Sholing Philippines Project 2010 – 2016

I also took part with the field trip on Monday. With the youngest in the school. (Grades 1, 2 and 3.) My favourite part of the day was seeing the children’s when the entered the water. And also seeing Daleo trying to get 40 kids out of the pool at the end of there sessions.
Major shout out to my good pal Daisy green for sharing both 2014 and 2016 experience together! Also (Happy 18th Birthday for Tuesday)!!!!

Overall the week was an emotional roller coaster. Leaving the children yesterday was the hardest part of the trip so far. Saying goodbye to
Walking back into PCF on Sunday felt like I was finally home. It was the most over whelming experience walking back into the school on Monday. The atmosphere was still exactly how it was in 2014. Every child running up to the members of the team, asking for there names and immediately giving them a cuddle. It was also satisfying to see the painting we did of the corridors last time was still looking good.
It was fair to say as a team we soon settled in. It was lovely seeing all the old students who we saw in 2014. I also enjoyed meeting new students in the younger grades. I ended up playing tag for around half an hour with the first graders, which was a struggle considering the heat!!

I loved how the students visiting first time round were so interactive with the PCF students. They were soon playing games with them and taking endless selfies!

I was most excited to see my good friend Ashlene who was in grade 6 when I visited her in 2014. She was the one child at PCF I really bonded with. She is like a little sister with me. I felt a true love for this little girl and she soon felt like she was part of my family.
Leaving her in 2014 was one of the hardest things ever. Knowing the true reality of where she lives and her life was horrible. I knew I was going home to a safe and warm home. But it was the devastating reality of her living in poverty, struggling to find food.
Ashlene made me so determined to return to the Philippines. So finding out I was accepted back on the trip was the most amazing feeling.
It was a magical moment coming back into PCF to see her little face waiting for me. We ran up to each other and had a long hug. She wouldn’t let go of me for a good 5 minutes. It was such an emotional reunion. Everyday this week we would try spend as much time together to make the most of the time with eachother. I received a beautiful note from her explaining about what love is. It soon made me tear up.

My main project for this week was working on the mural. Me and Michelle had the task of creating the ‘jungle’ scene. For two people who supposedly ‘couldn’t do art’ I felt as if we did a pretty good job. (Obviously with help from frezza!!)
I also took part with the field trip on Monday. With the youngest in the school. (Grades 1, 2 and 3.) My favourite part of the day was seeing the children’s when the entered the water. And also seeing Daleo trying to get 40 kids out of the pool at the end of there sessions.
Major shout out to my good pal Daisy green for sharing both 2014 and 2016 experience together! Also (Happy 18th Birthday for Tuesday)!!!!

Overall the week was an emotional roller coaster. Leaving the children yesterday was the hardest part of the trip so far. Saying goodbye to a
Ashelene brought many tears. It made me feel me even more determined to come back and help change the conditions these children are living in. It’s not fair how in this world there such a divide between the rich and poor.

I’m excited for a new adventure with the team in Tacloban. To meet new people and see a different part of the Philippines.

I hope to visit PCF again one day soon and see Ashlene. ~ it’s goodbye, it’s I’ll see you later ❣

From an almost blank wall separating the PCF school from the filthy Pasig River behind, to a beautiful scene of peace of tranquility, the whole team have worked hard under the guidance of Freeza to create their own parts of this mural.

One week down and what a week it has been. We headed in for our final days work at the PCF school, which seems to have come around very quickly. Maybe it’s because I had been out for 3 days on the field trips, it because it was half the time we spent there two years ago, but it felt like we were saying goodby to somewhere we had only just arrived at. We broke off into teams, with one group finally finishing off the mural, which looks fantastic. About 8 feet high and well over 30 feet long, the students now have a much nicer view to accompany their playground than the filthy river and shacks that they could see on the last trip. Another group was working on the care room upstairs, making it look less like an office, and more suitable for somewhere to give emotional support to those that need it most.

Speaking of emotional support, our students have been incredible, offering their love and affection to the PCF students with no inhibition. Seeing how appreciative the PCF students were is obviously lovely, but seeing they way our students have developed is something I found even more moving. Some of out shyer characters have come out of tier shells and made friends with people who have next to nothing in common with them. They have learnt skills they would be unlikely to come by at school and tried foods well out of their comfort zone. They have been an asset to the school and I don’t doubt next week they will prove this even further.

After lunch, we headed to the classrooms to help the children with their English, however this soon got cancelled due to the PCF students being too excited to learn anything.

We were then treated to a wonderful final assembly with performances from the choir, dance groups and art students. I also got chance to catch up with Ricardo (one of the Filipino inbetweeners from the 2014 trip) who I hadn’t seen all week. We got invited to take part in the PCF version of the hokey kokey with the kids, by which point ours were all in floods of tears. It was a struggle to pull them away at the end, showing the strong bond that they had formed with the PCF students. My Tagalog word of the day, appropriately was gehbigen, meaning ‘my friend.’

We then headed back to the hotel and had our final Poons, joined by the man himself in what was essentially a minor celebrity moment with all of us star struck by a 71 year old Philippino restaurant owner. We have all enjoyed out evening Poons and will be sad to no longer have this as our evening treat. Off to bed in preparation for our flight to Tacloban tomorrow. paalam! Mr D

We’ve been struggling with wifi for the last week at the Shalom and PCF school, but i’m vaguely hopeful I might be able to upload some photos while we are sat at the airport waiting for our flight down to Tacloban- here we go!

Hi All

Well what an amazing end to our time in Manila yesterday was. We had the most moving and emotional assembly from the children. We all sat in tears and then when we were asked to join in a dance and song the tears became a flood. We managed to complete the mural and I am so proud of the team for the way they have all made a massive contribution to it. Most of them told me that they could not draw and or paint. Within moments of starting they developed into fine artists. Some of the blogs have referred to it as Freeza’s mural I can honestly say I did less drawing and painting on it than any of the students. Just a little bit of encouragement here and there. My moment of the week so far is when I had a moment of comic rage a cross between Bezza and Basil Fawlty. The art teacher Kandie allowed some of her most junior students to come and help us with the painting. She then went off and left them to it they painted some pretty little flowers and butterflies here and there which were ok but then one little boy painted a flower in a pot floating in the middle of the beautiful tropical rain forest. I snatched the brush out of his hand and told him to sling his hook, not a moment of which I am proud.

The best bit though was Mrs Jeffery’s response to my action she just collapsed in uncontrollable laughter and we could not stop her for several minutes. We finished the classroom painting to a very high standard so we left feeling as though we had achieved a great deal. Although we had so many tears just a few hours later we had everyone laughing uncontrollably at Mr Poons when we finished the meal with a giant ‘selfie’ with the man himself in the middle. I am sure I saw a tear in his eye, probably at the thought of his profits plummeting from today.

A late start today and then on to Tacloban for the 2nd phase of our great adventure. An adventure made so great by the work rate, commitment, good humour and just all round ‘nice ness’ of your kids. Thank you for trusting us to work with them for this amazing time.

Bye for now

Freeza

Hey all!
Currently sat in my room listening to sclub 7 and other cheesy songs (those of you who know me well would not be surprised to hear that!) Today was our last full day in Manila and our last one at the PCF school and I must say it was a day that I will never forget. We started our day finishing up the jobs that we started during the week, including Freezer’s mural which looked fantastic! We also decorated the counselling room in PCF, which again looked great when finished. After having lunch we then went to work in small groups with the PCF students in their classrooms. However by this time the word had spread that it was our last day at the school and it wasn’t long before the tears started (with both our students and the PCF students). It was therfore decided that we would give the PCF kids time to finish their lessons and we had time to visit the livelihood shop at the school before the final assembly. The livelihood shop in itself is an amazing place, where locals work to produce the most beautiful items made out of recycled materials (I may have purchased a few myself!)
We were then invited to attend the final assembly which was an incredibly special experience. The PCF kids performed a variety of acts for us, which included singing and dancing. The talent was unbelievable and it was very moving to see these children who live in such poverty performing for us with absolute professionalism and dedication. One of the most moving moments was when they got all of us to join in with a special song for our school, which echoed the unique link between our two schools which has built up over the years. Another amazing moment, which again had most of us lost for words, was an incredible dance performed by some of the trainee ballet dancers at the school. At the end of the assembly we said our final goodbyes to the students at the PCF school in which there were many tears. The PCF kids were incredibly generous giving us letters and cards with very heartfelt messages about how much it means for them to have us visit their school. I was completely moved by the whole experience and as mentioned before that will be something that I never forget.
I also have to make a special mention about the students from TSTC- the way that they have conducted themselves and worked throughout our first week here in the Philippines has been outstanding. They have not only represented the school to the highest standard but also the UK.

When we got back to the hotel we then went to have our last dinner at Mr Poon’s restaurant (I’m hoping they may open a chain up in Southampton!) As always, the food did not disappoint and we even got a photo with the man himself- Mr Poon!

Tomorrow we’re off to Tacloban which everyone is looking forward to- will write soon about our new adventures!

Miss Lespierre 🙂

To tired to post a blog last night, but logged on for the regular evening update tonight to see that about 10 of the students have beaten me to it! Good work team!

Yesterday was very similar to Tuesday, 6am on the coach, which once again they all managed, drop the painting team at school, pick up the PCF kids (today, 200 of their oldest students, some of whom were around the same age as ours) and onto the coach for an hour and a half journey to the science museum. As we were a bit later arriving we missed the first show, so had a look around the museum first followed by the show at 11. We then picked up a jolibees lunch, and back on the coach to Art in Island. Although obviously the museum hadn’t changed in the 24 hours since we were last there, I enjoyed it more second time round as the students from both schools were much more creative with their funny pictures. I’m sure a number of these will get included in the video at the end of the trip….

On the coach on the way back, myself Robyn, ShanPad, Lewis and Priya were ‘treated’ to the finest movie experience the Philippines has to offer. I was told by senior teacher Marilyn that this was the highest grossing film ever in the Philippines and had won many awards, so I had great anticipation. Would it compare with the Godfather, Star Wars and Shawshank Redemption, those stalwarts of western cinema? The short andwer is no. What we actually got was essentially Miss Congeniality, only with a Philippino Alan Carr in drag playing the Sandra Bullock part. Oh and he was a hairdresser. With a king fu sidekick. And the character was married to a man and had children (so I assume was a female role). And she drowned at the end while every Filipino on the bus from students to teachers to driver, laughed hysterically. Citizen Kane it ain’t.

Onto today, which felt much more productive, we managed to nearly complete the mural (shout out to Chris Huxtable, who was my star of the day for his work on this) and paint 2 of the classrooms. Meanwhile Jess and myself were out in the playground digging up part of the playground that needed moving. Having put this in 2 years ago and knowing how far it was cemented in, I knew this would take a fair chunk of the day, until Kony, ever the saviour came up with the solution of just breaking through part of the cement with the jackhammer and then cutting through the metal with a welding kit. It took us until lunch just to dig the old one out, and then Kony welded on some new bars for anchoring it while we dug a new hole to put it into.

Onto lunch, tuna and rice, before a quick game of basketball with Neill, Will Lewis Ben and myself versus 5 PCF students. Despite having a height advantage of about 2 foot per player, we were soundly defeated, England 0 Philippines 1.

I’m the afternoon the students were split up to work on various classroom based activities, either basic spelling with Gemma, maths games with Freeza or ICT with Willo. Me and Jeffers went out to finish the playground equipment and cemented the roundabout into it’s new home. Kony then asked for some help enlarging his vegetable patch to include the bit of land where we had taken the playground equipment from, so we helped with that for a while until we were ready to head home. Mall, penultimate poons, and team meeting once again before heading to bed. Tomorrow is our last day at PCF and it feels like it has gone very quickly. Having done all 3 trips this year, as well as only being in Manila for 1 week, has meant I haven’t really had much time at the school, and it feels very weird that tomorrow is our last day there. I hear from the team In tacloban that the town is lovely, and substantially nicer than Manila. Looking forward to seeing what it’s like on Saturday, though sad to not get to spend more time at PCF. Hope everything is going well back in England and you aren’t missing us all too much. I’m sure year 11s will be finding it very strange without me there nagging them every day about revision! Magandang Gabbi.

Mr D

Late on Thursday evening on the eve of our last day at Tondo, we will leave with very mixed emotions we have been made so very welcome as ever by the staff and mostly the wonderful pupils. The day started for me with a real reminder of why I come on these trips. As I went to the coach at 8-00 outside our hotel was a young mum lying on a cardboard mattress with 2 very young children. Her husband nearby was going through the bins and collecting any useful bits of rubbish he could get and packing it into his bicycle with make shift side car. They were all dressed in rags, I think the entire contents of their world was on that bike and cardboard mattress. Life was going on all around them, students off to college, people off to work the parking attendant demanding our ticket and us lot getting on our bus I hesitated and then went back and gave her 200 peso about £3 it will make her life a little better for a little while is it the right thing to do who knows?

We began today with a very good presentation by Yda one of the senior satff at the school, all about the work of the PCF organisation and the intense need for their work. Manila is now the most densely populated city on the planet and Tondo is the most densely populated area of Manila. The need for their work is all around everywhere you look their are examples of abject poverty.

Our students are so aware of the need to help in some small way and this is what gives them their energy and motivation to work and paly with so much enthusiasm. The mural is almost complete we will stop at approx. 10–00 tomorrow and give the whole thing 2 coats of varnish to protect it from the tropical climate. We finished the painting of 1 classroom today and gave the 2nd classroom its first coat. Tomorrow we will give it a second coat and then paint some rainbows and forest scenes on the wall. this room is for children with severe emotional issues, and there are many to be counselled in.

We spent the last 2 hours today teaching the students in small groups. We had spelling with the very young students and basic maths with the intermediate students and IT with the older children. It was great to see really meaningful interaction between our students and theirs, some really moving images which I suppose come close to explaining why we run this project. We left at about 3-00 back to the hotel a short trip to the mall and then to Poons. We are all very tired but satisfied with what we have achieved, tomorrow will be another emotional roller coaster and then we look forward to the next phase of our journey.

Good night for now.

Hi everyone,
Its not even been a week yet and I have already seen so much!In the last two days I went on school trips to a science museum and art museum with grades 4-6 and then 7-9. The kids have made me open my eyes to see what its like in their lives however you never see them upset or shy, they are always screaming your name and running up to you. They have the biggest smiles you will ever see and they will do anything for you. On one of the trips I met a boy called Rusty and in the Art museum he took my camera and took pictures of everyone and everything!! He loved it and called himself a photographer. Also one of the girls wouldn’t let me carry my bag as it was too heavy so she insisted on her carrying it. All of the children would try and give you the little food they have or they wouldn’t eat their lunch because they would save it for their family. In the time I have been here I have already learnt so much, there is so much going on in the school that gives back so much to the community.
Looking forward to learning more! Salamat (Thank you)
Speak soon,
Imogen x

I cant believe I’m finally back in the Philippines, I cant describe how amazing it feels!! Walking back into the school and seeing all the children again filled me with emotions, the sound of the children laughing and chatting will always be one of my favourite sounds. One of my favourtie moments so far was seeing a girl named Mafe that i first met in 2014. I saw her coming through the entrance to the school shouting my name, we saw each other and instantly ran to each other and hugged for a good few minutes, it was so amazing to see her again after having contact with her since leaving the Philippines. She then handed me a little book that she had made for me, inside she had written so many lovely things, which made me very emotional!

The projects are well under way now! The mural in the space outside is looking incredible, especially when 90% of the group claimed they couldn’t draw/paint! We had to remove one of the playgrounds installed on a previous trip as it had rotted away and was unsafe for the children. We also took every child in the school on an away day. I went on 2 trips, the first was with the youngest children, and the second with the oldest. Both trips were unforgettable experiences, seeing all the children having so much fun and being so appreciative!

One thing that hit me hard emotionally was on the way back from the school on Tuesday. We got a lift home in one of the school jeeps, there was a lot of traffic so we kept stopping and starting. We had stopped and i had my window open and was looking out at the families who unfortunately live in horrible conditions on the side of the road, when a young boy no older that 4 came up to my window and begged me for food. This broke my heart, firstly because i had no food to give to him, and secondly because this is actually happening in the world. A 4 year old boy is in the middle of a busy road begging for food because he is so hungry, it makes you realize how incredibly lucky we are.

Michiela x