Visit to Bulacan Novitiate

My uncle-priest started reporting in their Novitiate in Bulacan. One time, I decided to bring KT with me in attending a morning mass on the said place.

We arrived late and my uncle was the officiating priest. I let the nanny find her own seat since the chapel was already full; I found one available chair beside an African novice. I never thought that KT might be afraid of the novice because of his skin color, let alone the fact that KT rarely gets to see other people than the close members of the family (we only brought her once to SM Megamall to buy something, otherwise, she stays at home). When she saw the African (later turned to be from Uganda), she stared at him probably trying to figure out why he has a different color than us. The African noticed her and extended his hand; KT withdrew and looked the other way. To make this section short, before the mass ended KT was already trying to get hold of the cross pendant of the African novice.

During the communion, she was really happy to see people walking around. She was waving her hands and tried clapping; she wasn't satisfied and started to shout (luckily the priest didn't hear her) and calling the other people's attention. That's the time I decided to let her stay outside the chapel. I would say that was a considerable improvement - twice that I had to bring her out of the church every time the choir sang and she would 'sang' with them.

While waiting for my uncle, I sat on the bench nearby several elders. One elder noticed her and played hide-seek with KT. The kid was smiling ear to ear! I know when she really likes to play because she would shout and show all her teeth to everyone! And this is one of those situations. They played for 10 minutes and another elder would say, "bibo 'tong batang 'to".

The place has a large area to play with. I saw the lawn and brought KT to try it out (it was wet) - the mud was all over her feet. But she didn't complain and wanted to stay in the lawn longer.

When the time came to meet my uncle, we were brought inside the dining room. There we met the African and another Thai novice. She still didn't want to be with the African novice but I gave her anyway. She neither cried nor complain - she just went along. I had to get padi's laptop from the car so I decided to leave her with the novices. By the time I went back, she was being taken around the kitchen and being introduced to the members of the religious group. I had to leave them though because I had to fix my uncle's internet connection.

After a couple of hours when I got back, she was with her nanny looking around the area. She was calm and the nanny told me that she behaved all the time and the novices liked her - she smiles a lot.

We left afterwards. But I promised to her to bring her back again and maybe let her play with the kids who live nearby.

How I wish my wife was there to see her kid being liked easily by strangers.