Last September 23 and 24, ELF brought four visitors from Bangladesh to Botolan Zambales, to meet the Aeta leader-graduates of our Grassroots Leadership Course. Imon, Aman, Bashir, and Rosy work with Protiggya Parishad, an NGO that is focused on the Comilla district in Bangladesh.

We first met the Aeta basic literacy facilitators and A and E instructional facilitators (they prefer this term to that of Instructional Manager) of PBAZ, led by Letty Gomez. The young leaders of LAKAS who hosted us were led by Tubag.

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You need not be as old as I am to have heard about this rude remark directed by Filipino teachers at slow learners or stubborn learners: “Go home and just plant camote!”

Education is directly counterposed to camote: If you can’t study, then go farming. Not just any kind of farming, but primitive low-level farming, represented by planting the lowly camote.

After all, camotes grow even on poor soil, and do not need much care or skill. It’s a root crop associated with poverty, and low esteem.

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