Last of our Vacation Epistles!

July 30, 2011
Larry had planned that we would visit the Carmen Branch the Sunday after we returned from Manila but I did not want to get up early Sunday morning to catch a bus for a two hour ride. I was tired. So he compromised and we visited Labangon Ward which was only 20 minutes away. Gladys Trenate is the bishop’s wife there and I wanted to talk to her about visiting her private school. We made arrangements to visit her class Monday morning.
When we got out of the taxi at the Punta Princessa Jollibee, Gladys was waiting to walk us to her school. We stopped on the way at their home; the bottom floor is a small sewing factory and has a few employees. Her mother is an expert seamstress and was finishing some of the fresh looking lemon yellow and lime green school uniforms for the young children at Gladys’ “Radiant Kids Learning Institute”. Gladys teaches the 4 and 5 year olds. Another teacher has the older primary grade children. They started a few years ago with 18 and now have 60 children enrolled. They do this more as a service for the neighborhood children than to make money. They charge 200 pesos a month and that goes mostly to cover the rent for the building. The building is a just the first floor of a large home where I think several families live. Gladys told me that there are a lot of drug addicts in the neighborhood and that many of the parents of these young children have left them to be raised by their grandmothers. It was primarily the grandmothers who came with the children and stayed on the steps, some coming in to look over the shoulders of their grandchildren, some taking their hands and guiding the crayon as they wrote their numbers or letters, some clustering at the back of the room and whispering. These women want their grandchildren and children to learn, to get an education. One picked up a broom and swept the floor while the teacher was talking and then proceeded to dust the window sills. Another brought a container of water and tipped it for her grandson to drink. Several brought snacks for their little ones to eat while they were sitting and listening. They are very much a part of what is going on. Gladys has almost as many aides as she has students for her preschool/kindergarten class. Gladys brings her old church magazines, The Liahona, for the adults to read while they are waiting.
I tried not to look dismayed at the surroundings. Bare gray concrete floors, bare gray concrete walls, small plastic chairs, various sizes of small plastic tables, none with smooth tops, four small posters on the walls showing how to write numbers, how to write the alphabet and one with objects illustrating the alphabet sounds and a paper with Today is ____, Yesterday was___ Tomorrow will be ____. A book shelf with maybe twenty books was on one wall. A large lined blackboard was on the front wall. A table stacked with notebooks was in the corner and an old desk stacked with workbooks for math, reading, language was on another wall. The “teacher” chair that they invited me to sit in had a stuffed, ripped seat.
But when the children came into the room, it was filled with sunshine! They were bubbling over with happy voices, excited to be there. Sixteen beautiful children dressed in the cheerful uniforms Gladys and her mother designed and made. Fourteen were in uniform, two were not. Each child had a backpack with supplies in it. Most took notebooks out of their packs and placed them on the desk. These were their homework books that Gladys would look at and write their new homework assignment in before they went home with them. Gladys obviously loves these children and they love her. She started them singing “The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock” and then they sang “Once There Was A Snowman”. She explained to me that the children had no real concept of snow but they loved the song and the actions.
The school has been in session since the first of June. Gladys is so proud of the children’s accomplishments. When they first came they swore like seasoned soldiers, but Gladys told the children and their parents/ guardians that was not acceptable in their school, and she says she rarely hears profanity now. I looked at their homework notebooks and was amazed at the carefully written numbers and letters. Each day Gladys writes a new letter or number at the top of each page and the children are to copy that for several lines on each page when they go home. I even wondered if adults had done the writing. Most of my preschoolers could not write that neatly and evenly. But the children seemed to know the numbers. Gladys would point to a number from the ones she had written on the board and have the children identify it. She skipped around and most would answer correctly. She gave a small fuzzy bear key chain to go on their backpacks as a reward for children who could name all the numbers correctly.
The room was not a quiet place, and there was nothing to muffle or soften the noise. Children here are not disciplined openly. These darling children were not quiet except when Gladys was reading a story to them. I had taken a dozen picture books to give to the class; some I had bought, some were the ones Laurisa sent. Gladys picked “The Greedy Python” by Eric Carle, one of Laurisa’s books, to read to the children. They were captivated. Sometimes Gladys would switch to Cebuano, probably to explain words but she did read the whole book in English.
For the most part, the children were to sit at their desks and work with their workbooks. Gladys drew with colored chalk on the board to give instructions. A few of the children did not have workbooks. When I asked why Gladys said the families hadn’t been able to afford them yet. She requires the payment of 1000 pesos for the several workbooks that will be used for the entire year, and that is less than public school students pay for their workbooks, but for some it is very difficult to come up with that much money.
As we walked back to catch a taxi, Gladys told me that a woman sitting by the side of the dirt road who was selling items, actually finances three of the older students and buys food for some of the students who otherwise would not have anything to eat. Gladys sees that the woman has money to do what she does. The poor taking care of the poor!
The home the school is in is for sale. Gladys says they are hoping to raise enough money to build a new school. My heart goes out to them. There are so many who need so much. It is difficult to know how and what to give that will affect the most.
Larry caught a taxi home while I was watching the children to pick up my tan pants and the material I bought for a new pair. He brought them back to Gladys’ mom, Sister Rabanez to make new pants for me. I was going to have Sister Alfornon make them but she has gone to Saudi Arabia to tend her grandchildren while her daughter and son-in-law work. She has been taking care of their newborn here in her home for the last seven months while they were in Saudi, but the mother wants the baby closer now. Wow!!! So Sister Alfornon is leaving her husband here—he is a temple sealer and stake patriarch. A married daughter and her husband will look after Brother Alfornon. This is an interesting culture. Certainly grandparents play a huge role in the lives of their grandchildren. I am always amazed that Larry can find his way around. We went down alleys and dirt roads to get to the school, and yet he came back with no problem.
On the way out, two boys were playing basketball on the dirt—basketball hoops are everywhere—and Larry asked for a chance to shoot the ball. The boys were delighted. Larry shot and missed, and shot and missed and then a third time took a long shot and made it, then walked away. The boys wanted him to stay, but we needed to get home. There were men lounging in front of their shacks watching and they seemed to enjoy the interplay of the tall, bald white man in a white shirt and tie playing with the barefoot boys in ragged t-shirts.
Tuesday morning we caught the bus for Moalboal so Larry could go snorkeling. We were given a different room with a queen bed this time. It was closest to the ocean. Larry changed and went out to go snorkeling but was back in 15 minutes. The water was too rough and had stirred up the ocean bottom sand so it was cloudy and he could see nothing. He was disappointed but sat and watched the beauty of the troubled waters. We walked the beach until it started raining. Later when it was dark we stood outside and watched the white wave caps rolling in. The light from our window illuminated the rows and rows of continuous white caps as the tide came in. The situation had not changed by morning so we decided to catch the bus home early.
Friday we drove with four other couples to Bogo to a basket factory—really a one room place with a covered patio where seven men and women turn straw into gold—or baskets. They use several different fibers to create masterpieces –all sizes and shapes of baskets, table tops, chairs, frames, coasters, etc. Sister Byram bought a huge basket that she will use in her family room for her grandchildren’s toys. Larry kept reminding me that everything I bought would cost double to ship home, so that really limited my purchases. WE had stopped at a quaint secluded bed and breakfast, Las Florez, for lunch. The owner is an English man married to a Filipino and was a delight to talk with. He seemed to relish the company. It was a long drive but the scenery was beautiful—rice paddies, sugar cane fields, coconut palms, corn fields, lush green hills, expansive ocean, Filipino nipa huts and small towns sprinkled along the way.
Larry wanted to go to Camotes Island today and attend church at the branch there tomorrow, but I dragged my feet, and he felt the weather might not be good so we decided not to do that. Maybe we will go to church at Carmen tomorrow.
It has been an eventful vacation: we have traveled a lot, eaten out a lot, spent a lot of money, made new friends and strengthened old friendships. We have seen poverty and wealth, great need and great generosity, felt the influence and protection of the Spirit and grown to appreciate each other more. But it will be wonderful to be back at work in the temple Tuesday.