Summer Camp (SIBUHI) 2008

The Sibuhi Summer Camp was held at Bato Spring in San Pablo, Laguna. The children who are allowed to join were from 5-6 years old to 13 years old. Children who had misbehaviors or who dropped out from school were not allowed to come.

Meeting Place: Main Office (Yague Street)

Date: April 20-23, 2008 (Sunday to Wednesday_

Time: 5:30 AM

Departure: 5:45 AM

...how can a single mini bus with no compartments accomodate this avalanche of luggage? 

The busses left at 8:30 in the morning...errr..we waited for the second bus..

..orientation..

We arrived at the base around 11: 45 AM. After a short rest, ORIENTATION was conducted.

...the making of the group banner...

..touring of the children around the resort..

...weekends start the pool of people..

..the CREATIVE Team Banner..

..won the award of BEST in Banner...yeheyyyy!!!

...one child tried to catch the rooster for dinner... :)..while the other children were resting..

...the MACHO KIDS group tent..

..the PRETTY GIRLS group tent..

..the PUPUCHURU TEAM tent..why such a name?..dunno..

..the SASSY GIRLS Team tent..

...the PALOS Team tent..

..the AJA Girls Team tent..

...the CREATIVIE Group tent..this is my group's tent..

..LA BONITAS tent..

..tie knotting activities during the evening...

the morning exercise...

..the group dynamics..

..eating time with the children..

..spider's prey..

..the betting and winning..

...the creative team...

..rappelling..

.."i'm cold..."

..enjoying the fresh natural water from the spring..

..slide for life..

..aurelle with her team..macho kids..

..eating with "inday"..their make believe story..

(Inday was the unseen and imaginary wife of one of the children here. The older boys always tease the youngest in the group that "Inday" will stay near him if he does not eat his food. Sometimes the other boys fabricate stories like 'Inday was an invisible doctor who has an injection and will use it to children who are bad...or Inday would stay close watching him until he finishes his food...' They tell these stories just to let the boy eat his viand which is most of the time vegetables.)

...the team during the evening parade..

..the best in banner..

..the KAMANDAG Beauties..

..the dancing macho kids...

..my bed outside the tent..

.. playing during free time..

..organizers, team leaders, staffs, volunteers...

..the mlc femmes..

(RE)cognition

Preparation…

“Be sure everything will be organized. I don’t like what happened before….”

Silence…

After a moment while the team was working, one suddenly commented on a material that didn’t work as she was trying to test it.

“I told you..you should have done this before it’s too late. You should have checked it.”

Nobody spoke. They just sighed.

“What is this? What is that? It should not be like this. It’s not good.”

During the day…

“You are late. When will you start?”

“We are still waiting for the others to arrive and one thing more, the others are not yet here.”

“Why? Did you not inform them ahead of time?”

“We did. Excuse me but I need to look for the material because the one we are going to use is not functioning well.”

“That’s what I told you yesterday! You should have tested it so you should have known if it is working or not.”

"Yes. You’re right." I left.

“What is that computer doing?” (and she pointed at the pc)

“It is for the movie.” I answered.

“Movie for what?”

“The one we made last night about the people who worked in the centre.” I said.

“No! You can not present that because it’s not the right time and the right place!”

Sigh. "What do you mean? The content of that are only pictures. We would just like to let the children see their previous facilitators and to acknowledge them also even if they are not here.”

“No!” 

“Ok.” inhale....exhale...

One of the members of the team spoke. “Why? It will be great for the children.”

Another member talked and tried to explain the reason for that movie away from the curious eyes of the children.

M*rde! Everyone is doing their best to come up with good results but we were commented by the uncommented persona.Anyway, there were a lot of things happened during the preparation of this recognition day and even during the recognition day. We gave our best yet for some, it’s not enough. Sorry then for we cannot please all. We spent time for this and went home 12 midnight just to furnish things up for the said event. Instead of receiving words like..” hey guys, this is cool..”, rather, we are commented to what I classify “to the low (est) level”.

Hmmnn..but this day is a success!!! we observed the children who became speechless for receiving awards. They were very happy to see their previous teachers/facilitators who became a part of their lives.

CONGRATULATIONS everyone even if things were not in goody goody way before the event. Its a SUCCESS on the part of EVERYONE!!!

SALAMAT sa mga dumalo!!!

...the stage...

...the emcee...

...the appreciated...

..the presentations...

..the attendees...

..the special presentations...

..the awardees and the recognized...

..the beauties after the event..

...finally...

Evaluation and Planning

From simple matters to very important matters which are not being agreed upon by the members of the team hinder the deadline of the evaluation and planning for this year.
Nonetheless, everyone is very insistent to finish so they can all move on for the next chapter of their activities.

The evaluation was presented to the management from which we were instructed to review well and organize the presentation. We were bombared with a lot of questions which we unfortunately didn't answer well. This might be the effect of all the pressures and meetings amongst the people working in the center.

The outcome of the center's evaluation reflected on the individual performance evaluation of the facilitators. Therefore, the said individual performance must be altered.

Integrated Educational Support Program (IESP)

Integrated Educational Service Program (IESP) Conducts Assessment Test in Patricia’s Halfway Home in Balayan, Batangas

The Halfway Home beneficiaries, staff and the MLC Teachers
with the Program Head

An assessment was conducted to the beneficiaries of Halfway Home on February 19, 2008 in cooperation with the MLC teachers namely Wen Javier, Cathrine Lalap, Janice and the IESP Manager, Ms. Flor Mallillin.

The assessment composed of oral and written test was given to identify the academic level of the children and to adjust the kind of approach that the facilitators do when teaching. The oral test that contains English and Filipino subjects was given as an initial examination. Only 13 children who can read were given the written test which was divided into Reading, Language, Mathematics and Filipino.

The young adults and the teachers during the conduct of tests

They were also assisted by Precy Mendoza, the Program Head of the Temporary Homes, Telesforo Caminsi (Halfway Home Project Coordinator), Arnold Gumangan (Social Worker) and the house parents - Tatay Edwin and Nanay Jane.

An Intelligence Test (IQ) was also conducted to nine (9) young adults by Ms. Vilma Ducut, the VFI Human Resource Manager.

Imposed Questions

trying to wear this shoe?

to leave or not to leave
that is the imposed question

forseen plans
uttered opinions
agreed decisions
left unresolved

united oppositions
against two division
unfathomable tasks
for common horizons
appeared so blur

whoever said this imposed question
flaunted what and who he is
circumstances made him deaf
majority suffered
for they became mute

spoken questions
should have remained unspoken
questionable orders
must have been followed
answered queries
should have been unanswered
humans then should have been
controlled machines

with just a click

everything will be followed!!!

pagkatapos ng lahat lahat

nasabi ngang opinion, di naman makatotohanan...

everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion

like this democratic country

pero bakit lahat ay parang nagiging autocratic na?

"do you have a problem with the team? how do you feel about the environment?" were the questions asked when i was called to have a face to face talk with the "master".

insanity suddenly knocked my head so i replied "oh, it's so hot in here. why don't we put on the aircon so the 'environment' will be better?". we both laughed but i don't know if he was able to get what i mean.

i was reluctant to act upon his "order" because i didn't want to talk and to have meeting in just a snap of a finger because i was rushing the papers i would be needing for the coming hours . since a master is still a master and i have to submit to his authority, i left what i was doing and headed to our little acqurium where he sat and waited for me...5 minutes talked went to more than an hour of blah blah blah and only to be stunned by his own response as to what he felt within the so called team.

No motivation.Laziness.Bad tempered complaints. Objections.

These are just among the feed backs he said. Nah! complaints and reasons have been said but it is still the same. improvements and the like..ahrgghhh!!! it’s been a long time and we are all doing our best..(but i guess our best wasn’t good enough, cause here we are back where we were before)…its changing and I am wondering if it’s moving forward or stepping backward. it has been debated a long time ago. it's like a pirated cd.

let us all mirror ourselves first and ask why all these things are happening. i don’t know if i have to blame someone for this but I know it is unlikely to do that as part of the team. if we approach one of them and tell those observations and insights, incidents will likely occur. it is unbecoming to drag down someone instead of working out all together for the benefit and improvement of everything. i don’t like working this way. i loved attending meetings before but now I came to hate it. para kasi kaming sirang plaka eh..i just want to be with the children because I see and feel genuineness with them.

As the song goes..Just once, can't we figure out what we keep doing wrong? can't we find a way to finally make it right?

Let’s make a deal…bago natin punahin ang dumi sa mukha ng iba eh siguraduhin nating malinis din ang atin..(tama ba?)..deal or (no) deal?.. :)

those words are too heavy to carry. i just had a chat with some fellows and i was probed as to why all these things are happening. i just shrugged my shoulder.