I'll make it as quick as possible with lots of pictures because "a picture paints a thousand words"! The first picture is a confession and a really bad picture of me! It was early and a no-makeup day but we ran over to a missionary apartment to drop off empty barrels to fill with water for the ongoing water shortage. The missionaries around us are wonderful young men and we love them all! The below picture is of me BREAKING MISSION RULES! This tiny little kitten probably 3-4 weeks old came walking into the apartment yelling at us in a suprisingly loud voice! He reminded me of the children's book "Are You My Mother?" He was actually in good shape for a Filipino cat and I couldn't resist & picked him up and snuggled him. He NEEDED a snuggle so I held him for a while and he did NOT want to leave a good cat snuggler! No fleas or anything but I had better repent! In the Philippines if you are bitten by a cat or a dog, it means mandatory rabies shots! It was a pretty dumb thing to do but I left him with a can of tuna fish and the Elders promised to be kind to him. I'm embarrased at how bad I look in this picture and the fan was blowing my shirt so I look EXTRA fat... arrrggghhh! From Left to right are Elders Velasco & Patriarcha and the giant beside me is one of my favorites of all time - Elder Tatafu!
Above: the artistic sign on Mrs. Santillan's classroom door. Pronounced san-til-ian like reptilian, Bisaya or Cebuano does not have the Spanish "ll" sound. The door might be old and dinged up.. but there is ALWAYS pride with posters, paint, and hand-made items to brighten things up.
Above: this is the teacher's corner. Note the paint job on the walls, the plastic chairs, the plastic drawers used for supplies, and the very UN-fancy desk! AND NO bathroom (or comfort room as they say here)! Where there are bathrooms, they seldom flush and you have to use a small hand bucket to pour water into the bowl to flush it.
Above: this is the floor right in front of Mrs. Santilla's desk and by the ONLY stand fan in the room that has NO air conditioning, no screens on the windows in spite of the risk of serious mosquito borne diseases like Dengue Fever! There isn't any nice tile, or pretty rugs for the kids to sit on. There are gaps in the doors and in the windows so that both big and little lizards run around the classroom helping with the bug problem! Take a close look at the back of bench for the last row of desks.
The three pictures below demonstrate that teachers everywhere in the world, and in spite of always limited funding for schools everywhere; are making and hanging colorful signs to encourage children to be good citizens, students, and to have pride in their country. Not sure I could even find something written and hanging in a US classroom about country pride right now.... seems like we are concerned with SOOOO many other things!
Above: I especially love the above sign. It is very typical of a national pride in the Philippines. They are fascinated with other places in the world, but are VERY proud of their own country; its beauty, oceans, self-sufficiency, and history!
Below: This is the schools outdoor stage from the side view. There are NO fancy gymnasiums, stages, or lunch rooms! They LOVE to perform and especially sing, but they do not require much to be happy, celebrate, and enjoy life!
Below: this is a shot of the school playground. They have little study huts and places to get out of the sun and rain.... but no fancy stuff! Very few schools have fancy playgrounds. Many/most of them have unique paint jobs & a few nets for basketball and sometimes soccer goals. The parents pitch in and use a lot of primary colors to paint the walls, the stairs, and stonework outdoors to make their schools pretty. They usually have items planted in old pots or tires painted bright colors and you can see that in the picture above. Sometimes they will have little garden projects as agriculture plays a big part in the Philippines. In spite of under-funding and serious over-crowding (it is common to have 60 children in a math class!) the families stand behind their schools, help with clean-up projects and participate in sports and parades just as much as any parent I've ever seen in the US. Another thing that is cool is that most children are walked to school by a parent ... and that means holding their hands! I see Dads take walk 2-3 little children as often as I see the Moms. Family is VERY important here and it is very common for the family to arrange their job schedules and their very employment around their family needs. Many fathers make their living driving Hable-hable (motorcycle taxi) or tricycles and will take time out of their day when the children get out of school to pick their kids up and take them home. It is very cute to see entire families and sometimes... what looks like an entire neighborhoods getting a ride home from school. They also have little snack-tables and hand out baggies (yes BAGS) of water or juice drinks along with little treats for the walk/ride home.
I have been curious about schools since we arrived. The Church funds many humanitarian projects for schools ranging from better computer labs to new plumbing/septic systems. In several cases they are rebuilding entire schools because of the damage of a Class 5 Typhoon between 2-3 years ago! Education is a BIG deal in this country, and they work hard to provide learning opportunities. Their schools are humble, but everyone is taught in their native languages, but they are also taught English from Pre-K through High School. One of our challenges in learning the Central Philippines language of Visaya, is that sooo many people can adapt to English even though they are shy about speaking. We continue to work on our Visaya however and I realized today in church AND in a 2 1/2 hour Ward Council meeting afterward - that I actually understood most of what was going on!
I've been rambling AGAIN but will make Roy do this next week and spare you such a long entry! We love and miss you all. Please share this blog with anyone that asks about us and is interested in what we are doing.
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