Staff Blog
How can people be so heartless?
How can people be so cruel?
Easy to be hard, easy to be cold
How can people have no feelings?
How can they ignore their friends?
Easy to be proud, easy to say no.
Songwriters: Ragni, Gerome / Rado, James / Mac Dermot, Galt
The words of this song from the late 60s were brought to mind recently when a 12 year-old boy was referred to us. His story reveals the heartlessness and cruelty of people, and the ways that some children have to suffer at their hands. We'll call this boy Roberto and his younger brother, Michael.
Roberto and Michael were brought to an orphanage in Cebu City when they were babies. The orphanage, which was connected to a Protestant church, was not a good place. When the boys were older they were abused. Punishment was severe, sometimes cruel. The lady who was in charge of the place was the one dealing out the beatings. Luckily, the place was closed down and the children were parceled out to other child caring institutions. CSC got three girls from that place, but we did not have room for boys at the time, so Roberto and his brother, then nine and 10, went to live at a home for children on a neighboring island. Shortly after there arrival there, one of the boys threatened Roberto. (The home catered to older kids, and their residents included some who had lived on the streets and were used to fighting and intimidation.) On the second night they were there, Roberto decided to run away. Michael was afraid to go out into the dark night, but Roberto was able to find a young boy, just five years old, to go with him. The gate was always left open so they had no trouble getting away.
Roberto only knew one place to go, back to the church where he had lived. He didn't know that it was 18 miles from where they were starting out. And they had to cross a long bridge that led to Cebu island. But he knew he wanted to leave that place, so off they went into the night.
It took two days and nights to get to the church. They slept
along the road, wherever they could find a spot that looked safe. On the second
morning Roberto woke up and discovered that his little companion was gone.
Without a trace. All he could do was keep going. When he finally got to the
church he found that it was closed up. The gate was locked. One of the former
orphanage workers said that he could be their family's houseboy, but that didn't
last for long. One day that family packed up and left, and Roberto had no place
to go.
Out of desperation, he found a big piece of cardboard which
became his bed for the 
next months. He slept just outside the locked gate of
the former church/orphanage. He would look for food wherever
he could find it, in garbage cans or occasional handouts from neighbors. Other
times he would steal food to feed his hungry stomach, which enraged people in
the community. He was often beaten by neighborhood boys. One family took pity
on him and would stop the boys from beating him, and would give him food. Life
was hard for Roberto. No place to live. Nobody to take him in. He missed his
brother and worried about the boy who had disappeared along the way. How can
people be so heartless? How can they be so cruel?
One of the compassionate neighbors knew about CSC and informed us about the situation of Roberto. We get lots of referrals and can not respond immediately to all of them. Eventually our social worker and counselor went to visit Roberto and hear his story. They were overwhelmed by the things that had happened to him. In the next few days we made contact with the place where Michael was staying and arranged a meeting with their social worker. Two of our social workers, Chris and our new Social Worker Director, Klaris, and our counselor, Eldie, made the trip to the neighboring island to discuss the boys' case. Michael was relieved to hear that Roberto was okay. He hadn't heard anything about him for a year and a half. Both boys wanted to be reunited and it was determined that this should happen the next day at CSC.
The reunion was so sweet for the boys. They were more than a
little amazed at the facilities of CSC and the course of events that had
brought them back together. After more counseling and some medical
tests, and a talk with a representative of the place where Michael was living,
our staff made the decision to admit Michael and Roberto. The boys would no
longer be separated and Roberto's days of homelessness would end. It was an
exciting day for all of us. They boys needed to go back to their respective
places, get the few things they owned, and say goodbye before becoming official
CSC kids. But first we brought them to Jollibee, a fast food restaurant near
CSC. It was so much fun to watch the boys eat and laugh. It must have seemed a
little surreal to them to be together at that place with a group of adults who
were concerned about them and wanted them to be together in a nice and safe place.
Roberto was not able to finish his chicken and we were surprised when he asked
if he could have a bag for "take-home."
When they got to the place where Roberto had been staying, he ran to one of the houses near the church, the place where one of the people who had protected him from the cruel boys lived. This was the first person who had shown concern for him, maybe in his whole life. Roberto wanted to give this guy the leftover chicken from Jollibee! It was one of the most touching things that we have known about in our many years of working with kids. A few acts of kindness had made a huge difference in Roberto's life and he wanted to say "thank you" in the only way he knew how.
Later that day the boys were
officially admitted, and spent the night in the infirmary while 
we waited for
their lab results. The next morning they moved into the Cherne Home, where
house parents Tarex and Pureza and the children welcomed them. It was the
biggest day in their lives, so far. And there are many big days ahead. They
will be making a lot of new friends and will soon be enrolled in our Children
of Hope School. They won't be apart. They won't be hungry. If they are sick
they will be provided with the best medical care available in the Philippines.
If they are sad they'll be comforted. And they will get the chance to learn
about a loving Heavenly Father and a friend and Savior who will never abandon
them.
Yes, its easy to be heartless. Easy to be cruel. But its also easy to be kind. Easy to be a needed friend. Kids need a friend. Thanks to all who make it possible for us to say yes to kids like these two and the many others who need the love and care of our Shelter.
Subtraction
One of the second grade classes at Cebu Children of Hope School has been working on subtraction in math class. They've been trying to master that whole regrouping thing in double digit problems where you have to borrow a group of ten from the tens place value (the second column) and add it to the ones place value (the first column) because the bottom number in the ones is larger than the top number. Remember? The kids were working on the mechanics of the whole thing and also trying to actually understand what they were doing by using manipulatives, things like cubes and counters and a hundreds chart. Fun stuff. The trickiest part of the whole process was actually being able to explain what they were doing. And for our kids they have to explain in their second language.
Well, on this particular day they had pretty much mastered the process part of things and were completing some problems on their own. The last question required them to explain in words when one would need to regroup in any given problem. The short answer should have been something like, "When the bottom number is bigger than the top number in the ones column." I am sure Teacher Cris would have accepted an even simpler answer like, "when the bottom number is bigger." But the most creative answer to the question, "When do you have regroup?" wasn't anything like that. One student just decided to put off the whole thing for a while. Her answer to the question was "TOMORROW!" Needless to say, Cris and I had a good laugh.
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A Night of Music
This past Monday some of our kids got to experience a music event at CSC. As I have mentioned in previous posts, for the past 4 months I have been teaching private voice and piano lessons to 8 talented CSC kids. All of their hard work culminated into a special music recital. For the past month or so, the 8 students had been working hard to make their 2-3 songs performance ready. I had been working equally as hard to prepare the setting for what I believed would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for some of them.
For the voice students (there are 6), Disney and Broadway songs have been the focus in our lessons. Some of the songs performed included: Part of your world - The Little Mermaid, Consider Yourself - Oliver, I Could Have Danced All Night - My Fair Lady, Colors of the Wind - Pocahontas, Do Re Mi - The Sound of Music, and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again - Phantom of the Opera. As you can see, we had quite the selection! Considering the fact that most of their pieces were very theatrical songs, I decided that I would gather costumes for EACH of their songs. I really wanted the kids to have the chance to get in character, and perform in a more dramatic and theatrical way. In all honesty, the costumes actually helped them become better performers, because it helped them use better facial expressions and actions, so as to match their costumes.
The piano students (2 of them) performed a mix of classical and contemporary pieces. Some of the selections included: Somewhere Over the Rainbow - The Wizard of Oz, Moonlight Sonata - Beethoven, Carol of the Bells, and A Whole New World - Aladdin.
There was a lot of action building up to the performance. Besides finding all the costumes and fitting the kids, I had to coordinate helpers, set up the stage, create a picture board, make snacks, prepare a slide show, and coordinate group practices. Normally individual lessons take place after school each day, but the week before the performance all of the students stayed after school every day for group practices. It was a bit chaotic at first, trying to pull all the acts together, but at last I could see the big picture. On the Friday before the performance we had dress rehearsal. This was really fun for me (and the kids) because we could at last see all of our hard work coming together. It was also really exciting to see the songs put together with hair, makeup and costumes!
The excitement of the kids was clearly building, both for the performers and for the other kids at CSC. This recital was a bit different than other recitals, because it did not include every child at CSC. The performers were each given 3 invitations to pass out to friends, so that in the end there would be a total of 25 children, along with house parents, teachers, counselors, staff and other outside guests (making the total around 80). The kids at the shelter could not wait to see what we had in store for them!
The day of the recital finally arrived, and the performers headed up to school around 3 for some last minute notes. At about 4:00 we started doing hair and makeup (without lipstick), because at 5:00 we had 2 3-foot pizzas delivered for dinner. No I am not joking, these pizzas were 3 feet in diameter!! It was crazy! After chowing down, we finally got everyone into their costumes in time to go out to the music room for warm ups before the show. The kids expressed that they were nervous, but very excited. After a short prayer we headed out to start the show.
Everything about the recital went just as I had planned - maybe even better! The kids really came through in their performances, and truly showcased how hard they had been working in the past 4 months. It was exciting to see the performances come to life as the kids added their actions and personalities to the songs. I was particularly impressed by one of my student's performance. All throughout practicing and lessons she had quite a hard time learning and memorizing the words to her songs. Even all the way up to the day of the performance I was worried that she would not have the confidence to sing her songs completely. I had been working with her so hard on building her confidence in herself, so despite my worries, was feeling hopeful for her performance. Boy was I surprised what she would bring to the floor! Not only did she say the words better than she ever had in practice, she had strength in her voice and sang with confidence and accurate pitch! I felt so proud.
We ended the recital with our surprise number "Let it Go". Once we finished, I felt instantly relieved, and I know the kids did too. It was a complete success, and I have never been more proud of my students!
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Explore!
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.
-Ignacio Estrada
Last December our topic in science was about the phases of the moon. My science students were confused about how the moon changes during its phases. The phases of the moon depend upon its position in relation to the sun and earth. As the moon makes its way around the earth, we see the bright parts of the moon's surface at different angles. These are called "phases" of the moon. Aside from discussing this, I wanted the students to understand through practical application, so I looked for an idea from the internet. We did an activity to illustrate the phases with the use of biscuits.
They were excited to eat the biscuits.
Another topic in science class was about water forms. Our activity for this was about plants in fresh water and plants in salt water. The students learned how some plants grow in fresh water and some grow in salt water. They learned about the differences between fresh and salt water.
They were happy to see their plants growing.
Learning and understanding takes place in the classroom setting and through experimentation and application.
-Rhasie Gantuangco, Instructional Assistant
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Future Readers
Hi. I am Junelyn T. Ababa, an assistant teacher in Preschool at Children of Hope School. At the beginning of second quarter last September, we started our Pre- Kindergarten class for the kids who will graduate from preschool this school year. This class prepares the children for the transition from preschool to kindergarten. There are 6 kids in the class and I am one of the teachers in the Pre-K class.
The children learn pre-reading skills including print awareness and basic introduction to books and their parts such as front cover, back cover, title, table of contents, author and illustrator. Basically, we talk about and point out these things every time I read a book to the children. The kids have been able to memorize and master these concepts.
Each day before we start our formal session, the kids have at least 5 minutes to browse books on their own. The other day while they are browsing their books, all 6 of them turned their backs on me while each one was holding a book. They started to act like the teacher saying, “This is the front cover. This is the back cover.” They did this while pointing to each of the parts in their books. I was amazed to see them doing this. Since they can’t read, they just told the stories based on the pictures in the books they were holding. It was so fun to watch and I chuckled to myself as they played teacher.
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Learning
After being here just over a month I’ve learned a lot! And goodness, I have so much more to learn! I’ve learned and am still learning kids’ names, aunties’ names, rules about the individual houses, routines the kids have, how to ask questions, how to hail a taxi or jeepney, how to grocery shop and cook, how to drive a manual transmission car, what my role is as social work coordinator, the best way to cut and eat a mango, and on and on the list goes. It hasn’t been easy and the learning curve is steep, but I have seen and know God is directing my steps here, even if they’re tiny ones most days.
As I hear about the stories of some of the kiddos who live here, my heart just breaks for them. Here are these precious lives, created in the image of God and yet coming from some situations that may even make your stomach turn. They might never show it on their faces, but some of them have been through rough times. But maybe that’s what one expects when you work at an orphanage in a developing country...maybe it isn’t what you expect. I don’t know. I do know that God has lifted them out of their past, and has placed them at CSC for such a time as this. I get the goosebumps just thinking about that! God saw them through some pretty gruesome backgrounds, but protected them along the way to the point of where they could have a home, clothing, food, proper medical attention, a strategically created school to attend regularly, a safe playground to be silly on, a hug when they’re sad or hurt, a birthday song on their big day, a houseparent to model what it’s like to be a Christ-follower, and overall love.
Wow! What a change for some of these little ones! As I think about how all of these things are possible, I think about the many things that need to happen to make it possible to provide all of this. We need good, faithful caretakers, staff and teachers, as well as many material items to make all of these provisions available to the kids.
Today I was reading on the website about the many special projects CSC has implemented to provide for the kids. I’m not sure why I hadn’t seen this on the website earlier, but it was something I learned today! I learned you can help contribute to something unique, and yet very important to the everyday functioning of this organization. This idea seems pretty genius to me and I love it!
I’d encourage you to go onto the website and see what we have listed. http://www.cscshelter.org/projects It seems there’s something for every interest...from medicine to field trips to birthday party supplies and more. So what about you? What is it that you might be really interested in? If there’s something there that just really leaps off of the page to you, I’d encourage you to stop right now and pray about it. Is God calling YOU to provide for a specific special project? These gifts and donations bless the children here who have come from desperate situations to a life where their needs are met and they are growing in God’s grace and love. And you, as faithful donors and supporters are partnering with us to help provide basic things for the kids. THANK YOU!
I’ll let you know what else I learn along the way! :)
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