"am"

by Ronald Jabal

I have been teaching in a number of universities for quite a while now. And during those years, I have encountered not a few amusing anecdotes. And here is one:

Normally, before I formally discuss my syllabus on campaign management (one of the subjects I teach), I provide my classes a number of examples of campaigns that are currently being done in environment, political, health etc.

I also discuss some issues being encountered in campaign planning and management such as culture, language, literacy, machismo etc..

In one of the classes I handled, our discussions veered towards breastfeeding campaigns.

I asked the students if they know or familiar with the yellowish nutrient-rich milk produced by mothers during the beginning of lactation ( which has been the subject of gazillions of IEC materials)

Boy was I surprised, maraming "bibo" kids.

"Ay alam ko yan!", sabi ng isa. "Ako rin ako rin" chimed another .

And one of the "bibo" kids raised her hands, stood up and proudly announced her answer:

"Sir, I know that, it is called AM" (as in AM from sinaing na bigas! whew!).

Syempre tawanan ang lahat, I didnt correct it right away and some students requested to guess the term first before I announced the correct answer.

They asked for a clue.. so I said "it starts with the letter "C".

One student shouted "Cocoa!"

"Another letter", requested by another, so I said the "C" is followed by "O".

Another girl giddily stood up and said... "Chocolate?"

Before kung saan saan pa mapunta discussion, I disclosed the term... and they all said... "sabi ko na nga ba eh" (oo nga naman).