The Traveller

There was once a traveler who was walking from a village in the mountains to a village in the valley. As he walked along, he saw a monk working in a field, so he stopped and said to the monk, “I’m on my way to the village in the valley, and can you tell me what it’s like?” The monk looked up from his labor and asked the man where he had come from.

The man responded, “I have come from the village in the mountains.”

“What was that like?”  The monk asked.

“Terrible!”  the man exclaimed, “no-one spoke my language, I had to sleep on a dirt floor in one of their houses, they fed me some sort of stew that had yak or dog or both in it and the weather was atrocious.”

“Then I think that you will find that the village in the valley is much the same,” the monk noted.

A few hours later, another traveler passed by and he said to the monk, “I am on my way to the village in the valley, can you tell what it’s like?”

“Where have you come from?” inquired the monk.

“I have come from the village in the mountains.” 

“And what was that like?”

“It was awesome!” the man replied, “No-one spoke my language so we had to communicate using our hands and facial expressions.  I had to sleep on the dirt floor which was really cool as I’ve never done that before.  They fed me some sort of weird stew and I have no idea what was in it but just to experience how the locals lived was great and the weather was freezing cold, which meant that I really got a taste of the local conditions.  It was one of the best experiences of my life.”

“Then I think that you’ll find that the village in the valley is much the same,” responded the monk.


From this story I’ve learnt so much including the fact that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond. In this story, I see myself as a traveler who has had to adjust to the way of life here in the Philippines and also to many other things such as language and food and although I have many times struggled to feel ‘among’ classmates or friends when there is an outing or activity, I sometimes still find myself a victim to the mentality of the first traveler. I would like to say that finding home in Silliman University medical school has made things much easier.

I have found something in Silliman University Medical School that reminds me of home every time I approach it. This is good on most days, but bad on the others. Well, first the good part is that I can somehow convince myself that home followed me here, haha, talking of home…its more than 48hours plane flight away(about 3 flights) and I was in a Christian University where we had devotions and regular bible study meetings, I guess this is why I chose Silliman University. A place where no matter how difficult school work gets, we are still reminded that God should be our priority.

Asides this I have seen the caring attitude the Doctors have towards us and they treat us as if we where their children, for example, Dr Quevenco, and many times when she speaks to us in class, I feel the urge to just call my mother right there and then. The Doctors can as well just choose to come in to class and lecture, but they have consistently taken their time to not only teach us but to inspire us, me specifically. I am really happy to be a part of the medical school.

The bad part is that many times it dawns on me that I really haven’t seen my family in a long time and that just hearing their voice cannot replace that. Though this sometimes gets me down, I usually just remind myself that this is just a phase and everything that happens to us could be perceived as good….or bad, depending on which kind of traveler we have chosen to be.

-Jokotoye Oluremi.