Early Morning Running

Three years ago James Kang introduced me to Raineer Chu who was active in a group called Mission Ministries Philippines, and last year I taught in Payatas and Montalban. This year I am back.

This is a great organization that is doing a great deal to help poor communities. They have established churches in poor neighborhoods, and with each church there is a pre-school and a cooperative for purchasing medicine. This year I am staying in Payatas with Pastor Landor, his family, and Flor. Each morning I get up around four and without thinking I start running. I am convinced that when it comes to doing something like running early in the morning one should never think about other possible things to do. So I start and soon am trudging up a long concrete hilll. Students are already on their way to class because one shift goes from the early morning to just after noon, and the other half goes from just after noon to 7:30 at night. Payatas is a place with lots of pollution, and it is best to run when it is just getting started and when not too many tricycles can belch out their exhaust.

When I return, Rapha is making her way to the school near her home. It is a private school, and Rapha is a delightful ten year old with a beautiful singing voice and a smile that makes everyone happy.

I meet one student early and make an arrangement to see her again tomorrow. Most of the day today will be in Montalban. We willl be taking food to feed about 65 children this morning, and in the afternoon I teach two different groups. One is a large group of younger kids, and in the afternoon there is a group of high school girls. There are some great kids here. Queenie is one of the most impressive people I have ever met. She has choreographed a dance that will be performed next week, and it is amazing to watch her direct classmates older than herself. I have a great time teaching them physics and algebra. Afterwards, when the dance practice follows our lessons, one of the students, Vanessa, tells me about her schedule. She goes to a high school that has approximately 80 students in each class. She gets up at 3:30 each morning to study and get ready for class at 6. Classes go to 1:30, and she tells me that they are often noisy and very hot. She has an old worn out science book which she treasures, but she admits it is hard to understand. Leaving through it I see that is very, very dry. Vanessa wants to be a doctor. She introduces me to a friend who wants to be a model. And her friend has a kind of stunning beauty that makes that ambition seem viable. From many students I hear the question in their minds about how they will finance their college education.

So the idea that I have been mulling over is to see if college students can be hired to tutor high school students. In turn high school students can be hired to tutor elementary school students. This would be a way of sponsoring students while giving them job experience. At the same time, it could help younger kids who miss lots of individual attention. I think I got this idea from reading Gandhi recently. He said he never gave anything to anyone, but he did offer them jobs.

I will have to go, it is late and I have to run so so early.