Staff Blog

“Ber” Months and Kid Volunteers

         September, October, November and December are known in the Philippines as the “Ber” months for obvious reasons.  When these months arrive, Filipinos begin to get excited.  These months herald the arrival of a celebration that most Filipinos love, and that is Christmas. Christmas music is played at times as early as the first few weeks of September.    

        Like most Filipinos, the children at the shelter are starting to think about Christmas.  The kids who had experienced the month-long celebration at the shelter already told the new kids the fun things that happened last year.  Some have already asked when the progressive dinner will be and some have started to wonder and ask what Santa will do for fun on Christmas eve. 

       One fun thing that happens at the shelter during December is the party for outreach kids.  This year it will happen on Saturday, December 12.  Two or three of the older kids usually help with the party by being on the registration table.  When that is done, they help the other older kids by helping give away candies and other sweets while games are going on.  Then they help distribute the snacks when it is time for that.  Then when it is time for gifts and give-aways to be given, they also assist Santa with the distribution.   

Julieto bagging give-aways.

Registration table

Girls having fun after helping the outreach party.   

       It is fun to see the kids helping other kids in need.  And it is always fun when they volunteer themselves to help when help is needed.

Workers at CSC have different roles. Some are childcare leaders, teachers, nurses, house parents, therapists, cooks, guards, and so on. Sometimes though, we go beyond our roles.

Uncle Ondoy is a house father at our Teen Home, but every now and then you see him sewing costumes for the kids’ school presentations.

Marwin is a Physical Therapist. Once in a while he dresses up like he’s Irish and serves Irish food. Therapists work between the shelter and school and they help in some school programs—like United Nations Day.

Roselyn is one of our adult residents at the Teen Home. She is now working at our school as a teaching assistant. Roselyn is also good with braille. She helps Arleen—also one of our adult residents—with transcribing words into braille.

Uncle Edwin is one of our trusted drivers. He knows which roads to take to cut distances. Sometimes you see him being silly on the playground with a toddler.

Everyone knows Joemar. He works at two branches of McDonald’s. Joemar also assists the janitors at school. But beyond that, he is a kind and loving friend to Ginda and Jacob.

And that is how we rock our roles at CSC!

Friday was an exciting day at Cebu Children of Hope School!  The kids got to travel to Russia, Spain, Albania, Ireland, and England.  They presented their passport and had to answer questions in order to enter each country.  Once admitted into the country they learned about their culture, famous attractions, did an art activity and sampled a food from that country. 

In the afternoon two representatives from each country dressed in their countries native attire. They were asked to give a greeting from their country and answer questions in front of the audience. Select students performed dances from some of the various countries. At the end of the day the representatives from Russia were crowned Mister and Miss United Nations 2015. 

Learning how to ride a bicycle is an early moment of accomplishment and freedom for a child.  It is difficult to balance and pedal all at once while steering to avoid obstacles and other people.  Of course a child will be proud of themselves when they learn how to put it all together to ride a bicycle down the driveway.  Guiding the bicycle where to go starts to give a child an idea of freedom. 

I enjoy riding a bicycle.  I must confess; I have more than one bicycle.  Watching a child wobbling along on two wheels finding their sense of balance brings a smile to my face.  When they finally get the hang of it I will shout for joy along with them. 

This little guy is learning how to balance without the complications of pedaling. 

This guy is hesitantly figuring out how to start from a stand still.

This young lady took a few pointers from me and in an afternoon put it all together.

It is so much riding around!  It is even more fun with puddles!

Creepy, crawly creatures are everywhere here in this tropical climate.  And everything that crawls seems to come in gigantic versions; big moths, big spiders, big geckos.  The kids (OK it's mostly the boys) are fascinated with bugs and seem to go in seasonal cycles playing with different insects as the bugs hatch and find homes in the vegetation. 

Recently spiders were all the rage with the boys collecting certain kinds and then conducting spider fights on the bristles of brooms.  One day I drove by a large group of school kids at a roadside vendor who was selling something in plastic bags about the size of rulers with something small and black in each bag.  The kids were buying the fighting spiders on their way home from school!

For the last couple of weeks the boys gravitate to the flowering plants as they enter the school gate in the morning.  Praying mantises have been emerging and the kids want to see how many they can find.  They don't use them to fight (thankfully), but are eager to carry the cool looking bugs around during the day. Impromptu mini-science lessons have happened with the appearance of these green creatures like learning that the female mantis eats the head off the male!  

So if you are into bugs, Cebu is the place to be.  Hang out with the kids for a while and you'll learn new and creative ways to play with bugs.