The Man Behind the Metaphors

The skies had been dark like a storm is coming. It had been raining the whole night long and when I woke up that day, I had fears that Sir Jonathan can’t come to school anymore due to the heavy downpour.

I opted not to ask for I may just get the dreaded response. I prepared for school. Ate breakfast, brought my laptop since I thought I may just have to stop by a coffee shop after school and finish the item analysis I am doing.

It was very difficult to get a ride. I wish I can afford to buy a car and save myself and my stuff from getting wet and so that I can bring more things to school for experiments and so that I can to all the places I wanna go to and I don’t have to worry about over-packing stuff and I have thought about all of these just because its raining heavily and I have no school bus anymore L

When I arrived, the school seem deserted. No kids nor parents were at the gate. The guard told me that the principal decided to suspend the class lest the heavy rains could make a lot of children and parents stranded anywhere while going to school. So I texted Sir Jonathan that the classes were suspended but he can still come to school should he want to. 

After an hour, the principal retracted the suspension and said the classes are to resume as soon as possible since the national government had announced that there were no class suspension anymore. And I have two students to teach for the day. We just gathered students from other classes and convened in a single room. Children were given different activities in Math and English. 

 Finally, at 9am, I saw the man at the gate, carrying two bags of goodies, biscuits and tamarind for me and pencil sets for my kids! How generous of him, to think that it was our first personal meet up. While leading the way to the corridors, he tells me about some bits and pieces of his vacation, his adventures in downtown Tarlac and the visit to Baguio where he met two bloggers.

Our sharing of stories was cut short because of an emergency meeting. He asked if he could look around and I said yes. After the meeting, I found him in front of the class, teaching the kids with rhyming words! Teacher Jonathan is still at work while on vacation!

Lucky enough, there were only 14 kids  present. I think he was a bit shocked because the boys were a bit unruly, flying airplanes while he was talking in front of the class. Boys who seem to know the answers were shouting and had been wanting to catch his attention to be called to answer.

As he had said, there’s a reason behind the suspension, it was for him not be shocked by their dementor state of being….. hahaha….

He taught them words, draw pictures on the board, played hangman with them and gave them gifts!

Thank you Teacher Jonathan, my kids together with the others sections' kids were just so blessed to experience having a teacher like you even just for a few hours. 

One kid asking me, “Babalik pa po ba sya?” I said, “Naku, hindi ko alam kasi sa malayo sya nagtuturo nang mas maliliit pa sainyo.”

The class were dismissed and we continued our conversations over lunch at Felicity Resto-Café at Don Antonio, a few blocks away from my house. It was almost past 2pm when we decided that we should part ways and I know that he also has a lot of personal concerns to attend since he was about to go back to Thailand on Tuesday evening. We hugged, I said my thank you again and our goodbyes. Parting ways after a great conversation with someone had always been one thing I’m not good at. 

Teacher Jonathan, I couldn’t thank you enough for taking time to visit me, the kids and for the gifts. Thank you and may you be blessed with great adventures! I had been trying to find words to express my excitement and gratitude towards you but I know in my heart that there can never be enough words. I hope to visit you in Thailand too J

Meeting someone like him  inspires me more to continue what I am doing right now-- writing, teaching and striving to be a good person. All of which are a struggle but as long as I continue being inspired by the likes of him, I know I'll get by. He may be comparing himself to different kinds of things around him, but for me, upon knowing him more, I know I had found a treasure of friendship with him.

Maraming, Maraming Salamat at Hanggang Sa Muli Nating Pagkikita!