Stranger

I am at the airport in Manila waiting for my flight to
Seoul and then to Chicago. In the last two days I
have met with many old friends. Jay Ar stayed in
Payatas for one night. In one month he will be
onboard ship as a seaman. Flor, Jay Ar, and I met
Sterling at the SM mall. She is expecting a baby is
waiting for a visa to see her American husband in
North Carolina. Mary Joyce's mother and her sister
Kaye came later, and I bought books for Mary Joyce,
Kaye, Moy Moy and Idoy and clothes for Mary Joyce. I
also met with Christopher Sedillo who is trying to get
a visa so he can work as a caregiver. On Sunday Jay
Ar and Flor and I went to Flor's church where I met
several people I knew and a friend of Flor's who had
just come back from working as caregiver in Jeruselum.
A common theme is how much time is devoted to seeing
that ends meet. Working overseas is a big, big part
of the Philippine economy. People know that Filipinos
are good workers, and much of the hard work in
Medicine, caregiving, and shipping is done by them.
In turn they send back money largely by Western Union,
and this makes up a sizable part of the income of the
Philippines. Getting visas, however, can be a really
difficult and expensive proposition.

Living in Payatas is not easy. Students can expect to
have huge classes--80 students is not unheard of--and
while some students go to school for 6 in the morning
until 1, others go from 1 to 7:30 in the evening.
There is a great deal of uncollected garbage lying
about from the hundreds of stalls that sell clothing
and food. Air quality in Payatas is like Bangkok.
For the second year in a row I have left Payatas with
a cough. It is probably a place where running is not
particularly good for your health. It is amazing to
me that air pollution, garbage collection, and
polluted water are problems where there are solutions.
One has only to look at the fact that Funeral Homes
advertise rates for children (3500 pesos) to see that
there are consequences to not dealing with
environmental problems.

There is much that I really like about Payatas and
Montalban. People are not quite as outgoing as one
sees in the provinces, but as I run by each morning
there are people who say, "Hi Joe" or "Hi Man".
People stare at this "very tall" foreigner, and if I
smile they readily smile back. There is music
everywhere and hundreds of small stores and stalls. A
whole pineapple costs the equivalent of 35 cents. My
haircut which included a shoulder and head massage
cost 35 pesos which is about 80 cents. I have made
some wonderful friends here, not only among the people
at MMP but also among the students--Rapha, Jireh,
Queenie, Vanessa, Myca, and many others. As people
walk down the street there is conversation everywhere
including among people who are strangers to one
another.

On Sunday evening i was invited to dinner by Attorney
Raineer Chu and his wife Mila. I go with Flor and we
meet Pastor Winston at the Trinomial Mall.

It is a different world. In many ways.

Everything in this mall is spotlessly clan. There is
no hint of heat or humidity. This is an upscale
version of the malls I am used to, and the prices are
what one would expect on North Michigan Avenue in
Chicago. The shops are polished, and there are nice
waterfalls, cold fog, and other well planned effects.


But there is something here that makes me wish I were
in the poor section of town. Unless you meet someone
you know, no one smiles at you. People are polite and
well-mannered, but no one would think of saying, "Hey
Joe" or How are you my friend?". People are strangers
here in the mall, and they will remain strangers.

The plane is about to arrive. I am in the final
sprint home, and in the last week I have been trying
to memorize a poem by the Filipino poet Rio Alma. It
is in Tagalog, and there is an English translation
with it.
In English the title is Stranger

Here are the final lines in English:

And so at night when the world is still
And dew is intimate with leaf
I would douse my bonfire
Sling upon my shoulder the small backpack of my life
And squint ahead at what might be
The path to the nearest star

Belit's Purok

Isabelita Calope is one of the newly elected councilors in the Del Carmen Norte Barangay in Balilihan. In her first election, I am told, she got the second highest vote total of any candidate in the Barangay. There are ten councilors. As a councilor she is in charge of the Ubi 3 purok. Each barangay has 6 puroks. While I was in Bablilihan, Isabelita, who everyone knows as Belit, gave me a tour of the purok.

The headquarters is a building made of nipa with places to sit and dishes for food. On one wall is a map of the twenty five households that make up the barangay, and on another part of the wall is detailed information about the make up of the purok. It reads like a detailed census report with the number of men and women and the number of people of each age. In addition, there are records of who is a smoker, who is a farmer, who is employed, and which families use family planning.

On another wall is a chart put out by the government about proper nutrition. Here I see that it is suggested that people include dairy products in their diet. This is surprising because I have practically seen no milk in the Philippines. On this trip, I did see one quart of milk that was very expensive from New Zealand, but the people drinking it were Filipino-American kids. The chart also suggests that vegetables should be part of the diet, but most places I have been there have been few vegetables. Most of the diet is rice and rice and then rice again. The word viand means what goes with the rice, and it is usually some kind of meat or fish. I must say most places, and the home at Payatas in different. Flor Encomio drinks no coke or pepsi, and this seems truly unusual to me. She also believes in lots of vegetables. Hopefully this is a new trend because I do keep hearing about diabetes being a problem here.

Belit's purok has monthly meetings on the first Sunday of each month, and there are committees on public order, sports, farming, education, and infrastructure among others. Belit is, I think, the youngest Barangay councilor, and she looks like she will do well in politics. She is clearly well known in the community, and she would get my vote just for her great sense of humor. I am sure she will do a great job in Baliliahan and hopefully someday I will be able to say that I know Mayor Calope. In Payatas where I am now there is a great deal of cynicism about government. The garbage dump is in this area, and the problem of litter, unpaved streets, and air pollution are major problems here. Balilihan seems like a universe away from Payatas, and I remember thinking when I first arrived here, "Why do people live in cities???"
The answer is jobs, but there are many places here where there are no jobs.

The organization that I am doing tutoring with here--MMP--Mission Ministries Philippines--is one that I think is addressing some of the most important problems here, and I will discuss it in my next blog.

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.

Math at 8 a.m.; Visayan on the Track

Although I am now in Payatas, I want to write some more about teaching at Dalaguete National High School. I met some great kids there, and I also got to talk with two of the math teachers. My students in Chicago will be interested to note that this class met at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning. The class size was pretty typical of what I have seen in the Philippines--about forty five students, and they were a lot of fun to teach. After the class, which was two hours long, I talked with about a dozen of the students for an hour and a half. And I was very impressed. For many of the students in the Philippines the question of how they will finance their college education is a pressing issue. Getting sponsorships is one way that some of the students can make it. This is definitely true with my students in Payatas who will tell me that they are very poor, but it is also true in Dalaguete where people are much better off. Here, and in Bontoc, many of the students have parents who are farmers or parents who have small stores. Financing a college education is not easy, but for an American the amount of money needed is really a relatively minor expense. I really want to talk with friends in America about how to make sponsorship of students more common. While I am sure that education is not the sole answer to problems facing countries like the Philippines, it is an important way of helping people.

The two teachers I taught with emphasized the need for more books at their schools. They told me how important they found it was to focus on hands on activities, and I must admit that with many older texts in math these kinds of activities are really missing. I met some great kids including one of the top students in the school, and I will do my best to see that someone can give her help to make it through college. While we were talking several of the students performed at singing and dancing--at my request, and then two others showed me how they had already learned how to juggle.

Afterward, I went running on the school's track and each lap as I passed the stands, I would carry on a conversation with a student who wanted to know if I could speak Visayan. Luckily I only made it sixteen laps. If I had gone any further I would have to make up some phrases.

By the way, I see many of the students here learning about farming techniques and environmental issues both in high school and in elementary grades. It is very encouraging.

I am sorry that I couldn't give name by name credit to the teachers here. I have to write some of these blogs from internet cafes, and I didn't bring my notes. I will have to do a summing up when I return to
America and have more time.


See you later Alligator

Perspectives

I met with five high school students this afternoon. They are all from Payatas. They pointed out that they are not from the dump site. Noeme, for example, said, "Look up at me! I 'm so beautiful." It was true. Shirley, who is sixteen, said, "I am a simple person." I asked her what she meant by this, and she said that she was content with what she has. I have heard the phrase "a simple Filipino many times" and now I know what it means. Danmark was too shy to say anything, but the girls said that he was gay. People who are gay here are accepted much more than I find in the United States. Kathy, according to her friends, is smart. In school she does well, and she wants to be a stewardess. Loujesa admits to being a funny person. She would like to be a television reporter, but she also would like to be an artist. Noeme said she has a crush on my former student Elliot, but she also says that everyone else here does too. She thinks Elliot is "so handsome". Poor Elliot, I told them, is so shy. Ha ha.

I asked the students to tell me something about themselves. Loujeso remembers when she was in grade three she badly cut her arm while flying a kite. Everyone here agrees that they do not go to the hospital because it is too expensive. Shirley said that when she was in 2nd year high school she got a medal for being an outstanding student in Filipino and biology. Her friends said that she should also get a medal for being cute. Kathy told us that when she was in grade 1 she had to go to the doctor because she had hepatitis A. She was in the hospital for two months. Her parents asked someone to help pay for it.

All the girls agreed that the Philippines has corrupt politics. They said that an example of this was that when people wanted to get rice from the government that had to get in a line and wait for hours. Rice is really expensive now, and the government is selling a cheaper kind called NFA. They think that tax money is used for unnecessary things.

Each of the four girls works. Loujesa sells suman which is a kind of sticky rice. The other three girls make doormats. The work is hard when you start. Each girl realizes that they need money for further study after high school, and they are trying to figure out ways to make it. In a further blog I will describe my experience at Dalaguete where I met with some students after class. We talked about ways of gettting sponsorship through schools and possible ways of financing their later education.

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.