Guro-guruhan

When she was still in high school, Aira recalls that her social studies teacher came to class acting very strangely. "First nung papasok siya like di agad siya pumasok sa door. Like pinasok niya yung half ng body sa door way tas nag smile lang siya samin. Doon palang medyo like nagfreak out na kami ng classmates ko kasi kala namin nagpapatawa si sir pero like super creepy sya." "When he first came in, he didn't pass through the door all the way. He put in half of his body through the doorway and just smiled at us. With just that, my friends and I already got freaked out because we thought sir was trying to make us laugh, but it just came out as creepy." Aira notes that their social studies teacher did not even like to make them laugh. He was usually strict and formal with their class. He did not even smile that often, but that day he smirked and giggled a lot. Aira said that there was an instant feeling of unease with their class. They were all silent, but they knew that something was off. Aira continues that their teacher went on with a normal lesson, but he did so with a fluctuating voice. When seen at the wrong angle, their teacher also looked unsettling. "Parang kapag like sa side mo sya makita alam mong may mali sa body nya." "Like if you looked at him from the side, you know there was something wrong with his body." Aira says that things got worse when their teacher started walking around as he was discussing the lesson. He would often trip as if he did not know how to walk correctly or as if his knees were unaligned. In the middle of his sentences, their teacher would even snicker and cover his smile with his hands. "Some of us started crying na rin. Like hindi naman loud pero naluluha kami kasi parang may fear sa lahat sa amin." "Some of us started crying. Not loudly, but we just started tearing up because there was this feeling of fear in all of us." Aira said that other students broke down completely when their teacher finally left after the class period. The following day, the class was relieved to see that their teacher was back to his usual strict self. His class expressed their concerns about how he acted the day before and asked him what it was all about. Confuse, their teacher answered -"What are you talking about? I was absent yesterday." --------- Guro-guruhan in English loosely translates to something that is pretending to be a teacher. In Filipino, a Guro-guruhan is an entity that is known to inhabit schools and enters classrooms to impersonate teachers. It is a mischievous yet relatively harmless spirit. It can, however, leave a traumatic experience on young students.. Many encounters with a Guro-guruhan share the same theme of a teacher who is absent and is replaced by a doppelganger that just acts "wrong." Students who have the displeasure of ever meeting one are instructed to play along until the end of the class as the Guro-guruhan does not like being caught..