St Joseph's Nudgee College

October 2, 2008

In August Year 10 students and several staff from St Joseph's Nudgee College travelled to the Philippines on Immersion. The experience was life changing for all who went and the experiences they shared will never be forgotten. Year 10 student Ryan Mothershaw shares some of these experiences below.

Togetherness, the word I heard so many times before, during and after our trip to the Philippines but, apart from its root in the word "together", I had no idea what it meant. Now after the trip, and after looking it up in the dictionary, I realize that there could not have been a better word to represent and define the immersion experience.

Togetherness means "a feeling of closeness or affection from being united with other people" and this epitomizes the experience for me.

The time when I most experienced the feeling of togetherness was when Sean Minehan, James Creswick and I along with our Filipino buddies travelled to an outlying school in a town called Candoni.

When it came time to go to bed the Nudgee and Filipino boys slept side by side. We had become one community, a global community, not separated by cultural, financial or social differences. We had come together.

On the third day of the trip we were united with our buddies from the local schools in Cauayan, Ilog, Inayawan, Magbalio and Candoni and when it came time to leave on the eighth day of the trip the closeness and the affection between those involved meant that there was no longer two separate groups who had met only five days before. There was just the one big friendship group that was greatly saddened by the distance that would soon be between them.

A moment that I will forever cherish and remember is when, on the last day of the trip, we visited a homeless children's rehabilitation centre.

The young boys who were there were either orphans or they had been abandoned by their parents. This centre helped to get these kids, no older than us in Year 10, off the streets and away from the dangers of drugs, abuse and unsafe living conditions.

Sharing time with them and experiencing their lives has shown me the need to help look after those who are unable to look after themselves.

An example of how close we became is when, on the last night, we had a group reflection with both Filipino and Nudgee boys, where we talked of our experiences over the past days. We talked of friendships formed; experiences shared and hope for continuing relationships.

Quite possibly the most touching moment though, was when one of the Filipino boys, John Ariel, confessed to the group that James Creswick had become his idol and hero. John's father had died when he was younger and the way that James was able to interact and befriend John meant that James became John's male role model.

This shows us that just giving up a little bit of our time can have a huge positive impact on others. So on behalf of Nudgee staff and students and the Filipino staff and students that we met on our trip I would like to thank all of you who donated to and supported the program because it was through your help that we were able to have this impact on other people's lives.