THE wall facing the dusty street is adorned with three plastic decors: two grinning Santas and a red poster bearing the now ubiquitous greeting ?Merry Christmas!?

In this house rented by 32 Aeta scholars, these are the only holiday trimmings that their house parent, Jennalyn Quiroz, can afford.

But no matter. ?Gang pung ala la ren, maranun pu ing pasku mi (Even without those, Christmas had already come to us),? says Aprilieta David, beaming.

At 20 and on her third year as an Education major, David is the eldest in the biggest batch of scholars so far from Porac and Floridablanca towns in Pampanga.

Like her, 25 other young women and six young men are able to pursue college courses because of educational scholarships provided by Mary the Queen College (MQC), St. Vincent Foundation and individual donors, says Father Ching Fuertes of the Archdiocese of San Fernando who has been ministering to the Aeta communities.

?It used to be that we had two or four scholars at a time [in the last four years]. Only last June did we manage to send more of them to college because of the growing support of our friends for education,? he adds.

Fr. Fuentes had been tasked by San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto to minister to Pampanga?s indigenous communities five years ago?an assignment he took with silent celebration.

Determined to help the Aeta youth get a steadier foothold towards a better life, he focused on getting more of them in school.

Quiroz recalls that Fr. Fuentes personally appealed to the MQC officials to accept the Aetas as scholars. ?He said that if the Aetas become educated, they could help improve their communities," she remembers the priest telling the school officials.

?We also had to ask them, in the meantime, to lower the academic standards usually applied to students from the lowlands because otherwise the Aetas cannot avail themselves of the scholarship,? Quiroz says.

But it may not be for long, she continues, because recent comprehension quizzes have shown vastly improving results.

To ensure that the scholars are able to focus on their studies, all 32 of them are provided board and lodging in a two-bedroom house in Barangay (village) Dila-Dila in Sta. Rita, Pampanga. San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Roberto Mallari pays for the rent, while the scholars? parents, all upland farmers, pitch in by providing jeepney fare from Dila-Dila to MQC in Guagua town, where the 31 Aeta youth are enrolled, and to the Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University where Oliver King is taking up industrial technology.

David says the youth hail from the villages of Kamias, Villa Maria, Inararo, Sapang Uwak and Pasbul in Porac, and Camachile and Nabuklod in Floridablanca. Except for David and King, all were born after Mt. Pinatubo?s 1991 eruption that forced the Aetas on a mass exodus to the lowlands.

?Only few people were helping us back then until Fr. Ching came,? recounts Jenilyn Santos who is in third year now.

?It is my dream to finish my course so I can help my parents and help change the false perceptions of lowlanders about Aetas,? Santos adds, referring to the discrimination she has experienced from some classmates and strangers.

Joey Saplala, a second year college student, wants to teach in his village right after graduation. ?I speak the Aeta language and more people in my tribe will learn writing, reading and counting,? the young man shares during a group discussion with the Inquirer.

?Our Christmas is happier now because we?re able to go to college. And we have our families and many people helping us,? says Precy Abuque, to which her fellow scholars enthusiastically cried, ?Agree!?

As in the lowlands, Christmas in Aeta villages is celebrated with clan reunions after a Mass. A prayer to Apo Namalyari, the deity on Mt. Pinatubo, west of their villages, is led by elders. ?