So many things have happened since my last post I had to go back and read my own blog to see where I left off!
Valentine's Day was followed by our school Prom. The kids worked really hard to put together a nice program and use what they could to decorate our community recreation hall. Girls drifted off early to go prepare for what they had been waiting months for. The boys ran off searching last minute for a clean shirt to wear. Some boys came over to my apartment and asked if I would tie their neckties. I helped them get ready. A few actually found vests which I though looked pretty snazzy...until their friends started laughing and shouting "waiter, waiter!" Apparently a vest is the common uniform of waiters and bartenders in the Philippines. In a cloud of cologne, we all went up together and it was fun watching them find the courage to ask a girl to dance and hear the whoops and hollers anytime someone would hit the lights.
They days following revealed the relationships that formed from those first dances. It brought on the type of drama I tried to avoid back in high school. I always wondered if teachers were aware of anything going on. If it's anything like here, the answer is yes! In fact, the teachers here seem to enjoy gossiping about relationships as much as the students.
The group of kids coming over to my house continued every week growing in number until a peak of around 20 who came over during my birthday. The boys grilled fish on the barbecue and my host mom made a HUGE batch of pancit (stir fried noodles). We also made a cake and served up punch, despite they constant requests that I bring out the Tanduay rum.
While school continues to feel like work, the relationships I've formed with these kids are the ones I know will last forever. It makes all the frustrations worth it witnessing even the smallest impressions take place. The truth is I look forward every week to them coming over whether it be for English games or jamming on the guitar. And I've learned just as much from the boys as they have learned from me. The good news is I've got plenty of pictures to remember these nights. Any time the camera is left out, the night quickly turns to a photo shoot and usually a flexing contest between the boys.
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| Game of the Generals: My favorite Filipino board game. |
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| My guitar is probably the true reason they come over. |
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| Homemade version of Bananagrams. By far the most popular English game among the students! |
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| Gotta show off for the camera. |
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| I can't always understand what's going on. Just play along and hope they don't kill each other. |
As the bottle bricks continued to stack up, I started gathering the materials necessary to make some more benches. Purchasing cement took all of our available funds, so when it came to getting a hold of sand and gravel, we had to fetch our own. So, once again I accompanied a group of students to Tinpunan (remember the bamboo?). Thankfully this time we had a truck to haul the sand. But the students still had to carry sack fulls of wet sand from the river to the truck. Who needs a wheelbarrow anyway? We also collected some river stone to make a walking path in our school park. Our school campus is looking pretty darn good with our new benches!
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| Stacking river stones in the truck. |
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| According to the students, they are used to carrying an average of 80-100 kilos per sack. That's 200 lbs!!!!! |
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| We use soda bottles filled with non-biodegradable trash as bricks for our benches. |
Our town fiesta came next. I went to watch our students perform int he folkdance competition. The day was cut short by rain. We celebrated however, glad to finally have water. It's been dry since December I've been without running water, having to haul it from the neighbor's drum.
Our school was awarded 2nd place in the competition. While I waited stranded in a restaurant waiting for the rain to stop I got hungry. But nothing on the menu looked particularly delicious...even the hamburger lost its appeal.
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| The students waiting their turn to dance the Filipino Polka. |
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| These people just love their canines. |
Yesterday was graduation and I think I may have been more excited than the students for the end of school. This year the school bought western style gowns for the graduates and sewed on strips of native weaving to give it a local flair. The students made their own hats out of cardboard and paper.
The graduation started promptly at 8:30. It also included special recognition and awards for all of the underclassmen. At the conclusion of the ceremony I took around a hat (like last year) and asked for everyone's autograph. I planned on giving them each a U.S. dollar, but after searching for two days was unable to find even one at any of the banks.
In our community it is common for the families of the graduates prepare buckets of food and the friends and family go around from house to house eating and chatting and drinking native rice wine. Last year I accompanied the teachers and made it to two houses; this year I was invited with a group of students and we visited a grand total of 14 parties until well after dark. We spent time at each house talking with families and sampling all the food.
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| Graduation Procession |
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| Families and friends place lays and plastic flowers on the necks of graduates after the ceremony. |
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| Collecting autographs. |
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| Going around visiting the families of the graduates. |
Siglat is alive and kickin'! He's the only trained dog around for miles and has become sort of a novelty among the students. Still trying to figure out what to do with him in September!
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| Siglat posing for a quick picture. |
