Immersion

This is another story happened in one of my community outreach activities (called IMMERSION) as a teacher with my freshmen college students in a Catholic school. It was February 2013. The event took place in a municipality in Camarines Sur, Philippines, near the foot of Mt. Isarog. I was with my B.S. Accountancy and BS Biology/Environmental Sciences students and we're spending three days and two nights in the community.

One of my BSA students, Elaine, and student-assistant Shane have a lot of paranormal experiences shared even before our Immersion activity. On the first day, everything was going well and "normal" for them. They weren't complaining about something weird.

Then, on our second day in the area, we had a short afternoon program for the children-- games and free snacks. After the program, we were at the barangay hall where we cooked the food and prepared the prizes, fixing the mess. There's spaghetti left on the big pot. I asked my students to get plates or food keepers in their respective houses to we could divide the excess food.

When we're almost done, Elaine came, handing a plate and approached me, asking if she can get food. I told her to get from the pot. Inah, Elaine's buddy/classmate stopped her by saying she already brought food for their host family, so she shouldn't bother anymore. And then, we're all heading towards the main road, talking about plans for the next day when Elaine called out. "Ma'am, wait!" We all turned our heads to her direction. She's still holding a plate and looked so pale. "Someone has beaten my arm!" she said, nervous.

We began asking who. "I don't know," she answered. "You all left me alone there. I didn't notice you're all leaving. I was trying to get food 'cause I want to eat, but it's like an invisible hand hit my arm," she said, holding her left arm. Her classmates teased that someone got angry 'cause she's being greedy.

That night, while I was patrolling with my student-assistant named Shane, two male students (Charlie and Mark) and the barangay officers, we reached the end of the barangay where there several corn fields. At the center of the corn field is a big house, owned by one of the host families where two of my students are staying.

The house was quiet outside and seems everybody's already sleeping so we decided to go back. When we're on our way back to the barangay hall, Shane grabbed my arm and stopped. I asked her what the problem was. Our companions stopped and she whispered. "Ma'am, I saw someone in the corn field. A man wearing black and white striped sweater. His face was covered with hood."

Clueless, we asked where did the man go. Shane said, she saw him disappeared. We all concluded it's a ghost. And what she said next gave me goosebumps. It was following us earlier and staring at me! I was really terrified, but they calmed me and we were rushing back to our foster family's house.

When we reached the house, Shane said that she hasn't seen the ghost anymore. But I was still terrified so I asked her to come with me to the bathroom. She stayed outside the bathroom while I was taking a shower. We both prayed hard that night.

And the Immersion was over. Back to school. Shane wanted to join the Immersion reflection session. Before the session, my then boyfriend came with his sister, Kate. Kate's husband was murdered a week ago inside a public utility bus while on a trip from the province to Manila. She needed my help with filling up some important documents. We met at the cafeteria inside the campus during my break time.

When I was done helping Kate, Shane arrived and joined us while eating snacks. We were eating spaghetti and suddenly remembered the incidents during the immersion. My then boyfriend asked what happened. She told him about Elaine's experience and the ghost in the corn field, staring at me. When Shane described what she saw, Kate quickly searched for something in her Android phone and showed us a photo.

"Does the ghost resemble with this person?" Kate asked.

Disbelief was on Shane's face. She looked at me and said "It's him!"

Hesitant, I looked at the photo. It's Kate's lifeless husband when he was shot inside the bus, wearing a white and black striped sweater with hood.

It couldn't be. Why would Kate's husband follow me? We're not friends. We just know each other by name and face, but we were never friends nor spoken with one another except a simple "hi."

Kate and my then boyfriend concluded that perhaps he's been guiding me because my (ex) boyfriend wasn't there for me. He's busy comforting and helping Kate with her kids. We assumed it that way. But until now, after three years, though I'm no longer connected with my ex-boyfriend and his family, it still puzzles me why Kate's husband followed me. How long did he follow me that time? Was it only during the immersion?

Has anyone experienced something like this? Being followed by a ghost of someone not really significant in your life?

Thanks for reading.