Sholing Philippines Project 2010 – 2016

An absolutely amazing last assembly more tears that a French onion convention. Left the school now at Nomads for drinks, showers and supper heading for the airport in a couple of hours. We are indeed on the way home, intact and in very high spirits. And Bezza says, the 3 groups we have brought to the Philippines previously could not be beaten but he admits that he was wrong, this group have moved the bar even higher for the next time.

today is the day we leave the Philippines and i really don’t want to go home! i have loved my time here and i hope we have done a good job! i love all the children so much and i want to bring some home! i am excited to give the kids their presents to see their smiley faces! i am going to miss them so much but i will never forget my time here! it has been an emotional time but very inspiring at the same time!
i hope to come back very soon!
Michelle x

Evening all. All the students (and most of the staff) are
tucked up in bed, but myself and Freeza are currently sat downstairs in the
lobby (the only place with any internet signal this evening) competing to post
the longest blog. I didn’t get
chance/was too tired to post one yesterday, but for me it was basically the
same as the day before, fieldtrip (just with older students this time), mall,
poons. As I’ve got plenty to say about
today, I’m sure you will forgive my brevity on yesterdays events.

So, our last full day in the Philippines,
and what a day it was. We saw from the
poorest of the poor through to the richest of the rich, via some teacher
training, coach sing-alongs and doughnuts.
The morning started off with a trip to the old PCF school in an area on
the dumpsite known as ‘Happy land’. I
can only assume that whoever named it had either a wonderful sense of irony, or
a poor understanding of the English language, as the area was one of the worst
we have been too. It was very similar to
the area that we had been to on our first day, with families living in slum
housing and picking through the rubbish, or making charcoal as their only
source of income. Jane Walker, the
founder of PCF, came with us and told us her story of how she came to start the
charity and how I has developed over the past 18 years. (I’ve just looked over
my shoulder and seen Freeza has written virtually the same thing, I’ll have to
put in some more jokes so as you don’t get bored reading the same story
twice). It was weird to see the old
school, and think that Wilko, Bezza and the 2008 team were based there, rather
than at the much improved site we are now at.
The old school is basically a massive warehouse, with walls that do not
quite reach to the ceiling, splitting up the different classrooms. It is now being used as a church, but looks
quiet desolate and unused, so I am not sure how regularly. The first playground site is no longer there
(unlike last years, which despite Bezza’s claims IS still intact-and now
improved/fixed thanks to Mick, Matt, Harry and Jacobs efforts yesterday) but
has instead been used for making more slum housing areas.

From here, we headed back to the school in
jeepenies, which has quickly become my favourite mode of transport, and I will
instantly be ebaying them when I get home! Just before lunch, the Sholing staff got the opportunity to go up Smokey Mountain, with one of the PCF employees who lives there. It made the whole week seem very real, as whenever we had visited the poorer, more impoverished areas, it had always been to see new people who we had no particular bond with. This was the home of a man we had spent 2 weeks working along side. As you would expect from a smoking mound of rubbish, the trip wasn’t most pleasant and seeing students in PCF school uniforms made it even sadder. A bit of box carrying, lunch, and then Miss Wallace and myself spent 2 hours giving inset training to the PCF teachers, focusing on making lessons fun/interesting. The staff really took to some of the activities, particularly enjoying covering each other in post it notes, and acting out the tale of Henry VIII and his 6 wives. When we finished at just after 3, we all par took in Mr Berry’s famed Doughnut party, whereby he arranged for all members of staff, our staff, and students to all have 2 doughnuts each, which the Filipino’s were very excited about.

A long coach ride home meant everyone had to get into their glad rags nice and quickly, but everyone made it in time (and looking amazing, looking more like they were off to prom than they had spent a fortnight on a dumpsite). The food and company at the ambassadors was lovely, and the man himself was very welcoming and likable, he made a special point of highlighting our students work and what they had to do to get here. It was lovely to see him making such a big deal out of their efforts, praise which they very much deserved. After about 4000 photo’s and a game of ‘get a selfie with the ambassador’. we were back on the coach and having a good old sing along to wonderwall, livin on a prayer and the proclaimers, with Mick instigating a ‘na na na na’ battle between the front and back of the bus. Into PJ’s and bed, ready for our final day tomorrow. I should now go and do the same, I shall no doubt not have chance to write a blog tomorrow, but will be sure to write a final one (couldn’t leave it unfinished after doing almost one a day) once I’m back on English soil.

Maganda gabi (Goodnight)

Mr D

Well the students have gone to bed after a very eventful and emotional day. A later start 8-30 departure and a 9-20 arrival at school. We all went to the old school on the dump site with Jane Walker (founder of PCF) to hear her story of how it all began.
The emotion of her speech and the dreadful conditions in which we were listening to it was a difficult thing for most of us to take. I have spent many days at this part of the dump site in my 3 visits but I still find the impact of this particular environment very difficult to take.

The rubbish is piled high, people sort through it scraping for anything to sell or to eat!! People mill around every where, children play in the dirt they jump on to the Jeepneys and they shout and cheer clearly happy to see us. The smell is awful the entrance to the old school is a rusty old gate into a ware house and where a thriving school was is now a dreadful infested environment. It is difficult to imagine how we worked based here in 2008 and 2010, it is heartening to see how much things have moved on.

Later some of us walked up the Smokey mountain which was an experience. This mountain of rubbish some 100 foot high is again a growing community with people trying to scrape a living on it. Their living conditions are awful but they have no choice.

We had a doughnut party with the staff which went down really well. The school looks great all of our tasks complete to a high standard. We left at 3-30 to get ready for the ambassadors reception. In a limited time we all scrub up well, back on the coach and out to the posh part of town. The reception was great. The ambassador and his staff put on a great reception for us and other charity teams. The pupils had a great time and really did us all proud.
Great songs on the coach coming back a short briefing and to bed.

A great team effort is coming to an end. The students have been amazing, they have worked hard, got on with each other so well, showed real love and affection for the Filipino students and no doubt have had a life changing experience. It has been a privilege and a pleasure for me to be part of this team and I am very confident that their legacy will live with the Tondo children for a long time.

Thank you team TSTC

This is my first blog and it is just rounding up the whole experience.
Today was a slightly different day due to their being less work to do.
We visited ‘Happy Land’ where the old PCF school was based. We have visited a number of different places where the kids are living, including the Dumpsite and Paradise Heights. Happy Land showed us the remains of the old school. Jane Walker (founder of PCF) talked about her life and how he started and grew the Philippine Community Fund.

Next we had bought over 50 packs of double doughnuts for all of the PCF school staff including, Security, Driver and all of the other workers. They all thoroughly enjoyed being treated with some food. we had chocolate almond and a black fruit jam with cream filling and chocolate flakes.

Tonight we visited the English Ambassadors residence and had a buffet meal with him and some other charity guests. The food was very different to what we have had over the past 2 weeks at Mr. Poons. We talked to a number of different people talking about their experiences in the Philippines and were really interested to know what we were doing and how we are helping the community. The ambassador was very friendly and his speech was very interesting and mentioned PCF and Sholing Philippines Project a lot.

Unfortunately we were unable to visit Nevortas (cemetry dumpsite) as the kids had a half day at school and the jeepnees were being used to transport the children back home. However, this was have been the most emotional for everybody on the trip as it is a block of above ground concrete cemeterys and the kids play and live on these. One of the most horrif thing i found about about this was that your family have to rent out you coffin and if they payments are not reached the body is taken out of the coffin and chucked onto the floor. How distasteful.

Although i have experienced some very emotional times in the school and at my time in the Philippines i have experienced some really happy moments as well. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the children were taken on a school trip. I went to two of the trips which were Tuesday and Wednesday and we visited the Science Discovery Center in the Mall of Asia and then A body (tuesday) or mind (wednesday) museum. The kids absolutely loved it. Jane told us today that some kids have been off because they are so exhausted from the past couple of days tat they were unable to attend school.

Tomorrow is our last day and what an experience it has been. We will be having a leaving assemble with the kids at the school tomorrow midday. We are spending the rest of the day at No Mans sports centre, which is on the way to the airport. We will be traveling at 12:20 Saturday Morning and will arrive home about 2 pm the same day. I dont want to go but i cannot stay. I miss home too much to leave it. cannot wait to finally see my family after two long weeks away.

Ryan Holloway
Day 13

I will be coming home; just informed Mrs Freeza that our painting is complete ‘The orange is no more’. What an achievement, It has to be at least 600m of painting 3 coats split colour on a 7 foot wall. The music room is amazing and now actually is full of musical instruments which I suspect have been in storage for several years. We hope to use them tomorrow. We have completed 12 x 4 foot by 3 foot murals and 4 have been hung on the walls the others will follow tomorrow. These consist of Filipino children’s paintings , mostly of animals from around the world, glued on to beautifully drawn and painted back grounds.(painted and drawn by our students). The images have been produced in lessons led by our students, they have enjoyed great times together and I know that they are getting a little sad at the thought that we will soon be leaving.

The last field trips went well over 200 Filipino children having a great day out at the Science and Tech centre and the Museum. The last Mr Poon meal was a great festive event. The man himself made a speech and photo calls. I had the privilege of joining one of the students tables and enjoyed highly entertaining impressions of Bezza. A lovely moment when the team paid tribute to the legend that is Mick O’D with a little gift, his heartfelt reply almost had us all ‘Blubbing’ . This is truly a great team of young and not so young people working together with a common aim. It will end in a few days in the the physical sense but I have no doubt that the connection made between us all on this trip will last a whole lot longer time.

Good night

I cant believe we are now only 2 and a half days from coming home, how time has flown! Today was field trip day for me, where we took 150ish PCF students to the Science Museum as well as the Museum Pumbat. The first museum I thought was superb, with lots of interactive exhibits. While driving there I was sat with 4 boys who were obviously best friends (Ricardo, Leonido, Eduardo and Juju) who I couldn’t help but see as a younger, Filipino version of the inbetweeners. There was the sort of but not really naughty one, the lanky one who was a bit daft, the nerdy one and the group leader. They were hilarious, and I had great fun sat at the back of the bus learning (and instantly forgetting to be on the safe side) rude Tagalo words. After the Science museum (which had an excellent planetarium show that the kids loved) we went to a local park for a Jolibees lunch. From here we went to the Museum Pumbat. There didn’t really seem to be much theme to this, not that it mattered, as the kids loved going round and touching/making as much noise as they could with anything they could lay a hand on. At one point, they were having a snowball fight with plastic food, like primary school children might have. It was very entertaining, if stunted somewhat by my inner teacher shouting ‘did he actually just throw a toy toaster?’

We went to the mall for dinner, where I finally sampled the famed baconator (Liv, Daisy and Holly have been proudly wearing their shirts since the first evening), and then onto the British school for a spot more swimming. After saying last week how dumb I was to get involved in a diving completion with an actual diver (Portia) a gymnast (Danielle), and a group of boys with no regard for hurling themselves into a pool at whatever angle and body shape takes their fancy, naturally I got caught up in it again, and once again I go to bed bruised. Last day of trips tomorrow, then 1 more working day 😦

Mr D

A Lovely swim in an open air pool at the British School this evening, about 28 degrees the life guard complaining that it is too cold. I am seriously worried about the weather we face on Saturday. The students had a great time in the pool volley ball, diving competition followed by birthday cake for Connor (not in the pool with the cake).

Another great day on both the field trip and back at school. The blue corridor is completed, we just need to do a final ‘touch up’ around the school tomorrow and we can then declare that we have finished the corridor painting. The Music room is complete walls painted, Musical instruments drawn and painted large scale and a 20 foot snaking key board, (as requested by the head is done). Vinyl floor put down and it looks amazing. Just 8 days ago it was a junk room full of unwanted furniture spiders and dirt. It is now a really lovely teaching space ready for music teaching. We have completed several murals and will start to hang them tomorrow, the pupils are really excited about having their art work hung on the walls.

The trip out today took 150 grade 4 and 5 to the science centre and Museo Pam Bato, which is a bit like I tech but the highlight of the centre is a bottom which Farts on demand. It proves hilarious with both the Filipino children and our own students.

Tomorrow the final trip takes out 200 of the older students on a similar venture. In school we will complete the corridor walls and complete several more murals. The students are now very tired but continue to impress and work very hard with such a positive attitude. The last early start tomorrow 7-30 departure for school, Thursday and Friday will be a little later. I am confident that they will continue to be happy and smiling at 7-30 ready to have yet another amazing day. I wonder if they will be like this next week?

Another great day. 15 students out on the field trips with 150 younger Filipino children. As the blogs suggest they had a great time and believe me they only tell part of the story. I have spoken to many who have enjoyed the field trip today and they are buzzing with excitement and at the same time completely emotionally and physically shattered. We have had a call from the school to report that the Filipino children got off their bus ‘squealing with excitement’. I hope this is not the last time they enjoy so much happiness.

In school 12 of us have completed the music room which now has a lovely vinyl floor and amazing painting on the walls and an 8 foot by 4 foot stage with a step also covered in new vinyl. We have given the 2nd coat to the blue corridor, started 4 murals of Filipino children’s art work for the new walls and taught two really good art lessons.

Tomorrow we will complete the blue and green corridors which means that Mr and Mrs Freeza will be re-united on Saturday. We will develop further the murals for the walls and I have no doubt that the field trips will be absolutely buzzing with excitement again.

Goodnight talk again tomorrow

Nooo, just spent ages typing a blog and the computer deleted it before I could post it. A much quicker overview of the day: Half the team off on the school trips, of those in school, we split into 3 groups. Freeza, Georgia, Amy, Fran and Portia worked on finishing the music room, which then had the stage put in and floored. This is now very near completion and looks amazing. Tom, Jenson, Will and Shakila worked on making up some frames for murals that had been made by the PCF students, while myself, Helena S, Caitlin, Connor and Ryan gave the top floor a second coat of blue. In the afternoon we were all involved in either making some of the murals (I’m sure some pics will be posted soon), or helping out with the art club, run by Mr Freeman.

I also got the chance to go and watch some lessons, and even teach a little bit about Henry VIII (I just can’t help myself when given the opportunity of ‘do you want to teach them something?’. A very interesting experience. My day at the school ended by playing a little 1-1 basketball vs Kony the Caretaker. He won despite being nearly a foot shorter than I am, the shame, the shame! Michiela and Michelle chose todays poons, possibly our last of the stay depending on how the week pans out. It has been lovely (if slightly repetitive) food, that I enjoyed a lot more than I was expecting.

Totally shattered now, so off to bed!

Mr D