Taking a moment to find some humor in this task that had fallen upon us this late in life, Vergel looked at me in the morning rush and said, ”Dapat may langit, ha?”

Like a blast from a starting gun, the alarm rang at 7 a.m and Vergel, Mona and I sprung into action. It was Mona’s first day of face-to-face classes. Fifteen in a couple of months, she is in ninth grade and we have been her guardians for two years now—this is the second year; school was online through all the previous year, when she started to live with us.

The night before, Mona and I had prepared her hygiene kit, her go-bag for emergency and her school backpack. She had chosen to wear her “dengue uniform”—her regular uniform, a long-sleeved hoodie over it and white knee-high socks. Lanie had been up earlier preparing breakfast for us and packing for Mona, a round five-foot-six and still growing, the baon she was to consume at recess.

I had been myself a mom to four schoolchildren, but that was a lifetime past, in my proper turn and in less complicated times. But this—this was an entirely different ballgame for a senior player like me. Perhaps there was something about it to get still excited about—old role, new times. But then, coming in from the cold and at this age, one could be susceptible to panic.

Scared, excited

Anticipating unusually heavy traffic on this drizzly morning, Vergel, our cool man at the helm, decided we should depart at a quarter of 8. We got there too early for assembly at 8:45 a.m and class at 9:00 a.m , but Mona would tell us later four classmates had arrived even earlier.

“My stomach’s doing somersaults,” Mona said as she began to alight. Now standing on the curb, she added, ”I guess I’m scared, but also excited.” I took it as a good sign, but still said a prayer for her to have a good time and make lots of new friends.

Mona had moved to this school only last year, but, since all classes were then held virtually because of the pandemic, she had no chance to develop personal friendships. The old girls, though, were so welcoming and caring, especially the class officers, who took leadership to heart, that Mona easily felt at home. Even this lola got her help: teachers and den mothers of Mona’s section shepherded her on the cyber campus and always found her when she got lost.

In this transition to face-to-face schooling, the school administration is minutely on the ball, designating routes and stops for delivery and pickup and circulating rules governing them well in advance and also deploying school guards for order and security. It’s all part of being a good neighbor as well—taking every care not to disrupt village life.

Security is as tight as any parent or guardian would wish: no student steps out until the certified fetcher comes. And so is health care: one section occupies two adjoined classrooms for distancing, with video and audio systems installed for students seated in the back. Janitors in protective suits clean up after every session. Areas are designated for snack time, with all the hygiene requirements available.

Miserable situations

At 8:30 a.m we were back home from delivering Mona—she would not be ready for pickup until three hours or so later. TV and Facebook, meanwhile, showed some miserable situations mostly in provincial public schools.

In Pampanga, children sit inside their classrooms holding their feet up above floodwaters. Elsewhere, canoes (bangka) deliver children to school. Where there are no floods, there are not enough desks. Where there are not enough rooms, 80 are packed in one room.

At a public grade school in Quezon City, the day went ugly. A group calling on the government to make good its promise of educational cash ayuda to poor students, at the same time distributing health masks, alcohol and food to pupils who might need any of them, was roughly dispersed by the police.

Watching these scenes, Vergel confessed to a sense of guilt asking for his heavenly reward—“as if Mona, herself a joy all in all to be guardian to and doing what we’re doing for her, were not itself reward enough.”

As a running commentary of my own of those sad and ugly scenes, I hear myself wishing, “Kung dapat may langit para sa mga gumagawa ng tama para sa kapwa, dapat may impyerno din para sa mga gumagawa ng mali.”

In the evening news, the Department of Education would report that face-to-face school opening went well.