This blog is all about good food and healthy eating…but I can’t resist sharing a truly captivating story about a young Filipino, Efren Peñaflorida, the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year, who I met in the Philippines, my home for the past four years. His message, which you’ll see below, is food for my soul…and I hope yours, too.
Last May, I was sitting in Dr. Lucila Bernardo’s dentist chair in Manila getting a crown fitted. Over the course of my many visits, we had become close friends. That morning, when her fingers weren’t crammed uncomfortably into my comparatively small mouth, I explained to her that I had a wonderful collection of children’s books that I’d like to donate to a worthy cause before I moved back to the US. I asked her if she knew of any local organization that could use them.
She froze. Then, took off her blue mask. I could see her dark eyes mist tearfully as she stared straight into mine. She told me that she had seen a story that morning on the news about a school on wheels in Cavite, her home province. “Call them,” she begged, “They could use the books!”
When I returned home, I searched online and found the Dynamic Teen Company website. Two weeks later, my daughter, Allie, my sister, Liz Abernethy, my assistant-cook, Thelma Javier, and my blond labradoodle, Pucci, drove to Cavite to meet Efren Peñaflorida. We dropped off five boxes of books and visited for a while. As we did some interactive reading with a group of about twenty underprivileged children, who call the local garbage dump and graveyard home, I saw firsthand the magic that Efren was spinning from these wooden pushcarts.
These children could all read! They were inspired. They had caught the learning bug. Suddenly, thanks to one man and a group of industrious volunteers, their options were no longer limited to picking through trash heaps and selling what they scavenged. Reading and math basics opened their potential path to loftier heights.
I said to my sister, a recent Princeton University graduate, you’ve got to write about this. This is the definition of real hope and promise in today’s world. And so she did. Here’s her story http://dynamicteencompany.org/2009/the-heroes-are-here.
On Thanksgiving day, I received a one line e-mail from Liz. “Look who won the CNN Heroes award. Go Efren!!!!!” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/26/cnn-heroes-airs-tonight-c_n_370001.html
I clicked the link, and as I watched Efren graciously accept his award, the lump in my throat dissolved into tears. In his acceptance speech, Efren said: “Our planet is filled with heroes. Young and old, rich and poor, men, women…of different colors, sizes, and shapes. We are one great tapestry. Each person has a hidden hero within. You just have to look inside you and search it in your heart. So, to each and every person inside this theater, and those who are watching at home, the hero in you is waiting to be unleashed. As I always tell my volunteers at the Dynamic Teen Company…you are the change that you dream as I am the change that I dream, and collectively, we are the change that this world needs to be. Mabuhay!”
May 2010 be filled with peace, hope, and joy for all mankind! And may we each find that hero hidden within.
Captions: Above: Back row, far left, my sister, Liz in blue, stands next to my daughter, Allie in purple, who is standing alongside some of the children of DTC. I’m in the front row, kneeling next to my blonde labradoodle. Efren is to the right in the black t-shirt. Below: Children posing with their pushcart at DTC.
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