Staff Blog
It is no secret that there was an earthquake in the Philippines on Tuesday. There has been a lot of information shared over facebook, some of it an hour by hour update on our experience. Many people have spoken about the fear, the pain and the sadness they, or others they know, experienced.
I did not comment much about it then, but would like to say more now.
It is a very unnerving feeling to have every surface you are touching rumble and move beneath and around you. There is nothing to grab onto, there is nothing that can steady you. Also, the power shut off at the exact time the quaking began, so there is that shock to the senses. And then there is the noise. There is the rumble of the movement of the earth, some have described it like if a construction site were right outside your home. Then there is the noise of your fragile possessions crashing to the ground and breaking or the stones of your house falling from above. Scary. And it seems to go on for so long. Maybe because from the moment the shaking starts to when it stops you are unceasingly praying for it to end. And then after the shaking stops, you begin to hear the shouts and cries of the people and the dogs. In my neighborhood, the dogs had much to say.
You are really shaky yourself and you feel kind of weak, it takes a while to get your bearings. I had heard from Sandy---she, Marlys and Jenny were okay. I tried to reach Mitch, but there was no answer. I then went outside to check on some of my neighbors---everyone in my compound was safe, Shari and Marcel too, which was wonderful!
I returned home to some disarray and with the strong desire to get up to the shelter. My television had fallen from its stand and laid in pieces, a vase had met a similar demise. I left them as is, moved any other breakable items to a safer place and headed out, unsure what state I would find things in as I drove.
People were everywhere in the streets, there was an accident at the base of the road the shelter is on, so people and vehicles filled the space. I actually saw one of our house fathers there on his motorcycle. He couldn't hear my shouting over the din of everything else. I found out later that his wife, one of our house mothers, was out shopping with some of our older girls when the earthquake happened and he was going to locate them. Terrifying.
I made it up the road easily and quickly. The construction site next to our land even seemed to have made it through the quake alright. I honked once outside our gate, the door opened and I pulled into safety. I immediately saw Mitch's van and saw him walking around---all of us were safe and accounted for.
I was anxious to see how all of the kids were doing, so my heart was racing, but there was also just an overwhelming peace. I could see the kids outside on the grounds, gathered together, many of them crying. They ran and hugged me tightly. I didn't have enough body to go around. I moved around through the groups, checking them, checking for injuries, checking for tears, checking that they were okay. All of our house parents were also safe and accounted for. The house mother and the three girls who had been shopping during the quake had made it back safely---the girls were crying and one of them had lost her slippers in the panic---but they were back!
I stood in the middle of the yard and looked around and the buildings, the windows, the plants, the ground---everything looked as it had the day before---seemingly untouched by the 7.2 magnitude quake that had struck 20 minutes earlier. Praise the Lord!
I have said this many times in my 2+ years at CSC, but since I first stepped foot inside the gate I have felt God's hand on this land, on this ministry, on these kids, on these workers, on us. He always provides, He always protects, He always sustains.
The aftershocks continued the rest of the day, some feeling almost as strong as the earthquake, though they lasted less time. We kept the kids outside for the morning until everything could be checked, but they napped inside in the afternoon. For quite some time that day, every time an aftershock was felt the kids would run to the middle of the playground.
We had no power, so the generator ran all day, a noisy machine, but something we were grateful for. We lost water for a period of time in the afternoon as the continuous running of the generator overwhelmed the water pump. But that problem was solved quickly once it was understood. The nurseries were moved to the living rooms in the homes and all of the children slept downstairs for that night. The aftershocks continued through the night, the next day and the next and I am pretty sure I have felt some yet this morning.
While it remains a bit unnerving and you feel somewhat on edge---yesterday when I heard a loud rumbling noise, I looked for the nearest sturdy object to dive under should the shaking start, and it was really just a low-flying plane---there is no need to fear. God is good, ALL THE TIME! All the time, GOD IS GOOD!
Girl's Night
For the past month and a half, the older girls of CSC have had the chance to experience "girls night". Almost every weekend, two girls are invited to my apartment for an evening of fun!
The event starts long before the weekend even arrives. On Monday after school the group for the week is told that they are invited to girls night. Their excitement is immediate, and only builds over the coming days. On Wednesday the girls are given menu choices. I have a variety of dinner dessert choices that the girls have the chance to agree upon, and then make. Many of the foods on my list are meals that are uncommon here in the Philippines, so I often have to explain what the meal consists of. So far, each group has chosen something that they have never tried before!
At 4:30 on Friday, the girls meet me at the guard shack. From there, we get a ride down the road to One Pavilion, a shopping center near my apartment. I give the girls a list, and they are then responsible for finding all of our needed ingredients. Once we check out, we make the trek to my apartment on foot. It has been fun to provide this experience for the girls, and have the chance to teach them life skills like cooking and grocery shopping. When we arrive at my apartment, I give the girls instructions on how to prepare the food. Everything we eat that evening will be prepared and cooked by the girls.
Cooking has been a joyful experience for all involved. Jonnalyn and Andrea enjoyed mixing up and frying meatballs. Jannice and Pretchy made some interesting choices in dessert (corn and cheese ice cream!!). Joanna Mae and Hannah devoured their tacos (they each had about 5!). Adelyn and Ven Ven went into a sugar coma with s'mores dip. Cheryl Mae and Sarah got messy kneading cookie dough.
The final event of the evening includes watching a movie. With these girls, it was no surprise to find my collection of chick flicks exhausted. Like any teenage girl, the girls of CSC are saps for a good romance movie...especially a Disney one! Watching their reactions to particular scenes has been the most entertaining part for me. Cheryl Mae almost started hyperventilating as the kissing scene in Pride and Prejudice approached, Jonnalyn giggled constantly during A Cinderella Story, and Janice melted at the romance in The Lizzy McGuire Movie.
With the rotation of teens finished, I can say that girls night has been a great success! I look forward to many more nights of fun with these wonderful girls!
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Roxaboxen
Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran was the last story in our theme on Imagination in reading this quarter and it was the best story I have ever heard for this theme. When I was reading before the class started, I was fascinated with how the children in the story enjoyed their childhood life and played all day with their neighborhood friends in a village they created from stones, boxes, and desert glass. Even after the children in the story had grown up and moved away, they still remembered the make-believe village they had created so long ago. After reading the story, I remembered my childhood days with my brother, sister, and neighborhood friends. We did not create a village like Roxaboxen, but we played in the mansanitas tree, rode our bicycles, and ran in our neighbor’s garden taking the fruit and vegetables. I wish I could go back to where I grew up, full of enjoyment and excitement.
Every child has memories of his childhood days. After we finished reading the story in class, I asked my Level B2 students to share experiences from their childhood days. They all shared about their life at the shelter. Similar to my experience, they have not had a Roxaboxen, but they are very happy and enjoy playing with their friends at CCHS.
In order to experience this make-believe Roxaboxen a little bit more, we made our own small town on a board filled with beads for stones in between houses drawn on the board.
Everyone was so excited. While we
were making our own Roxaboxen, my students felt like they were in a real place. They used their imagination to create a great Roxaboxen
of their own. Congrats kids!
Remember! “Laughter
is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever.” So never stop
imagining and dreaming. God Bless!!!!
-Clayd Verzales, Level B Teacher
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Morning Meeting
Morning Meeting! This is one of the most popular activities in school that CCHS children look forward to. Each level is given a slot every quarter to share what they have learned in SRA (reading and language arts) class through songs, poems, stories, and other activities.
Level B1 students did a great job in their morning meeting last week. They shared about kindness and sharing stories, the two most recent themes they had covered in reading. There was a variety of presentations.
One group of students
shared a song about kindness.
Another
group told a story using hand puppets.
One
of the boys talked about sharing stories using a big hand-made book.
The children ended the morning meeting with a
dance about sharing.
It was fun to see Level B1 students perform!
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French Fries
Typical day in the therapy room: student having his speech therapy session with the therapist.
Conversation:
The therapist asks, “Where do French fries come from?”
Without any pause or hesitation, the student answers, “McDonald’s!”
My co-therapist and I burst out laughing. I know we are not supposed to laugh when a student makes a mistake, but we couldn’t help ourselves. It was so cute! The answer does make sense though, if you are a kid. The student just looked between me and my co-therapist with a look that said, “Okay, so what’s funny?”
It was, in fact, a true and genuine answer coming from a seven-year-old boy. McDonald’s and its counterpart, Jollibee, are a hit here in the Philippines, especially for the young kids at the shelter. It is a big deal for them when they are able to go to one of these establishments. (My blog is not about advertising for these businesses, by the way.)
Sometimes as adults we are so caught up with our adult stuff that we forget how to live life like a child, worry free. The kids at the shelter remind us that, in spite of the difficulties they have already faced at a young age, we have a God who is bigger than our worries.
I sat in the therapy room with the speech therapy session still going on thinking how blessed I am to be in this environment. I teach and treat kids with special needs and in turn, they too, teach me even more. As an English proverb says, “The soul is healed by being with children.”
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Opening the Doors
Of course, most of the students at Cebu Children of Hope School are from the shelter since that is the main reason for the existence of our school. However, over the years we have had a handful of community kids attend the school for varying amounts of time. There was VJ, Andree Kaye, John Ray, Rufa Mae, Christian, and a few others. CCHS is not big enough to be able to open its doors to the community at large, so we have always brought in community kids just by word of mouth. It has usually been the case that a commmunity student attends CCHS because he cannot go to another school due to extenuating circumstances.
For the past three years we have had our hands pretty full with the kids who need schooling from the shelter, but we had our eyes and ears open for a community child who may fit into our school. Well, meet Lael. Lael lives with his family nearby and his parents heard about CCHS from someone who works in their church. Lael is eight years old and suffers from a rare syndrome called Lennox Gestaut Syndrome. His mom and dad have been looking for a school where Lael can interact with other kids his age in a safe, caring environment.
Last week Lael started attending CCHS for library and art classes two times a week. It was a great start for everyone and we are excited to have a new student in our midst. After all, we are Children of Hope for children of hope.
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