Promotion and Recognition Time

A couple of weeks ago, JJ's school, National Academy of Christian Ambassadors (NACA) had a planning meeting for the school's promotion and recognition ceremony scheduled for March 27. At the meeting, we were informed the start time would be 2:00 in the afternoon. They showed us JJ's report card for ¾ of the year and he has an 87% - 89% in his subjects. It is good considering that he also has to study subjects like Social Studies and Geography in Filipino language plus of course Pilipino is another subject.  We are proud of the boy who is now very fluent in Bisaya, our dialect in Southern Leyte.

On Monday, March 26, JJ came home from school and stated that he had to be at the ceremony at 1:00 in the afternoon.

We arrived at the ceremony at 1:00 as requested.  It was in the COOP reception hall, 2^nd floor. They had just started the air conditioning when we arrived. With the sun beating down on the building and the arriving people, it was hot in the reception hall. They also had music going and in typical Filipino fashion it was loud, I mean LOUD.

If you are familiar with Filipinos, you know the concept of Filipino time. If you want a Filipino somewhere at 5:00 o'clock, you need to tell them to be there at 4:00. Some will arrive at 4:00, most will arrive at 5:00 and more will continue to arrive the rest of the evening. In the Philippines, Filipino time is not that big of a deal. It is a very social community and while they wait, they socialize and talk.

Now back to the promotion ceremony. Around 2:15, one of the teachers announced we would start as soon as the representative from the Department of Education arrives.  About 2:30, Flor decided if they did not start by 3:00 we would leave. They finally started about 2:45. They started the ceremony with a procession march with the children and their parents.

Here is Flor and JJ waiting for the procession march:
 

After the procession, every body sat down waiting for the presentation to start. It did not go without a hitch, the first presentation was to music on a lap top computer. You think that during the wait time that they would have hooked up the computer to the sound system and checked it. No, they hooked it up when the presentation started and the first cord had a short in it.

There was a 15 minute introduction with prayer and anthems.  The anthems consisted of the National Anthem which is "Lupang Hinirang" followed by the Provincial Anthem "Southern Leyte" then followed by another anthem which is "Hinunangan" the town's anthem.  Every time there are public gatherings anywhere, these anthems are sung at attention.  Very exhausting, if you ask me (but that is my (Flor's) opinion). The children "stood" for the prayer and anthems.

Promoting from kindergarten to 1^st grade is a big deal here and the kindergarten promotion took about 1 hour for 15 children. The children are given certificates and recognition medals.  I had been ill for several weeks, lost some weight and now finally starting to gain some strength back.  In the middle of the pre-K program I am exhausted just sitting there waiting for JJ's turn.  Mike took this opportunity to take picture of me being very attentive to the kindergarten promotion.

After the kindergarten promotion there was about 20 minutes worth of speech giving. After the speech giving there was another 10 minutes of kindergarten presentation.  An hour and a half is how long it took for the kindergarten part to be done. After all that, they finally started the promotion and recognition of the elementary grades.  About 5:00, they finally got to the the 2^nd grade class. JJ was promoted and received recognition as Energetic and Appreciative.

We then left and did not stay for the rest of the ceremony. It consisted of more speeches and dance presentations.   We went into town to Jade's eatery. JJ had a chocolate shake and Flor and I split a halo-halo (a concoction of shaved ice, fruits, ice cream, candied beans and whatever they have on hand).

After eating our desert we picked up a chicken from Chooks to Go. We took it home and ate our dinner. 

We are glad JJ made it another year and thank the Lord for allowing him to learn and live with Filipino kids and able to adjust to the culture and learn the language.  We hope he won't forget to speak our language when we move back to the States.

Until next time....thank you for following.  We love y'all.

Home made Toy - Luthang (pronounced LOOT-HANG)

The sun is out and the neighborhood children have no classes.  Kids playing everywhere - I hear giggles, yelling, feet scampering on our driveway - all those happy noises.  What a welcome change!  Pretty soon it got quite.  I thought maybe they all went somewhere else to play.  So I went out to investigate - JJ normally asks permission first before going somewhere but he didn't this time.  As I looked toward my neighbor's house to the west of us I noticed the kids sitting side by side on a fallen log busy with something.  JJ had something in his hand and was running around with it with two other kids.  It looks like they're playing shooting game or something.

Ah, so this is what they were busy about.  The kids were making "luthang" - you cannot be called a true Filipino unless you know what I'm talking about.  We used to make luthang when I was about JJ's age and we play against the boys too.

First you have a young bamboo that you cut from section to section - about 8-10 inches in length with opening on both ends (this is now your Piece A).  Then you cut another piece - about 2 inches from the bamboo's rib.  Using a machete, (little kids use them here which is frowned upon in the Western world, I'm sure) you make a skewer-like stick using a mature bamboo making sure that the stick fits snugly in the shorter piece (this is now your Piece B).  After smoothing the stick to your liking you then insert Piece B to Piece A.  The stick on Piece B must not jut out of Piece A.  It should be just a tad shorter.  Now you have a luthang.

Mommies get involved in the process too because even two year olds want one, hehehe.

Little Lorenz and Inday patiently waiting for their luthang:

For the "bullet" you soak a wad of newspaper in water.  Once it softened you make a ball out of it and squeeze the water out. You then take a small portion of the wet paper and, using Piece B, pound it gently into the hole of Piece A.  You then shove it in using Piece B with a force.  The first or two bullets won't do much but the third and on you will start to hear a "ping" sound and that's when the fun begins.  Most kids make several in advance because these don't last long.  Either the stick on Piece B breaks or Piece A will start to split.  So to keep going in a "shooting" battle you have to have some reserves.  Someone gave JJ a couple more luthang so he was able to play longer like everyone else.

I kept thinking of when I was little girl growing up here.  We had so much fun making our own toys and playing with the neighbors until dusk.  Then I think of when we will be back in the States, JJ won't be able to do the things he's doing now....not anymore.  So in the meantime while we are still here we encourage him to spend as much time as he can with his friends outside specially now that school is officially out.

Until next time, thanks for following.  Love y'all!

Life in this Beautiful Island

This rainy season has really taken a toll on every living creature I know on the face of this earth.  Sometimes you get up foolishly thinking it's gonna be a sunny day.  Beautiful sunrise? Check.  Clear skies? Check.  And then all of a sudden out of nowhere comes a huge, grumpy looking dark cloud and hey....here they are a coming.  Yup, just like that!  If you think Kansas' weather is fickle, we beat that 101% guarantee where we are.

I've been under the weather lately (no pun intended) and that's how I felt this morning when I woke up to another rainy morning.  After Judson left for school, I opened the front door to talk to Michael about something.  And while talking to him something caught my eye.  Some of my orchids are/have been blooming and I realized that I have been missing a lot lately.

While doing dishes one day I know I saw a white outline against the dark green desperately peeking from under the avocado leaves.  It's as if it was trying to play Peek-a-Boo with me.  I could barely make it out because the leaves were thick and it was dusk.  Two days later we were doing it again (the wind playfully parting the leaves to reveal the flowers) so I thought I'll check it out and uncover it but soon forgot about it.  So today, after the downpour, the sun came up and stayed for a little while, I decided to take a walk around the property with my camera.  This is the one playing peek-a-boo with me in front of my kitchen window

and this one poor thing has taken the beating from the rain:

And this one I call my "dreamy" Lirio, magnificent and proud and yet so delicate in beauty.  I almost missed all of them but I am glad I didn't.

Psalm 104:24 "Oh Lord what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creation."

Love y'all.  Thanks for following.

COPRA, One More Time

We have been processing coconut for their meat for income while in the Philippines. See previous blog; Coconut.

In October last year, we processed about 1000 coconuts to take to the market. The price when we processed was about 48 pesos a kilo. After drying the copra (coconut meat) we should end up with about 300 kilos (about 660 pounds). However, while we were drying the copra, which takes about 2 weeks, the price tanked to about 40 pesos. At 40 pesos we will loose money and decided to hold it until the price went back up. At that price we had also stopped buying coconuts. The price, however, never went back up.

By the beginning of March, the price was at 30 pesos it even went down to 29 pesos one day but went back to 30 pesos. With our pending return to the States, we decided to harvest what coconuts were in our trees to add to the copra we had already processed. We will take a loss but we will get rid of the product.

We had a neighbor climb the trees to harvest the coconuts. While in the trees we had him clean out the crocks and remove old limbs. This helps in the production of more coconuts.

Mike thinks he could climb the trees, but he would be wearing long sleeve shirt, long pants, a safety harness and spikes for his boots, add to that a pair of gloves plus safety glasses. Now the coconut climber here shows up on your door barefoot with a machete and with a bandana on their heads and off they climb away.

After climbing the trees he agreed to husk the coconuts as well. Mike can do it, but it takes him a lot longer to husk than a young man. Mike thinks husking is a young man's job. The rainy season had its toll on all of the coconut productions nationwide.  We only harvested and husked 240 coconuts.

We pay 10 pesos (about 15 cents) per tree climbed and 30 pesos (about 60 cents) per hundred coconuts husked.

Mike then split the coconuts and load them in the cooker. He does not know why, but he likes to do it.

After splitting, the coconuts need to be cooked within 4 hours to minimize mold development. We got the load cooked and shut down for the evening. We were going to cook the next day, but it started non-stop raining for the next couple of days.  Once the rain stopped we were again able to cook for another 5 hours.

Before building our cooker, we had looked at various others in the area. Most are platforms or shacks built over a pit in the ground. The pit in the ground is for the fire. Since, our water table during rainy season is about 1 inch down, we built an above ground cooker with an offset fire pit.  We fully enclosed our cooker keeping the heat inside. Someone asked how much fuel we used (the coconut husk) and it is about ½ of what they use. They were using an open platform over a pit.

After cooking, the meat is removed from the shells. Mike was afraid there was going to be a lot of mold because of the rain, but was surprised with finding very minimal mold. Mike went ahead and shuck (removed the meat) from the coconuts.

When we get a good sunny day we will dry the meat in the sun and cut it in smaller pieces. The smaller pieces are so we use fewer bags to haul the meat to market. We get docked 3 pesos per bag used (about 5 cents, I know, not much for Americans, but for Filipinos that is a lot).

We will also have to re-work the meat we processed mid-January. It has become buggy and dirty. After getting the new batch dried and the old batch cleaned we will mix the two batches and take it to market. We may not lose as much money as we had thought, the price has been slowly climbing out of the gutter since we started processing the new batch.

Thank you for following.

Birthday Party/Farewell Party

We had Judson's birthday party on March 17 at the Carmen Beach Resort (see previous post Carmen Beach Resort).  We planned this birthday party for his teachers and school mates that will also serve as a farewell party to them since we are returning to the States.  Additionally we invited six kids from our neighborhood plus three from Pondol.

The Carmen Beach Resort is about 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) south of us and takes 15 – 20 minutes depending on what is on the road (see previous posts about driving; Road Rage,  Traffic Not Driving 55mph Anymore). We said we would provide transportation. There were some 30 kids and parents who signed up to go and we can carry about 10 – 13 people in the Revo. 

Although there was a possibility of another American who lives in the area of going and driving (he has a 20-passenger vehicle), but he was unable to make it Saturday.  Good thing not all of the guests needed transportation.  Still, Mike ended up making 3 trips there and 2 trips back. Some of the parents have their own transportation while others have to use various modes of transportation to make the trip.

Carmen Beach Resort had added a slide to the swimming pool since we were there last time and the kids really enjoyed the pool.

We knew when one of the favorite prior teachers arrived, the kids got out of the pool, swarmed and greeted her:

We provided lunch, and being typical Filipino party we had enough food for twice the number of people than were there. 

The birthday boy was hungry and decided to eat before everyone else:

I have to use a whistle to get the kids' attention that it's chow time:

Pastor Teddy Jualo from our church prayed for the birthday boy and the blessing for the food:

JJ had his picture taken with teachers and classmates

Selfie time too:

Because he ate early, JJ had to wait for the other kids before swimming again.

After eating, the kids returned to swimming, adults talking and Pastor Teddy doing Karaoke.

About 4:00 o'clock the birthday cake was presented, sliced and gobbled. Flor had brought a whistle so she could get the kids' attention when needed. She let JJ use it to get the kids out of the pool for the cake.

We had 6 kids from our purok with us. This was a special treat for them. Got away from the purok and something they had not yet experienced, the swimming pool. It amazes us that most of these kids live within ½ mile of the beach, but not that many can swim in deep water. Most of the kids stayed in the shallow area of the pool (also where the slide is) and with only a few swimming in the deep area.

We were blessed with the help of Undoy, Marilou and Lorenz (who take care of our store and help with the property)  Abet, Tohven, Debora (Pastor's wife) help with the set up.

Clean-up was a breeze..everyone did their part and the groundskeeper couldn't be even happier.  The place was ready for the next reservation:

It was good to see the kids having such a good time and the moms and teacher's having their valuable bonding time.

Thank you for following.

God bless.