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.