Today is Teachers's Day at Kalalake National High School (KNHS) where the students danced & sang songs for the teachers for half the day and all the teachers ate Pancit, chicken, kanin & saging for lunch. Now, I just finished invite letters for the HIV/AIDS workshop next week. No pics on today's event, I'll put that on my facebook page. Here's a link to my friend's blog, her last post was hilarious and I thought it might make you laugh too. http://brynacaroline.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/my-face-when/
Past
I haven't written extensively in a while & I thought this would be a good time to catch up on what I've been up to. On August 18, I took a few of my students on a bike tour of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and we saw the Lighthouse. After that, we rode our bikes two hours west to Ocean Adventure. It was a tough ride for the students & the one staff member who also rode with us. At times, we had to push our bikes up the steep hill, but they were able to do it. One student said he didn't believe he had it in him to ride that far, but he did just fine. That comment made my day. Teaching has been a great experience, but taking the students on the bike ride & showing them places they had not been before was amazing & something I plan to do more of.
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| I know they should be wearing helmets, but the helmets here are just too expensive for them |
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| We saw many Bats & Monkeys, this was one of the monkeys. |
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| All of us near the Beach with Subic Bay as our background. |
During the flood, I lost a few important items. One being my external hardrive (backup) and the other being my passport. Recently, I made a visit to the U.S. Embassy to request a Peace Corps issued passport. Visiting the Embassy is similar to paying a visit to the DMV to get your drivers license, it's not a fun experience and it's a long wait, not surprisingly.
Ok, back to fun again. This past Sunday, I went on a field trip with my school to see four places: Church/museum, Science & Discovery museum, Bread factory & Enchanted Kingdom (mini Great America).
First, some faculty members, students & I took two buses and left at 4:30 am en route to Manila. Then, we arrived at a Church./Museum & the students were able to witness a mini show of the history of their country through a tour similar to what one may see at an historical museum or an historical reenactment, but instead of actors playing the roles, we all saw statues with voices coming from the speakers telling the story. It was dark, but the museum does a fascinating job at explaining to students the history of the Philippines, especially Philippines icon Jose Rizal. Second, we all hoped on the bus & journeyed to the Science & Discovery Museum in the Mall of Asia. The students enjoyed this too. The last part of the SDM was a visit inside an astronomy theatre/dome to look at stars & hear other science related information. This took me back to my junior college days where I had a class for a few hours on a Wednesday night inside a similar dome. However, inside this dome, they sold popcorn, which was totally cool. I just munched popcorn off the students. As a PCV, we gotta save pesos when we can. ha ha. Don't worry, I just took a few kernels. After this we chowed down at gas station. The teachers & myself ate at KFC & the students ate somewhere else, I forgot already. Then, we headed to a bread factory in Laguna where the students saw the process of how one company makes loafs of bread & ships them everyday to supermarkets across the Philippines. Finally, we made a visit to Enchanted Kingdom, which is a small Great America, but Enchanting nonetheless. The first ride I went on was with the students on the swings and that was a lot of fun. Then I rode with the teachers on the raging raft water ride, which I gladly welcomed the water onto my clothes & face, it was still early & I did eventually dry off. After this, I went on a few other rides, then I stumbled onto games & played basketball. I made two shots in a row & I received a stuffed animal, which will be someone else's eventually, for whom, I won't say. The whole day was a blast, I'll send photos soon. I forgot my camera that day, but the students & teachers took many photos.
Future
Both tomorrow & Friday, the city will celebrate teachers day & we will meander down to the convention center to sit through the same acts we sat through today with our school, except tomorrow, we will sit beside other schools as well.
Next week, I have an HIV/AIDS workshop that one of my teachers & I will be hosting. I'll let you know how that goes. I am really looking forward to mid-service training (MST) to see all my fellow 270 batch mates. After that it's vacation somewhere, I don't know yet.
Ingat na.
