SOUL tip to Philippines

By Sarah McDonough
Cardinal Staff

Students at Saint Mary’s University could not wait to head home after their very last final last semester, but while most students were preoccupied with that, a group of six other students was more concerned with what to pack before departing the United States.
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On May 15, 2008, Jessica Thompson, Emily Duffey, Kim Riley, Jillian Connolly, Molly Jewison, Laura Holupchinski and faculty/staff advisor Holly Richard left for a Serving Others United in Love (S.O.U.L.) mission trip. They arrived at the University of Saint La Salle on the island of Negros in the Philippines and stayed there until the beginning of June. During their time there, students experienced another culture and learned what it was like to live in a destitute community.

They spent three days in a squatter community called Calantas. The people who lived there did not own the land and lived in small houses that consisted of cement floors and walls made of thin pieces of wood, plastic tarps or tin, said Jewison.

The students played with the children and learned about the families’ daily lives. One question that Holupchinski said many in the group struggled with was, “How can we justify our material wealth when we see the lack of such material wealth?”

The last week of their trip was dedicated to a camp for street children. These are children who stand in the streets, begging for food and money to help with their family situations. During the week-long camp, the focus was on self, God, and community. “On the last day of camp, we took the children to Burro Burro (a cold springs), where we went swimming- we all had so much fun!” Jewison recalled.

It was tough for the students to say goodbye to their new families; everyone on the trip learned something new about a culture they may have never had the chance to experience.