SISTER FRIDESWIDA ICK, OSB
“You will have to dig potatoes and work in the fields.” warned my Lutheran German father when I told him I didn’t want to get a job because I was going to the convent. I had just graduated from St. Scholastica’s College (SSC) with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in chemistry and he wanted me to start looking for work. He dismissed me saying, “Ask your Mother.”
I waited a few days before I approached my very strict Catholic Filipina mother. After telling her of my plan to join the Sisters at SSC, she responded in a hurt voice, “So you love the Sisters more than your family!” After this encounter, I couldn’t mention anything anymore about religious life.
Even without their consent, I began preparing all the documents, my outfit, etc. required for entrance. I bade “goodbye” first to my mother who asked whether I wasn’t coming back anymore and to my father who kept silent.
I was born in Masbate, the 4th of 9 children. Shortly after, the family moved to Manila. During the Japanese occupation, we were sent to a parochial school now called St. Anne’s Academy at Sta. Ana. When I finished elementary grades, I went to high school and college at SSC.
After my final vows, I taught for a few years in SSC high school department after which I was sent to St. Agnes Academy in Legaspi. It wasn’t long after when I returned to Manila to be High School Principal.
When a request for a chemistry teacher came from our newly-started mission school in Tanzania, Africa I volunteered for 2 years. Because I couldn’t find a replacement, I stayed on until Tanzania teachers were ready. In a mission school, one does all kinds of jobs. I found myself busy with so many activities, both academic and non-academic that I stayed on for 42 years.
Working in a foreign mission poses many challenges and entails a lot of sacrifices. Residing in a new country, learning the language, adapting to the culture of the people, need God’s abiding presence and a loving and understanding community, both of which I enjoyed in Peramiho, my second home.
Our secondary school for more than 300 girls, all boarders, is now run by Tanzanian Benedictine Sisters who are growing in number. They work as teachers, nurses, medical assistants, catechists, and parish workers for the mission.
Now I am back in my home country on sick leave. When I learned that it wasn’t possible for me to return to Africa, I took it as God’s unpredictable ways with me. I can only thank Him for all what He has done through me. What is in store for me in the future only He knows. Meanwhile, I look forward to His promise “Eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him”.
