Singapore!

Singapore:

I had the opportunity to go to Singapore for a few days break with Pauline. It was a blessing in two ways! Firstly, it was a nice break to recharge batteries ready for my last 2 months at Ruel. Secondly, I made a mistake when booking my flights which meant I would have to renew my visa in order to stay for one more day! At a cost of £60! To avoid this I could leave the country for just one day and therefore my visa would restart and cover that last day! The flight to Singapore was just $12 US!!! Couldnt pass on that opportunity!!!!

Singapore was such an amazing country and so contrasting to the Philippines! Everywhere was clean, immaculate - no need for my hand gel there! Their main source of income on the island is tourism and we made the most of it! I really would recommend to anyone a visit to Singapore, especially the night zoo and Sentosa Island! 

In addition to the sight seeing I also got the chance to visit Joseph Prince's church, a church of 20,000!! Admittedly, that is over 4 sevices but still the fact was that people were queuing for hours prior to the service just to get a seat in the main auditorium instead of sitting in one of the 3 overflow rooms! Had we not be chance met friends of the people we were staying with we would not have had a seat even though we were there an hour early! God always makes a way!! 

I had read Joseph Prince's book 'Destined to Reign' recommended by my Mum and it was an inspirational book. I learnt a lot through the book about Gods grace and the freedom in which I live. So I was so excited to be able to visit his church and hear him! He spoke again on the topic of grace and it was so encouraging. I really recommend if you haven't read his book read it you will be blessed!

On returning to Ruel I have been back into teaching and starting to prepare for my successor! It is scary to think I am already having to make preparation for my leaving!!! I really missed the children while I was in Singapore so it will be even harder leaving when I know I will not be back at least not for a long while and by then they will be gone!!! We have been learning teen numbers (always a hard one!) and I have been so amazed at how quick they have picked it up! They are not only recognising all numbers to 20 but also now starting to read words and write short captions! We have so much fun everyday having a class of 3 is a dream!!! It is going to be hard to leave and come back! How did I ever cope with 30!!!!! 

I am on the move again and this weekend I will be moving house and living with Jason and Theresa, Maiya, Ayda and Hannah, the Canadian family. I am really looking forward to this as I spend most of my time there anyway! They have a great source of Tetley tea!!! At least enough to last for my last 7 weeks! 

Manila A mix of emotions!

I have arrived 'home' from Manila! And what an experience it was! I had previously been to Manila once but only saw part of it - the 'nice' part: the malls, hotels, restaurants etc... My opinion of Manila was slightly distorted and I was often thinking why do people complain and say it is so bad and how nice it is to live out here in the province! However, that was because my orginial version of Manila was not a true reflection of the sheer poverty and overcrowding I witnessed on my second visit!

I was introduced through my church to meet up with a pastor out here who was running a pre-school for the disadvantaged children of Manila. Great! I though a good opportunity to witness the 'real' Manila. His school called City Gates Academy only accepts the poorest of the poor! Their philosophy is that through education children can get themselves out of poverty. Only 1 in 10 children from slum areas will ever complete elementary (Primary) school!! As it is summer vacation there were no classes but I was able to get involved in the selection of new pupils! In order to make sure only those in greatest need receive the education the team at City Gates complete home visits and conduct an assessment. Because their school is so good many people will claim to be poor in order to send their children. What I witnessed was truly heart breaking and then on top of that to have to sit there and assess their 'possessions' just felt so unjust. One of the questions I had to answer was "ratio of family to house" Basically was their house "large, enough, small or none". How could I answer? All of the houses were small!! And yet many times I was circling 'enough' because each person had a space to sleep therefore it was enough! The house in the picture had 2 adults, 7 children and the mother was pregnant. Their house was 'small' and only slighly bigger than my kitchen at home (those of you who have seen it will no it is small!!!!). There was no furniture: bed, table etc... I was sitting on a log to complete the assessment. Inside was a simple wardrobe. So hard to understand and comprehend and that night as the rain was coming in all I could do was think of that poor family. 

I have been thinking a lot about how I will feel when I come home and experiencing 'culture shock' when faced with all our luxuries but Manila provided me with that experience 3 months early! From leaving the slums we went to the mall. Clean, air condition, expensive, bounteous in food! I have never been in a more affluent, clean shopping centre makes ours look small and dirty! From one extreme to another, it was hard to be there. Part of me just wanted to scream and the injustice and the other part recognised comforts of home and so my mind was in constant battle. I am so thankful for Glenn and Nadette they really ministered to me during this time and helped me deal with these conflicts. They also taught me to enjoy Manila too! Hence the Karaoke! They are 2 of the greatest people and we had a lot of laughs - mainly to my expense!!! I now have really seen Manila - the good, the bad and the ugly and these experiences will stay with me forever.

Easter Celebration

Firstly apologies for not updating my blog recently! Things have been very very busy here!! 

Easter here is a big celebration without the commercialism of home. It has been really refreshing and a good way to remind us about what Easter is truly about. No Easter bunny or Easter eggs here! In the Philippines Easter is a national holiday too and they all get Good Friday off. Its one of only 2 days (the other being Christmas Day) where everything is closed: malls, ferries, shops etc... Many Filipino's take the opportunity to spend time with their families and escape the cities for the coast. Being on an island away from Manila a lot of people passed through Calapan, there was a great holiday feeling!! Weather was helpful too lots of sunshine to get everyone in the mood! 

We had a wonderful time together on Easter Sunday. At Ruel we had a huge community meal where all the volunteer staff of Ruel and all the children shared together. We brought all the tables and high chairs outside and enjoyed a huge spread and no rice in sight! See pictures of kids and Bertie enjoying their Easter dinner! Was a typical English/New Zealand/Canadian dinner!! We spent time in the day preparing cooking at least 100 spuds! Well at least it felt that many when peeling! As a very special treat Jason brought back from Manila some ham - impossible to get here in Calapan! It tasted soooooo good! Even the next day in sandwiches and omelette's!!! We also made lots of jellies of all different colours - the children had great fun trying them all! For many it was the first experience of jelly! It was a great evening spending time with friends and family. We have been very lucky past few weeks as Jason and Theresa have had lots of visitors of friends and family. It is always great to meet new people from all over the world! 

Back to 'work' now after the Easter break, I say work but when you are doing what you love every day it really doesn't feel like that! Often find it hard to believe I am actually here doing this! Plan to paint a nice big Hungry Caterpillar this afternoon! Looking forward to it. Next week I head to Manila with the important task of buying new toys for the orphanage I can't wait!! 

Bertie

Bertie:
Just one month ago Ruel received a call asking us to take a serverely malnourished baby aged 1 year and 2 months. A small bundle was brought by his sister and aunt, who had been looking after him, weighing just 4kg!!!! It was devestating to see a little baby in such bad condition. The photo below does not really show fully the state his little body was in. He had sores all around his groin as his skin was peeling due to the severe malnutrition. His skin was loose around his arms and legs and he had no energy to move or cry. All I wanted to do was cry as I held his little hand in mine and looked into his dull, lifeless, little eyes as he feebly cried.

Within a few minutes he was bathed, his sores soothed and tucked up in a warm bed. When caring for a severely malnourished child there is a strict procedure to follow. It would be so tempting to just feed and feed and feed him but that is the worst thing to do. It is important to start slowly and for the first week to only give milk until he gets stronger to eat food. Watching him guzzle his first bottle and knowing that he is safe and will get better was an amazing feeling.

One month on:
Now a month on and you can see the change in him! The first picture was taken 2 weeks after he had arrived, he looks so cute and small next to the balloon! He was at this point beginning to eat food and really enjoying it!!
It has been such a privilege to be a part of this amazing transformation and know that what we have done has saved his life! He is now starting to sit up and smiles and laughs daily. His eyes are shining and full of life. It is impossible to resist him when he holds his arms out longing for a cuddle! Watching the recovery of Bertie only confirms what an awesome organisation the Ruel Foundation is!!

Change and a rest!!

Change:

I am really enjoying teaching the children here at Ruel and it is so rewarding and wonderful to see them learnig and enjoying their learning too! Despite the language barrier they are make such great progress and coming on in leaps and bounds. Their English is also getting so much better! I have increased my teaching sessions to an hour every morning with the two oldest children and we are joined by one of the daughters of a Canadian couple who are missionaries here at Ruel. It is a win win situation for us all, as having her in the group is so good for the English development of the others and at the same time she is getting her schooling. In addition to the hour in the morning we also do an hour in the afternoon play-based learning. This is the best part!! I have 5 children and we spend each afternoon either cooking, painting, playing outside, walking, singing...etc... basically just having a whole lot of fun!!

Another change that has happened this week is that I have moved from my apartment to make way for a maternity clinic. In the Philippines many women a day will die during childbirth not to mention the babies. Maternity care is expensive and many women cannot afford to pay. Offereing free pre-natal, birth and post-natal care will make such a difference to the community and prevent many many deaths. It is exciting times so where I was living is now going to be a birth room! Looking forward to being involved in this part of the ministry and hopefully maybe even seeing a few births.

Rest:

After a very very busy first 7 weeks last weekend we headed to what I call paradise! A beach resort about an hour and half away called Peurto Galera. Along with my friends from here we went to spend 2 days chilling and relaxing. It was very much needed as since we arrived it has been non-stop with establishing my teaching, rennovating Theresa and Jason's house and setting up the maternity clinic and they are just the big things - never mind the smaller day to day jobs!Watching the sunset on the beach was fantastic and swimming in the sea, I cannot remember the last time I swam in the sea!!! It was a must as it was the only way to cool down from the sun!!! I resisted the several offers for a massage but think next time will put on my list!! We came back feeling refreshed and well rested -ready to start again! At the end of this week I am hoping to go to Manila not so sure that will be as restful but I am looking forward to seeing a mall!!!

School!

I went to school last week!!! As our 2 older children attend pre-school in the morning I thought I would pop along with them to see how things were taught here. Pre-school here operates in a similar way to our nursery in the sense that there are 2 intakes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Our children attend in the morning and the session starts at 7.30am and finishes at 10:45! A long morning!


The official age for starting school at the elementary government school is 6 and the school year starts in June. The school day is from 7am-3pm. It is hard to believe that they expect their children to be at school that long at such a young age. I am hoping to visit the elementary school next week as I believe it is very different to the pre-school. Look out for the post!




On arriving at the pre-school it was immediately clear that the children were not going to concentrate on their teacher when there is a strange white woman standing at the back on the classroom - not really like I blend in!!!! All the children were sitting at tables appearing busy! These children are aged 3-6. The classroom was very endearing lots of recognisable areas of learning such as, role play, small world, science area etc... but at the same time completely different to ours. It was really great to see the Sari-Sari (shop) and house role-play area as that is exactly what you see along the road here in the Philippines. I think I might steal that idea and build a sari-sari and house here at Ruel!




I wandered around as the teacher was talking to them in Tagalog and heard her mention 'madame Lynette' a few times and assumed that was me! Then after a while I noticed that she had left!!!!! What was I to do - 30 little faces looking up at me. I tried to talk to them in English and they tried to talk to me in Tagalog but we were getting nowhere and just to prove that children everywhere are the same, when their teacher leaves they started to be very silly! We had several boys running around with waterpistols, girls crying and lots of children trying to talk to me in a strange lanugage I didnt understand! So in true style the water pistols were removed and although I couldnt stop the girls from crying some sort of order was restored. Let's say we had not been very productive in all that time!


I felt really sorry for the teacher who is on her own with 30 children aged 3-6, I understand how it is not an easy job and I only had 19 in my class when I left and had support! And to think she does all this for less than £50 a month. Never have I been so grateful and appreciative of my job. I certainly will be looking with fresh eyes around my classroom when I get home.

Playdough!

Good news now feeling totally better and back to normal. It was so nice to be back working with the children and although I was only unwell for about 4 days it was amazing how much I missed them!

On Sunday I set out to make some playdough ready for using with both the big kids and small kids at Ruel. Accompanied by Maiya and Ayda we made 4 lots of playdough - using lots of different colours. It was such good fun! Believe it or not I had never made playdough before so had the potential to be a complete disaster.

It is amazing how much fun and learning you can get from playdough. Watching the childrens faces light up as I brought out the bright coloured playdough. I have been teaching the bigger kids the letters 's' and 'a' so we used the playdough to make these letters. You should have heard them gasp in wonder when I showed them how to use the playdough mats to make the letters. They had so much fun. With the small toddlers they seemed a little unsure and the sensation of the playdough in their hands felt strange to start. But they too soon got the idea and enjoying flattening, banging, rolling and prodding the playdough!!!! Something so small and cheap to make has brought me and the children so much joy this week!!