Sholing Philippines Project 2010 – 2016

Day 6..

So, so far we’ve visted the dumpsite, the pcf school and the british school of manila.

The dump site for me was the biggest eyeopener, seeing where all the kids in the school were living and then just seeing how happy they all still were was absolutely amazing, put a smile on everyone’s faces. Even as we walked round the dumpsite we had families come out to greet us and say hello, they were all so welcoming and lovely. And as we walked through more and more of the little kids were joining our group, holding our hands and trying to teach us Filipino. Seeing the way the families lived around the charcoal burning was awful, the kids running round holding their noses.

To be continued.. off to the pfc school for yet more painting..

yesterday we were painting the the walls of the school. we are painting each floor a different color. All the children just want to join in and help us paint and sand down the walls. as they help they just laugh and they are all so happy! Although it is tiring is is all for a good cause.

today i am doing the same again and looking forward to seeing all the children again!

Helena Shorney

Evening

The internet in the Shalom centre seems to have taken a bi of a dislike to our English computers. I’m surrounded by Filipino’s who seem to be having no trouble skyping their friends/family, but we have all struggled to get any connection. But fear not, perseverance (and a little bit of creative password guessing) has given me one bar of signal to get on and let you all know how today went.

As I was outside all day elbow deep in concrete doing the playground, my recollection of who was doing what is a bit shakey, but I shall do my best to update you on what everyone did.

Playground Team – Matt, Harry, Me, Mick
A much smaller team today, but it probably helped not having too many out in the small space, as we were digging, mixing cement, filling holes, bolting things together and clearing up, which all required a fair bit of room. After breaking the rusted, ancient looking wheelbarrow before even getting one load of cement (which Mick told me was actually only 2 years old), we had to carry the cement (about 15-20 buckets worth) around the school by hand, as the mixer was at the front and the playground out the back. After Bezza turned up with a new wheelbarrow in tow, to shouts of ‘Maganda!’ (excellent) the cement moving became much easier and quicker, and by the end of the day, the old playground had been entirely finished, with the exception of 4 poles which need sanding and glossing tomorrow.

Painting Team-Shakila, George, Jacob, Chloe, Amber, Keia, Joe, Jenson, Caitlin, Helena, Helena, Olivia, Daisy, Miss Kennard, Mr Wilkinson
Following on from yesterdays fantastic work, we have now managed to virtually finish the bottom two floors, Miss Kennard’s yellow team were totally done, with Mr Wilkinson’s green team having a little left to do (but a bigger area to cover). 2 more floors to go!

LSA Team-Georgia, Will, Michelle, Connor, Michiela, Ryan, Mrs Rumsey
As yesterday, we had a group working with PCF students, playing games with them and helping them to improve their English. This has been a really popular activity with those who have done it so far, with there being a waiting list to do it the following day. Georgia has picked up some admirers, 11 year olds Dante and Justin, who along with Kony have been teaching me little bits of Filipino (Bohangen, Grabel, Twobig, Nadada broha and Mabooty (Sand, Gravel, Water, Hard Work and ‘I’m fine thank you’) being added to my vocabulary-Obviously I have no idea how to spell any of them). They told me that the girl with the Ribbons in her hair was ‘Maganda’ (apparently, they use the same word for ‘pretty’ as ‘hooray, a new wheelbarrow’) and that they were going to send her valentines cards.

Music Room Team- Portia, Holly, Fran, Millie, Danielle, Freeza
The Music room is looking excellent, very inspirational for the students, with the backing being finished as well as several musical motifs and murels, painted onto the walls. What was once an unused store room is now a brightly coloured, beautifully illustrated music room. A few more are to be drawn tomorrow, along with adding some of the PCF students work.

There was also an after school art class run by Mrs Rumsey and several of our students, who showed some of the PCF students how to paint. Many of them had never attempted painting before, and Mrs Rumsey commented on how lovely it was to see their faces when their got to see their finished pictures.

We finished around 4 and had time for a quick shower back at the Shalom before heading off to Market Market in the business district of Manila, where we had some dinner in the mall (mostly at McDonalds or Pizza hut) before visiting the Brit School, who had kindly allowed us the use of their swimming pool for the evening. We all enjoyed having a relaxing evening swimming and chilling out, however I am immediately regretting getting involved in a diving competition with Portia and Danielle (both of whom are very good divers), and the Year 11 boys +Will and Harry (who are not). Will and Jenson’s synchronised diving was definitely a sight to behold, while Joe and myself’s version would probably be more accurately described as ‘clumsily falling into the water’ rather than diving.

Another busy day tomorrow, and then Friday we are having a day off to visit some local sights (seeing as we are working Sat and Sun as well). I hear the weather is awful back in England, hope no one has been too badly affected.

TTFN

Mr D

Camushta ga! (Hello!)

Today was mega productive, we and were able to get far more
done than anticipated. We started
earlier than the last few days, leaving the Shalom Centre at 8, and starting
work immediately upon getting onto the school site. The team then broke off into smaller groups
to work on various projects around the school.

Corridor painting Team-Keia, Danielle, Michiela, Michelle,
Will, Georgia, Amber, Chloe, Millie, Miss Kennard, Mrs Rumsey.
The school is made up of an approx 40m square assortment of shipping
containers, mounted 4 high and linked together with staircases and
walkways. The corridor team had the task
of sanding down all the walls in the quad before painting each one. Each floor was to have cream top half and a
different coloured bottom half, so the painters broke into two, some on the green
ground floor with Mrs Rumsey and some on the Yellow first floor with Miss
Kennard. Each floor got about 2 walls
done by the time the students went home at 3, when we decided to concentrate
the efforts on the downstairs and try to get this all finished while the
students were out. By the time we left
at around 5pm, the majority of the downstairs had been sanded and painted,
putting us in a really good position going into tomorrow.

LSA’s-Portia, Caitlin, Daisy, Helena, Shakila, Mr Wilkinson
The 5 girls got the opportunity to work alongside some of the PCF teachers,
working within the classes as learning support assistants. They spent the day
helping out students with their English and Maths, as well as learning some
Filipino songs and Dances.

Music room-Connor, Matt, Helena, Olivia, Francesca, Holly, Miss
Wallace
This team had a similar job of sanding down and painting, but this time
focusing their efforts on what is to become the schools music room (as well as clearing
out all of the stuff that was being stored in there previously). By the end of the day the whole room had been
painted and cleaned, ready to start putting some murals and designs on the
tomorrow.

Playground- Jacob, Joe, Harry, Amy, Jenson, Ryan, George, Josh,
Mr Dale
With Mick off at a meeting with Bezza, we were left to sand down all of the
playground equipment that had been installed last year. The once wooden posts were now coated in a
thick layer of black, which I presume has come about from the burning of
plastics on the nearby dumpsite. Having exhausted
Robinson’s Hardware store’s supply of sandpaper, we set about staining the
wood, which left all of us looking (in the words of Holly) like we ‘had done a
really bad job washing off our fake tans’.
Once Mick returned, we finished digging the holes needed for the
replacement posts (where tropical ants have eaten through the old ones) ready
to concrete tomorrow.

Another lovely evening of food at Mr Poons (Daisy and Fran’s
choice tonight), I shall very much miss having meals where plate after plate of
delicious Asian food is brought to you one after the other. It essentially works out as about a 10 course
meal each evening.

I have also spent my time today learning 2 new languages, Filipino and ‘young
person’. While Kony, the schools
groundskeeper/janitor/caretaker/oddjob man was teaching me how to say hello,
goodbye and thank you in Filipino (Camustaga, Bahlaam and Salah Maht if I’m
remembering it correctly), Holly, Olivia, Fran, Jenson and Joe were teaching me
what things were ‘reem’, ‘#fresh’ and ‘dench’.
Mr Dale 1 – Linguistics 0!

Bahalaam!

Mr D

Had a great day yesterday commented to the pupils that I thought the last group was impossible to beat but yesterday they surpassed any expectations I could ever have. They managed to clear, clean, sand down, wash down and paint the Music room bright Orange and Blue (the heads choice of colours not ours). Sand down and stain the playground we built last visit. Paint almost half of the corridor walls on 2 floors. 6 of them had an amazing day as teaching assistants with the older pupils. They all did brilliantly and were buzzing and very happy, if rather sweaty and a little smelly, on the trip back from 5-00. Similar day today. Off to British International school tonight for a swim after another long and suspect amazing days work at the school.
Cheers

The first few days have been real eye opener for us – there have been some really tough times but the children have got us through it. We thought that when we saw the pictures from previous trips, that we had seen it all but pictures don’t show the full story. Seeing the amount of poverty change dramatically by the 2 bridges that we drove over was honestly scary but no matter how bad it was, we were still driving past many Filipino people giving us heart warming smiles.

After what we had already seen, we thought that going to the school would be an upsetting experience but seeing the amazing smiles on the faces of the pupils made us forget their backgrounds. The children are incredible, looking at them at school makes their home life seem impossible! Even just the bit of paint we put on the walls today made a huge difference to them.

On our first full day here, we lived the full Philippine experience by seeing all the historical places in Manila and being transported by a jeepney – a terrifying bus thingy that genuinely meant putting our lives in our hands! Although it was scary, I think we all really enjoyed it and opened our eyes to the dangers of the Filipino roads.

Once we had landed in Manila, we got to ride the Filipino roads – the amount of times we thought we were going to crash couldn’t even be counted. Everyone always seems to be in a rush and the jeepney drivers didn’t exactly help! Now we have understood how safe and normal British roads really are!

Finally, our first impressions of the famous Mr Poon’s! It’s amazing the different foods that you like – that you wouldn’t even try normally! Admittedly, there has been a few dishes that haven’t really been the best but we have all discovered our favorites

Well i’m sure that we will keep you updated on everything that we are doing but for now…goodbyeeeeeee

Caitlin&Amber

We have had a very successful first day at the new school and on the dumpsite. We got away on time for 9-00 start. The children were as excited as ever to see us and it was not long before many of our students had little fan clubs following them about and holding their hands. The visit to the dumpsite was as expected very traumatic as you can see from the pictures the conditions are appalling, but it never ceases to amaze me how happy these people are as they struggle to survive. Whilst 500 + children enjoy a great education at the school there are 1000s on the dumpsite who do not attend school as there are just not enough places. Seeing the children in the school it is easy to underestimate the dreadful conditions in which they live.

In 2008 I spent 10 days working with a group of Sholing students on the dumpsite building a new house for just 1 family. It was good to go and see the house still standing extended for their daughter and her husband and young family. I estimated that they must now have about 14 people living in a space smaller than my garage. It was sad to reflect that the fire which destroyed 300 houses last year stopped feet short of this house. What was so amazing was the speed in which they had rebuilt their homes there was little evidence of the fire which raged late last year.

Seeing the family again was an emotional experience they were still very grateful for our help. I could not help trying to get my head around how their four years since our last meeting had been for them compared with my own very comfortable existence in the UK. We take so much for granted. The great thing for me about today was the genuine concern and compassion developing amongst our students for the Filipino families. That is what this whole experience is about, it is a life changing experience and I can already see the impact it is having on our students, talking to some of them this evening their determination to help change some ones world a little for the better is already beginning to shine through.

Tomorrow we start to paint, teach, build clean and move furniture departing at 8-00 and as I said tonight to the students each little action we make will help to make a real difference.

Phew, tough day!

We were up and out by 9am (mainly thanks to a ‘Mr Freeman wake up cuppa’ on my part) and headed across town to the PCF school at Tondo. Philippines busses aren’t like UK busses in that they have a fold down seat in the isle in the middle of every row, meaning you sit 5 across and making the bus very cramped. The stark contrast between the housing south of the river where we had visited yesterday, and in Tondo, North of the river was very jarring. Gone were the grand palacial buildings of St Augustines and open green areas like Rizal Park, and in their place were cramped, crowded areas with more housing packed in than you would ever think imaginable.

We went into the school and were given a tour by Phillip, who explained to us the purpose of the school as well as the local area. We went up to the roof, where he pointed out a huge hill known as smokey mountain. From a distance, you would never know that it was anything other than a large grassy hill, but Philip explained to us that it was actually a landfill with over 2 million tons of waste, that had had grass seed planted to make it less of an eye saw. We also looked out across the river to the area we would be visiting later, where most of the PCF students lived, and saw houses teetering on collapse into the river. With such little space (Tondo is the most densely populated district in Manila, with around 70,000 people per square kilometre) people would build their houses over the river as there was literally no other space to build them.

We went downstairs to see the Livelihood area, where we got to meet some of the adults who use the ringpulls and magazines which we along with others donated, to produce fantastic gifts and trinkets. These generate enough money for PCF that they are able to pay the workers at a better rate than what they could make collecting on the dump site, getting more people into a safer working environment. We saw how the rooms painted on the last trip were now being used and met some of the students, along with the Head teacher, before having a delicious lunch of rice and beef.

After lunch, we headed out in the schools 2 jeepneys to visit the dumpsite where the majority of the PCF students live. Within seconds of getting off the bus, the smell and the smog hits you, as well as the harrowing sight of people living in such poverty. The dumpsite was both heart breaking and heart warming in equal measure; despite living in such squalid conditions, the people were friendly and charming, and were delighted to say hello and chat to us, being keen to use the few English words they knew. I was amazed by their resourcefulness and the way they had build their houses out of anything available, from road signs to old matresses. The young children walked with us through the dumpsite, smiling and laughing the whole way. This was the thing that I will take most from our visit there, the incredible positive outlook which they are able to maintain, in spite of their circumstances. It was a very moving experience and one which I doubt any of us will forget.

With an added motivation behind us, we went back to the School and set about starting work, either unpacking the group bags or sanding down the playground equipment which had been installed last time. Myself, Matt and Harry, along with Mick from Playdale, set about digging some holes to put some new posts in to replace those which had become damaged over time. I knew all those hours spent digging holes on Brighton beach would come in useful one day! We finally finished up around 3.30, very hot and very tired, and headed back to the Shalom centre. Back off to the mall once again to pick up supplies, and then onto Mr Poons for another lovely selection of dishes, this time chosen by Shakila.

Tomorrow we are painting, sanding, varnishing, cementing, LSA-ing and clearing, I shall let you know how we get on.

Mr D

Today was a very emotional experience. You never really relies how bad it all is until, you are stood on the dump sites and looking at where these people live. After walking around the dump sites seeing where all the children at the PCF School live, it was so hard to go back and see how happy they all where. when you first meet all the children it is hard to believe that they live in such poverty. Today has made me relies how lucky we really are and how much we take for granted. I am looking forward to what the next 2 weeks, and hoping to change some of these children’s lives.

Helena Shorney

We’ve had a really good first proper day in the Philippines and i’ve put a new photo section at the top of the main page (or click here) for you to have a look at some photos of what we have been up to so far.

Wilko