The Tree Massacre

The tree massacre has begun - It's a beautiful tree but I don't want to live under it anymore! It makes living in our current house feel like living in a cave, as it covers the whole house and court yard. Not to mention the mozzies that are attracted to the pockets of fallen leaves on the nearby roofs.....I would be feeling guilty if I had suggested cutting it down - which I didn't! As the house slowly emerges from under its huge canopy, I can see new potential for plants, pots, and sunbeds. We are considering staying on here at the end of the contract next month! ! The money we will save on a move can go towards a little garden area. I won't miss the mango's dropping on the roof at night which was rather perturbing although great for a mango shake in the morning!

The landlady has been told by the Barangay (roughly equivalent to a ward in UK) Captain ( sort of mini mayor)to cut it down as dropping leaves on all the other properties and causing mosquito's etc. The tree has apparently been annoying the bloke next door, who's president of the tennis club, and therefore has a lot of influence around here.

Barangay Captains wade in on all sorts of disputes including domestic violence, child abuse and general anti social behaviour. They have their own guards to back them up. Power can and does get abused in some places and captains get shot, along with any other level of politician - but hey they would stop those never ending fence arguments in the UK if introduced! Marc was told off by our Captain for sitting wrongly on one of the Park benches! He was only copying a neighbour sitting the same way - anyway now we know what the Captain looks like. Not a lot happens without the Barangay Captains say so, therefore a lot of VSO work involves keeping good relationships with Çaptains in the Barangays were we work.

The tree surgeon or rather giant (A huge man particularly by Philipino standards) turned up at the door to tell us we needed to get the red dwarf out of the tree before he could cut it down. He told us he would be leaving some food to coax it out of the tree. Apparently we're lucky it wasn't a black dwarf? I assume the bad dwarf has now left, as the giant is now up there fighting with the tree, trying to cut it down with what appears to be a penknife or at most a very small machete. Given he'd already been at it for 3 days when the pictures were taken, he'll be living in the tree for some time to come! So goodbye red dwarf- hello giant and sunshine!!!!!!

Parents Day and Nursery Visit

Not sure if I've mentioned before that I had got roped into being a vice president of Gianna's class PTA. Anyway my first duty was to coordinate the parents day. Not having any idea what happened clearly hampered by usual creativity so I took a back seat and let the president take the lead. The parents day consists of the kids performing for the parents and the parents taking over the classroom with activities for the kids...

Initially I was told I just had to demonstrate napkin folding - and provided with instructions for this incredibly useful skill! However on the day I was left with the microphone, a timetable of activities and asked to compare the event as my President was off to his other sons class! Things were going Ok until we got to the ear ring making task. The kids were asked to get the glue out of their folders and produced 45 tubes of SUPERGLUE!!! Imagine the chaos - the hardest job was to keep them from sticking their fingers together - in the end I decided that just removing the glue was the best tactic even though by this time the tubes were stuck to floors/desks etc....There is a generally lower key approach to health and Safety everywhere but then has the more developed nations just become a bit overprotective? Not when it comes to superglue I decided!

We swiftly moved onto paper flower making and I volunteered to drop the napkin activity so save on time! Hopefully this won't be missed in the year end exams. The kids gave presents to their parents, introduced them to their classmates and then performed for the parents - Amazingly(sic) a song from HSM - the girls, and some rap number - the boys, followed by a rather sweet song about building a home. You can see these on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW9-TInKTsQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE0uXo3kFVY

Apart from the American accents it could have a been a school performance anywhere in the UK . The finale was a huge buffet of food the kids had brought in - nothing happens in the Philippines without food! The president was busy looking for the Samosas! He had written out the menu and was particularly looking forward to the Samosas from the Indian families. Advised me this was a major perk of the his role! Hummm must ask for a few curries for the sports day coming up! I was impressed that it was all so well organised especially when there are 45 in the class and their academic work is so demanding.

We've just finished the first quarter exams and I'm finally seeing the light! I now know where to look for the learning competencies, know the difference between a periodical and mastery test and the difference between homework, projects and assessments! Phew - to say its been a challenge does not come close to describing the last 6 weeks. However Gianna managed to pass in all subjects and get an overall grade of Good. Now we know what we're actually doing we should do even better next time. Basically its an hour of work or study each day to keep up but I'm sure they are doing stuff I didn't do till senior school and last week we had to get the dictionary out to understand the spellings! Gianna did really well especially as she missed a whole term of 4th year in the end and is the youngest in her class :)

I was away in Mindanao last week and came home to find that Angelica's class were coming on a field trip to our house. They are studying homes and wanted to visit one of the kids houses to look at the different rooms - Ate (the nanny) and Marc had done a brilliant job on the house and Angelica's room looked finished ( all those little jobs done) . Angelica proudly showed her friends around but then burst into tears when they left - she thought they were staying to play! The photos show her 2 teachers and the kids on the bed. In the photo u can see the labels they had to stick in each room- unfortunately we had a little hiccup at garden but we did manage to sick the label on our one plant in the yard!