Rose's Teacher

I was helping out in Rose's class today and Bonnie was modelling writing a story with beginning, middle and end. She was writing the story of her guinea-pig, Curly. She had got to the end section which was about Curly's death and was explaining that Curly had died on Christmas Eve. One of the boys asked, "Did you eat it?" I had to try very hard not to laugh but to Bonnie's credit she didn't break stride.

I am so grateful that I release my daughter to my trusted friend every day and I know Rose is in brilliant, capable, loving hands.

Entromorphing

Yesterday, Sam overheard Rose and Joshua having this conversation while playing with their toys:

Josh: They're entromorphing. I don't know what that means.

Rose: Yes, they're entromorphing. I don't know what it means, either. Perhaps it means collecting rocks.

This was then followed by them creating snow from polystyrene and singing "hip, hip hooray for the snow, hip hip hooray for the gecko. Thank-you for the snow in my heart, which makes it clean!"

A Lesson in Prayer

Naomi and Joshua have begun saying their own prayers at bedtime which I'm delighted by but they don't half drag them out. Everything gets included from every highlight of their life, they thank God for their toys by name, for all the things we have done in the last year that they are still excited by, for anybody they think about at that particular moment and anything else they can possibly get away with including! Now, we say "OK, last thing..."

So, Josh wanted to say grace at tea-time and I asked him to keep it brief (his graces can drag out too!). I reminded him of the story of the Pharisee's long-winded prayer and the benefits of brevity.

His resulting prayer: "Amen". We all laughed very hard.

I Love the Beach!

I do. I love the beach. Our family has had a connection with the beach since my earliest days (apparently, on my very first trip as a baby, I screamed the whole time until my parents took me home!). It refreshes me, relaxes me and reminds me of the beauty of Creation. And so, just a few weeks after leaving Bohol, we were on another beach!

Our excuse was a Friday with no school (Ninoy Aquino day), Sam and Emma visiting and the chance to go away with great friends. Thankfully, we have indoctrinated our children to also really enjoy the beach so it is lots of fun for us as a family to go to the beach.

We travelled down early on Friday so we could have lots of time on the beach. Saturday we went snorkelling. Because the current was so strong we were towed around by a little banca as we snorkelled.

Naomi wanted to make [vol]canoes and then Steve made her a mermaid tail:

Sunday we had a choice of 2 boats to leave - 8 a.m. or 2 p.m. We actually wanted something more in between those times but as it was raining when we got up we decided to go for the 8 a.m. boat. Which probably was a better choice as it gave us the afternoon in Manila. However, we made the decision at 6:45 that we would take the 8 a.m. boat and the boat man said, "Ok, ready to go now?" Steve said, "No, we'll be ready at 8!" Well then they decided they couldn't possibly sail the boat to our beach to collect us so we had to trike to the next beach. When we got to the turning they told us there was no boat and refunded us part of the ticket - except not for all of us. When we arrived at the main pier we found out the next boat was not till 10:15 and a different line so we had to buy new tickets. After we got on the boat everything was "plain sailing"! But it just wouldn't be right to not have some cultural complication.

Symbol of Authority?

We were driving up to school today and somebody was trying to drive through the gate at the bottom of the hill the school is on. Only they didn't have the right sticker on their car to go through that gate. They argued with the guard for a while as the queue of traffic built up on both sides of this one lane gate. People started papping their horns and signalling their impatience but this driver would not back down. Eventually, the guard reached above his tiny hut and grabbed his shotgun (I've no idea if it was even loaded!) and, in a very deliberate gesture, slung it round his neck while staring the driver down. The driver decides he's lost the battle and slowly reverses so the other cars can pass, while still attempting to negotiate with the guard about passing!!

Motorbiking in the Rain

I thought I had pretty much seen everything when it comes to motorbikes and the way people ride them here - no helmets - or helmet slung over arm; helmets that look like they will crush if you ever had an accident; people wearing flip-flops and minimal clothing with no thought of what might happen if they are in an accident; whole families of 2 adults and 2 or 3 kids wedged on a bike; babies carried by mothers - but today I think I saw the clincher. It was raining and as I was pulling out of the busy junction at the entrance to our subdivision in our car, I saw a man on a motorbike trying to cross the junction. He had no helmet but was holding an umbrella in his left hand while trying to balance and drive his bike across the traffic.

I had a little chuckle.

A new preschool

This week was our first week of preschool. We have moved to two days a week and up to Faith Academy. It's really nice to not have to re-arrange our house and hide things away, to have more space, more facilities, to be able to walk away at the end of preschool and not spend the afternoon tidying away, but to be able to forget about it.

We have 20 children aged over 3 both mornings and it's tiring but a lot of fun. I know when we hit our stride it's going to be much easier. Of course, then it will probably be break!

The Mad Week

This week was Admin Council again. For being so spaced out (every quarter) it seems to come round pretty fast! But I am already into the second year of my two year term, which I have to admit I am pleased about!

Tuesday morning the traffic was terrible. It was raining and I think Cory's death also affected the traffic. It took me an hour and a half to get to the Manila Centre. Sam and Emma were also arriving that morning so I was very conscious of that Steve went to get them and also experienced very bad traffic. He said it was his record for longest time taken - over 2 and a half hours!! Then their flight was delayed an hour and a half anyway! Also we were hosting the Elementary Dinner that we like to hold before the start of the new year for all the teachers and spouses. So I left early and went the back way and got home in 45 minutes. One of my friends generously offered to come over early and help with the cooking and furniture re-arranging so I had little to do when I got back which was lovely.

I did not choose to come home Weds and I'm sad about that as it was Rose's first day back at school on Thursday and I was not there. Not that she would have cared but I did.

It made it a hard council to concentrate as there was so much going on at home but my brother and Emma were brilliant and despite only just arriving in country got stuck in, looking after Josh and Naomi.

A change in group dynamics, too, made this council feel like a heavy trudge rather than a light skip!

Cory Aquino

Cory Aquino - wife of Ninoy, assasinated by Marcos - died last week. She became president after the regime of Marcos was overthrown by "people power". She went from being housewife to president and did not have an easy governance or a particularly prosperous one. It has been so interesting to read the Filipino coverage in the newspaper. She is being hailed as a great hero of the Philippines and I have read glowing reports that seem to have easily forgotten the more incompetent parts of her "reign" but I guess that's typical after death. She did achieve some amazing things - taking over from a dictator, handing over to another elected president at the end of her term. The best reports I've read, though, are the more thoughtful comments on her legacy since her reign which has become more apparent.
The funeral was on Weds - to be followed by 10 days of mourning - and the casket left the Manila Cathedral at 11 in the morning and did not arrive at the grave until 8 p.m. There were hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets, mostly dressed in yellow - the colour of the revolution. It was televised and though I did not watch it a council member had dinner at his Filipina wife's relatives' house and said that one nun had said "Maybe now we can stop praying for Cory and pray to Cory"! As it was a national holiday I asked Steve's PA what she had done that day and she said "Watch Cory's funeral. In fact, I had a prayer meeting in the evening but they had a TV at church so we could finish watching it!".
I've seen a few cars with yellow ribbons on but not as many as I expected and I can't decide if it's more of a comment on how far out from the city we are or the politics of our area. I have seen people wearing yellow ribbons with Cory's face on them.

One of our Filipino colleagues said it is good that Filipinos have remembered the value of democracy and it has been a common point for Filipinos to gather round. It's perhaps especially pertinent as we head to general elections next May and the recent talk of changing the constitution.