Do-Day

My daughter, a Grade V pupil, told me that they would have a Do-Day in school. She and her classmates were required to bring wide buri hats and surot (trowel).

I was flabbergasted. Today, do schools still hold Do-Days?

Do-Day was popular during the time I was in the elementary. During those days, we bring cleaning and gardening tools to school. The whole day we had no class. We just cleaned the classrooms or did gardening - all child play for us then.

Today, are there still spaces to be gardened? Do schools, or even parents, lack the funds to pay for extra janitors and maintenance people? Does anyone still use a surot?

On the day of the Do-Day, aside from the requirements, my daughter brought insect repellant lotion, hand sanitizer, alcohol, a roll of tisue paper, surgical gloves,extra clothes, and food. In the afternoon, she excitedly reported her experience of scraping dried mud from the sidewalks using a surot, and clearing a less than 2 square meters shaded plot which had fewer growth compared to the bald head of their school's dean. And, yes, she applied the lotion, wore the hat and surgical gloves, and afterwards, wiped her exposed skin with alcohol and sanitizer. That night, she complained that she could not sleep because her legs were itchy.

I remembered our Do-Day way back then.

Our teacher shepherded us to the track and field ground to clear the chest-high grasses and bushes. He ordered that each of us should produce a waist-high pile of cut overgrowth which he would check after an hour. Then he left. At first, all of us were keen on cutting grasses and making our piles. But then one classmate somersaulted over the pile of another. And it was playtime. The boys jockeyed for positions and made the best somersault they could perform. Others practiced on the nearby piles. The girls formed groups to boo and to cheer. Nobody shouted a warning that there could be a sharp scythe or hoe carelessly left on the side and any accident may be fatal. As the time progressed, some boys snatched lumps of grasses from the piles of innocent girls to make their pile higher. The girls cried when they discovered their missing grasses so the good boys steadily cut more grass to appease the girls. The lazy ones looked for standing bushes and covered them with cut grasses to form a pile. Meantime the show went on. We ducked, romped, and rolled over the piles as if these were cushions. After more than an hour, we learned that our teacher had already gone home without checking the piles we made. So we burned all the freshly cut grass and made a contest as to who could produce the thickest smoke and the biggest fire. After sometime, the principal and some people came and scolded us because nearby residents complained that they could not stay in their houses because of the heavy smoke and they were afraid the fire would reach their humble abodes.

The following day, many of us came to class with the same clothes we wore the time we romped over the piles of grasses. Non complained of itchyness and the teachers never complained of our smell. All of us seemed to look fresh, scrubbed, and delightfully cuddly. When our teacher came, he was accompanied by the principal. Our lesson for that day was about fire prevention.@