on one of them while the others were still asking for food. Nevertheless, I was still touched when some of them extended their gratitude and appreciation of our actions.
At the end of the day, I realized that it was really refreshing to come into contact with these people. It was too bad we didn’t get to interact more with them, both with the women of CIW and the patients of NCMH, but we surely gained valuable knowledge in the short time we spent with them. We may label these people as deviant, as a result of a mental illness or the constraints of society, but they possess qualities that we can definitely learn from, and it’s great that we had a chance to have an encounter with them.
We've been on a lot of trips during the course of our lives in university, but this one is probably one of the most fulfilling ones I've had. Coming into contact with the people we've encountered really gave me a warm, light-hearted feeling :)
