Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Lou & the Scholars

Some pics from Lou T's last visit to Pulilan to meet our scholars.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

C-4-C

Cancer takes one person every minute, one precious life in a moment.

They are our brothers, our sisters, our fathers and mothers, our husbands and wives, our best friends, our children...

...our classmates.

Very close to heart as my own mother and not too long ago our classmate and friend Connie were not spared from it. I’m sure without looking any farther, you know someone who’s suffering from it. Every day people suffer and die, some in silence, without much help and support from the outside world.
Many ordinary people, scientists, and organizations around the world continue to collaborate and provide funding to find cure to this dreaded disease. We should all continue to stand up and fight against it.

We may not be able to support all those inflicted by it, but we can always try to help those near us make their living a lot better. They need all the support they can get, in whatever forms available.

A couple of our classmates and friends need our support and prayers. 

To ignore them is unforgivable.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Confession of a Food Lover

We picked the kids up from school then went to the mall and had lunch. While eating, naaliw ako sa kwentuhan namin and didn’t realize natapos na agad s’yang kumain. When I asked why finished so quickly, ang sagot “busog na raw ‘sya”. I noticed though konti lang ang kinain nya.

I then realized that earlier nakita ko syang nag-struggle using the “sfork” (spoon and fork), so sabi ko kahit mabagal kain uli. I gave the spoon and ask to try again, natapon ang food. I then gave the fork and told kahit mabagal, take your time – ok lang yun! Again, natapon ang pagkain. Hindi nya mai-shoot sa bibig nya ang “sfork”, nalalaglag ang food before it gets to the mouth. At this point napahiya na siguro yong bata, tumigil na talaga.

This is where I started wondering about the situation.

We then went inside the department store to buy them rubber shoes and some necessities like underwear, sando pang school etc. I started asking them questions (pero tinarget ko talaga sya – kasi sanay mag ‘sfork’ yung isa at malusog).

When we finished shopping, hinatid na namin sila sa bahay nila. Una muna siya, park yung car sa labasan and then we had to walk about 200 metres to their house, parang looban-style ba. While we were walking, someone discreetly warned me baka daw ma-shock ako sa dadatnan kong bahay.

Naglalakad pa kami, we asked bakit walang ilaw sa bahay nila, to which replied, “nagkasakit ang 1 member of their family nawalan ng pambayad sa electricity” or something like that, naputulan sila.

I then asked  ‘pano sya nag-aaral sa gabi, ang sagot ‘nya– “lumalabas daw sya sa bahay at nauupo sa me poste ng kalye dahil me ilaw dun”.

Dun sya nag-aaral.

Finally, we got to the house, sa estimate ko, the whole house is like 2 x 3 metres. Ang sahig LUPA, me banggerahan, me maliit na table and no wall for a room, sa dulo ng house, me double-deck na bed na may takip lang na kumot - yun na ang bedroom, sa taas na bed silang magkakapatid, sa ibabang bed, the parents.

After seeing all these parang me big lump sa throat ko, I couldn’t say a word but finally succeeded in saying...

"Pagbutihan mo pag-aaral, uuwi ako sa graduation mo”.

Walking back to the car na medyo in shock at pigil na pigil ma-teary eyed, someone said that the very first time na makita nya situation na ‘yon and having spoken to the parents, paglabas na paglabas nila ng bahay na yun, they knew "sya na nga".

I went home that night and told my friends the story. They were all in tears and all said the same thing, habang ako (I love food), problematic almost every day on what to eat (Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese, etc) this family is probably problematic kung ‘san kukuha ng pagkain. And the house...I only have a 2 bedroom place pero mas malaki pa ang spare bedroom ko compare sa buong house nila.

It really made me realize how truly blessed I am... and some of us really are...

...and realized we are probably their only hope, some kid's hope.