Staff Blog

We’re making some changes in preschool.  This is my third year as the preschool teacher aide but this school year is different.  One change is that we have a new main teacher, our principal.  Also, we are using the same lesson plans but taking a different approach when teaching lessons.  The schedule is also different:  the 5 and 6 year old students stay until 11:30 for additional lessons to prepare them for the next level and the 4 year old students go home at 10:15.  

This year I am teaching math for 45 minutes to five kids.  Our first topic was on sorting and classifying. The students enjoyed sorting through objects looking for common attributes like size or color.  One student kept asking, “Sorting ta, Teacher?”  (“Teacher, are we still sorting?”)  I said, “Yes, we are still sorting.”

We moved on to Topic 2 (patterns) and Topic 3 (Numbers 0-5) and he still wanted to know if we were working on sorting.   Every day he kept asking me the same question, “Sorting ta, Teacher?” and I replied the same, “No, we are now on a new lesson!”

Suddenly, one day that little guy asked me, “Patterns ta, Teacher?” (“Teacher, are we in patterns?”)  He had shifted his question! Unfortunately, I had to answer, “No, we are now on numbers”.  But the real thing that is amazing about these conversations is that he is asking the questions in the first place.   This little guy is the shiest of all the students and it has taken him quite a while to feel comfortable about being in school much less being able to ask questions.   I am so proud of how much he has grown.   

Change is a part of life here at CSC. The ministry has undergone tremendous change since our initial band of pioneers started the ministry in 1979. We have grown tremendously, have added facilities and services and have expanded our work force from an inital six to about 130. We have professionals working in child development, social work, education, accounting, nursing and physical and occupational therapy. And thing change from month to month with new staff coming on board, others moving on and some going on furlough. 

Change is a necessary part of doing a ministry like ours. We need to constantly be improving our programs and services. We recently hired a Social Work Director here in Cebu, Klaris Cabansal, to head up the Social Work department, supervise our three other social workers,  write and edit social case study reports, and work with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Inter-Country Adoption Board on behalf of CSC. We are also hiring people in Child Development and Human Resources. We are currently trying to hire two therapists, as well. We want to upgrade all of our departments and improve all our services to the children. So change is important.

In spite of this, when asked about the secret to our success over the years, I always say that we have been successful because we have not changed. We are still doing the same basic thing that we set out to do back in 1979. We are taking care of children who do not have families. When people think about CSC they know exactly what it is we do. (That's one reason we don't have to produce new brochures every few years!) And next month and next year it will still be the same. In a changing world, with shifting values and constantly evolving technologies, economic and political landscapes and donor expectations, we still take care of children who do not have families. We have more kids, and we do a better job of caring for them, but our basic program is the same.   

Filipinos love birthdays. One of the fun things about being on the CSC staff is the opportunity to help our children celebrate their birthdays. We attend lots of parties! But another fringe benefit is that we get lots of love on our birthdays. The kids enjoy making colorful and creative cards to give to us on our special days. The are written and colored with love and appreciation. As we get older, some of us would imagine our birthday to be kind of low key, no big deal. But our birthdays are a big deal to the CSC kids. And so, the cards are made and presented. And greatly appreciated. Giving and receiving love is the greatest part of working at CSC here in Cebu. Here is a small sampling of the cards I received on my birthday recently:

Friday is Jake's day in the office, stamping names on note paper for the office staff. There is a lot of kidding and laughing while he is in the office, because Jake brings his great sense of humor wherever he goes. It doesn't seem possible that Jake has been with us for just over 30 years! He is a blessing to all of us at CSC and a testimony to how God has worked in his life. Things haven't always been rosy for Jake, but he hangs in there and meets the challenges of life with determination. And humor.

What do you do when there’s no water?

It was a very fine cold (relatively speaking, of course, because the temperature rarely gets below about 70 degrees) Tuesday morning at Cebu Children of Hope School.  Everyone was ready for their classes.  Later during our first morning class, one of the Level B2 students asked to go to the bathroom.  I said, “Can you wait until 9:25 at snack time?”  The student replied, “Yes teacher.”  So at 9:25 everyone left to use the bathroom and wash their hands before heading to the snack room.  Unfortunately, when they turned on the faucets, there wasn’t any water because one of the float switches wasn’t working.  

Instead of getting upset, the kids found other ways to wash their hands so they could eat their snacks. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait very long for the water problem to be fixed.