Greetings from Payatas!

I am in Payatas. It is where the garbage dump is located in Manila, and I am staying with Flor, and Jireh, Rapha, Lando, Josie, Julius, Evelyn, Hannah, and many others. Jireh and Rapha are helping me write this blog. Jireh is eleven and Rapha is nine. They are very, very cute. Mariel is fourteen, and she is joining us in this writing. And now Hannah who is eight is joing us too. She is a great singer. By the way, Jireh is as tall as my grandson Braxton!

We live at Sto.Niño St.Payatas A in Quezon City. Quezon City is in the area where Manila is found. We are happy in our home sweet homes. We have a garden where plants are grown using hydroponics. We have three goats and two rabbits. We also have lots of fish and three dogs. We also have two cats and lots of rats. Ha Ha. We also have cockroaches that can fly. There are also mosquitoes that bite us every morning so Zeus has a mosquito net.

Our church is Christ Servant Community Church. They teach us the word of God. We are happy to praise God. We all like to sing. Our favorite songs are Faith and Hossana.

We all like to juggle, and we would like to learn how to play the flute.

We like to play games on the computer. Y8, miniclip are two games we like to play.

When Rapha grows up she wants to be a missionary like her father Rolando. Our church anniversary is near. On August 31 the church will be six years old. Hannah wants to be an artist. She likes to draw. Mariel wants to be an engineer. She wants to build a big hotel. Jireh wants to be a nurse.

Chicken Joy is what we all like best. We like to go to Jollibee. Our favorite movies are Narnia, Titanic, and Deep Blue Sea, and Little Mermaid.

Jireh remembers that when she was one year old she got sick, and the doctor put all my body on dextrose. Her life was fifty fifty.

Rapha remembers New Year when we were playing with trumpets and making lots of noise. She also remembers having spaghetti on Christmas.

We liked playing lots of games like badmitton.

Mariel also remembers New Years best. She likes the beautiful fire works with many colors. We would look up in the sky and see them.

Hannah remembers being very happy on her birthday. My father gave me a gift of a walking doll.

Rapha remembers going on a trip to Bontoc in Visayas, and my father taught me how to swim. Rapha only knows Tagalog and English though.

Jireh knows Illocano, English, Tagalog, Bisayan, Korean and Japanese. We have a book of Japanese, and we had Korean visitors in our school.

Ate Flor knows eight languages.We will have to go because we have homework to go over with Tito Zeus and Edgar.

Bohol

I am in Bohol. It is a part of the Philippines that seems to be getting greener and more prosperous every time I visit. I am staying with the Calope family. They all call me Lolo Zeus here. And when the nieces and nephews return from school, they go out running with me. The runners among them range from 3 to 9 years old, and we soon set out on a grass path to my favorite hill where we race up and down a hill that takes me forty five seconds to ascend. They work in groups, some eating guavas while the others run.

After half an hour of running I return to juggle with the kids and play my flute. BJ, who is the oldest at nine years, has listened to my songs and can hum along on several of them. They are all great kids! I give some recorder lessons to BJ. As much as Filipinos love to sing, there seem to be very few musical instruments here outside of what I saw in Dalaguete. There are also very few books so I bought one book for each one of the nieces and nephews--who is about twelve kids.

Baliilihan which is the town where the Calopes live is doing very well, and one of the barangay officials is Sterling's sister Belit--who by the way is wearing a Toni Preckwinkle 4th Ward Alderman shirt, today. Belit is one of ten barangay elected officials. Each barangay is made up of puroks. This barangay has six puroks, and Belit is in charge of Purok 3 which has 25 households and 111 people. Each month they meet on the first Sunday. There are a number of committees which I will discuss in a later blog. Each purok has a meeting place, and Belit's has a garden including herbal plants. Nearby there is a newly developed park that commemorates the Balilihan Belfry that was built in 1844. Bohol has many great tourists attractions, and they really do seem to involve activities that relate to the environment. There are beautiful white sand beaches, The Chocolate Hills, the tarsiers, great waterfalls, and caves. I think it is no coincidence that this part of the country is doing so well.

Got to go.

Dalaguete

The visit to Dalaguete was really fun. I will be spending three days in Bohol while Danny and Ester go for a short trip to Manila then I will come back to teach one day at Dalaguete National High School. Dalaguete is a music town, and on the day that I got there I heard the children's choir perform. They sound truly professional!

Ester's husband Arpong was busy on a project to build a children's playground. This land will eventually be the site of a musical auditorium, and the enthusiasm here is really impressive. The swings were being built when I arrived, and Arpong encouraged me to bring my tennis balls to juggle. The crowd that gathered was very enthusiastic, and I think they were impressed to see me juggle five balls and work on six.

Being in the Ester's home is a musican's paradise. Hearing Danny and Ester practice and then joining them in playing songs together is really fun. The Dalaguete Music Foundation includes a band, a rondalla group (made of stringed instruments), and a choir, and shortly before we came one of the directors of the choir died So yesterday the students practiced and sang at the wake for the director. Danny and I also played one of the eight songs that we hope to record. It is called Ayam's Call, and it is named after the director whose name was Maya. (Maya spelled backwards is Ayam).

It is really interesting to see the sense of order in Filipino schools. Frequently students chant phrases together, and a common sign that I see is Observe Silence. Classes are often forty plus students in the provinces, and in the cities they may be sixty or more. Teachers will complain about some students being "hard-headed", but the sense of a very strict order is a great contrast to the relatively great freedom that I see among really young kids.

Dalaguete is on the sea shore, but it seems quite a bit different from Bontoc. The homes are bigger, and there seems to be much more farming of crops like corn and vegetables and less reliance on fishing. I went on a long run-hike with Danny up to the side of the mountain, and we saw many goats and, of course, hundreds of chickens and roosters. Some of these are for cock-fighting. We also saw a mine where dolomite is taken with strip mining by a Japanese company. Although we can see lots of banana and coconut trees near Dalaguete, it does look like a lot of the native forest is gone. But Dalaguete is a pretty town. I especially like the many pedicabs. Ha ha. If Jamie ever gets a chance to read this, I suggest that he and I get jobs driving two of these and see who can get the most customers in one day.

Farewell to Bontoc

I left Bontoc early in the morning, and I know I will miss many people here. I will have to write out my complete thanks later, but to Judith and Glory I must say now I much I have them to thank for arranging the school visits. For Edgar and Elmar I owe much thanks for driving me on their motorcycles. For the two college students Marby and Rosette who did so much wonderful cooking and washing clothes (by hands)--you were wonderful. And to their shy but very smart assistant Barbie I will miss you.

I had to run early to catch the boat so I set out for a short run. Five kids spied me and set off with me. One of them said, "I like jogging," so I knew I would go on the stony dirt road rather than the concrete road with all the traffic. These were five very sweet kids. Kids from the Philippines and from India often impress me with their striking beauty, and these five kids were members of my Olympic training group for maybe 2020. When I got to Bontoc there were many people who said hello to me as an Ameican, but today three said, "Hi Zeus" as we ran. It was amazing to see these five kids run in flip flops and barefoot and keep up with me. I wondered how young they were and when I asked, "Pilay Imong Edad? (How old are you?)" The answers were "Cinco anyos" and "Siete anyos". They were five and seven, and as I ran I realized what incredible condition these kids were in. I knew today I would just be running out for ten minutes and back for ten, and as I an I realized that they intended to go the whole way with me.

It was amazing to think that five kids running along this rough road were not only able to keep up with me, but didn't think twice about being a mile away from home on a Saturday morning. There is no sense of "stranger danger" here, and I could not help but think what a totally differernt world kids live in when they are not surrounded by a sense of fear and are allowed to roam.

I am in a hurry now. I have now arrived in Cebu and am visiting my dear friends Danny Buenconsejo and Ester Hana in the town of Delaguete. I will write more of that later.

Rezalyn, Jeneveve, Lovely and Jenry

When teachers die, they should go to heaven and hopefully they will be rewarded with a chance to teach Bontoc National High School's Physics 4A class. I got the chance today. They were fantastic! Not every physics class finishes with all the students singing a song in Tagalog, but that is what these students did. This was the third day at Bontoc High School, and I made lots of great friends. The students were great in helping me with my Visayan, and they gave me a list of words that my students in Chicago should learn.

I just have time to write out four of the stories that students wrote:

My name is Rezalyn. I live in Cowayanan, Bontoc, Southern Leyte. I'm fourteen years old. I like to play badminton, write poems, listen to music and explore places. When I was seven years old then I joined scouting held in Calmon Cave. When my friend and I entered the cave with no flashlight, we got scared because it's very dark and scary. We cried and cried because we don't know how to get back our way. I remember the scary place until now and the voice when we cry.

Hi, I'm Jeneveve. I'm fifteen years of age. I live in San Ramon, Bontoc, Southern Leyte, Philippines. I'm a senior student of Bontoc National High School. The most unforgettable experience I had was when I went to the mountain searching for a guava with my classmates. I felt happy because we are joined together.
I like dancing, but I can't get the steps easily. I know how to act. I like singing but the problem is, I think music doesn't like me. It's fun. Am I right? He, He, He. Hi to Zeus' student Silas.

My name is Lovely. I live in Poblacion, Bontoc, Southern Leyte, Philippines. I'm twelve years old. I like playing musical instruments and playing badminton. When I am young, my mother and I went to Cebu. I saw the dancing sun near from the mountain.

My name is Jenry. I'm thirteen years old. I live in Talisay, Bontoc, Southern Leyte. I love to sing, play badminton, and jump off the bridge in Bontoc. My unforgettable story was when I am six years old when I am climbed a tree and falling because the branch of a tree was break and when the time that I am on the ground I can't breath.

You might notice that the students mention their barangay before they mention the town. Bontoc consists of 41 barangays. Some of the younger students have problems with verb forms, but realize that English is their third language! By their fourth year they have usually made huge progress. One of the other interesting things I hear is kids using 'he' when they mean 'she.' In Visayan there is the word 'siya' which means both he and she.

I have made some great friends on this trip, and today I heard from Cindy from Korea. She is now going to school in Vietnam. What I remember about Cindy is reading with her from Barack Obama's autobiography. Cindy is really, really smart, and also really fun to be around! Just like Bontoc's 4A physics class!!! Hope you all get a chance to meet her some day. Maybe when she becomes President in Korea.

Bontoc National High School

Today I taught at Bontoc National High School. The students were great!!!
The day begins at 7:15 with all the students gathering together for the flag ceremony. From there they go to their first class. The class begins with a prayer, and then after a short introduction the class chanted, "Good Morning, Mr. Zeus Preckwinkle." This was after many students had welcomed me with "Good Morning, Sir." I was really happy to be teaching so early because of the heat and humidity later on.

My first class is in biology, and I have students learn how to take blood pressures. Many of them want to go into medicine or care giving so it is a very useful skill to learn. We work on some of the same experiments that several of my students did this last science fair, and then we talk about how knowledge of blood pressures can help people prevent their having heart attacks or strokes. I encourage a lot of the students to look upon medicine and science for their adult lives, and their regular teacher makes a point to them that this is an expensive training. I will not be using the blood pressure kit for another year so I donate it to the class. My classes in algebra are just plain fun, and my aim is to show the students that this is not a dry dead subject.

At the end of the day, I have an English class where the students write short autobiographies. These I ask them to give to me so that my students at Ancona can read them. I will write some excerpts tomorrow. Many of the students talk about how they explored the areas where they live. They remember falling out of trees, seeing snakes, going into caves, riding a carabao and jumping off the local bridge at high tide. Although they sometimes say that they are frightened by seeing these things, they bring back memories of when I was growing up. I fear that in today's world kids are often missing these chances to explore, and it is sad.

Practically every student says they like to sing, and after a while I tell the students that any Filipino who does not like singing should be deported. ha ha. People in America would be surprised at how singing competitions on television seem to dominate. It seems like version of American Idol is on all the time, and kids really take joy in performing.

Many of the students talk about how they are shy, and two in the class of 42 describe a relative dying. This was similar to Libas. And there are several references to traveling in Cebu that sound like poetry.

When kids describe where they come from, they first identify the barangay, then the town, then the province, then the country. Bontoc has 19,000 voters and about 31,000 residents. It is divided into 41 barangays and each barangay has a captain and councilors who are elected. My friend Sterling has a sister, Belit, who is one of the councilors in the town of Balilihan which is on the island of Bohol. Although there is prestige and power to this position, many elected officials are called on to help people when they are in trouble.

At the end of the day I ended up talking with four of the fourth year students, and they were truly delightful. They wanted to know all about America, and they wanted to know what I thought of the Philippines. I told them that it is indeed the friendliest place I have ever been. I tell them that I will be leaving in a couple days to see my music friends in Cebu, and then I play two of the songs that Danny and I composed. They make me promise to bring my flute Friday so I can play some more songs for them.

Libas

I have finished teaching three days in Libas. It was a great experience especially because I got a chance to see the fourth year students who I first met when they were just first starting high school in 2005. When I entered the class, I could tell that something was up. In chorus they rose to their feet and chanted, "Morning Sir". This is actually pretty traditional in Filipino classes, but they really felt like old friends, and we had a great time. I hope they learned a lot!

I should mention that Libas is very remote. It took me thirty minutes to get there by motorcycle riding habal habal over a rocky road. Some of the kids walk two miles to school each day, and with no telephone service it is far from the internet. Most of the kids are faced with learning three languages: Visayan, Tagalog, and English and most of the parents spoke only a little English as far as I could tell. Lots of little kids know, "What is youir name?" and "Hello, Joe" but when I sit with people I have to start talking in Visayan or I sit very quietly. haha. I must say that I really feel for these students. In India, too, there were students who had to learn three languages, and while students have classes in Tagalog and English throughout their schooling, the first year students really had difficulty following everything I said in English so I made a lot of efforts to speak as much Visayan as I could.

Two graduates of Libas told me that they have to give their final reports in English, and there are plenty of "Koan" comments. Koan is a term that I believe means, "I am not sure of the word." I can just imagine what it would be like for my students to learn all their science and math in Spanish. Actually, when I look at English and Visayan, their language is a much more logical one. All the vowels are sounded, and I have not yet come across a word like pneumonia yet. ha ha. It was interesting to hear one parent from India tell me that in India people "pick up" languages. With papers, television, and everyone around you speaking in a variety of languages you start to navigate the world. It is very clear that language is not just about communication. It is also about identity.

A parent told me that although she grew up in South Leyte, she moved to Manila and her son spoke only Tagalog until he was four. When they moved back to South Leyte, her father was angry to hear that the son did not speak Visayan, and he was ignored by other kids around him until he learned the language.

By the way, I met the mayor of Bontoc, and he told me that he had noticed me in the crowd at the boxing match. He asked his aides to find out who that man with the beard and white hair was. ha ha. He laughed when I told him that I was not Osama Bin Laden. And he complimented me on speaking English clearly. Apparently, many Americans have fairly indecipherable accents. ha ha. The next day at a party, I met the mayor's brother and told them about a comment about where Bontoc is. He told me that there is a Bontoc Mountain Province in Northern Luzon. They, indeed, do speak Illocono. However, the Bontoc where I am staying is definitely in South Leyte, and although it only has 100 telephones apparently, there are 19,000 registered voters!

The weekend was spent in Ormoc and at Visayan State University in Bay Bay. In the early 90's there was a mudslide in Ormoc that killed 8,000 people I am told. Over logging apparently was the cause. Visayan State University is a school that focusses on Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry, and its President is very concerned about environmental issues. When I ran on the campus, I passed by an eco--park, and then I went up into the hills through some of the most beautiful woods I have seen on my trip. The campus was wonderful, and I am sure it was because I love nature, and they had put the campus in a natural setting. The Philippines does have problems with finding enough good paying jobs for its citizens, but I am convinced that when people here understand what a wonderful natural setting this country has they will be make great strides.

I should add that while I was on the plane from Manila to Tacloban, the magazine for Cebu Pacific Airlines had an article by Lawrence Heaney from the Field Museum. He talked about the fact that the Philippines has more biodiversity per area than any other country in the world. He also pointed out that that few Filipinos seem to recognize this. I must say, however, that I have seen signs that awareness of the environment and the "treasures of the Philippines" is improving.

Tomorrow and Friday I will be teaching at Bontoc National High School. The school principal, Florintino Tao Tao, met with me today to show me around the school, and I will be teaching classes in biology, English and physics. He introduced me to several of the teachers there, and hopefully I will be able to send books and supplies to the school when I return to Chicago.

I have to go, but here are a few observations:

-When it is dark here, you can see thousands and thousands of stars and the Milky Way!

-I had a great time running in Libas with two students---Eric and Dicks. They both ran with me in flip flops five miles over a rocky road. During the day, they carried my bags and at an all school assembly they insisted on holding an umbrella over me to keep the sun off me!!!!!!!!!

-I had wild boar in Libas! It has much less fat than baboy (pig).

Init og igang ang panahon diri. (It is hot and humid here today.)