Ok, I’m dating this post back to August of 2012. I never
wrote about it and I think it’s something important that I’ve done and
accomplished here in the Philippines. I was assigned here to a small school. We
have about 230 students in grades Kinder through 6. Something I always thought
about was getting all the students their own school supplies in their own
supply box. I asked my Mom if she thought it was possible with the help of our
church Trinity in Arlington. My Mom said of course we can do it! Side note:
without my Mom we would have never been able to do it!
My parents are the ones who actually wrote up a letter to
the church requesting school supplies. My Mom and Aunt Cindy made a box to put
in the Narthex of the church so people could drop off their supplies. I made a
list of things that the students and teachers could use. This included crayons,
markers, scissors, pencils, pens, glue, erasers, and rulers. You know the
typical school supplies. Many people dropped things off in the box and many
people also made some cash donations for mailing and buying more school
supplies. My Mom kept a count of all the supplies and what was still needed.
Since school was just starting in Texas she was able to get the back to school
sales and buy many more of the things we did not have enough of for the
students. At home my bedroom was flooded with supplies! My Mom emailed me to
show me. At school here I didn’t tell anyone! I wanted it to be a surprise : )
I did tell a few of my PCV friends because I was so excited to make this happen
for these kids.
My Mom got it all together in 5 big boxes and got them
picked up on August 30th. The mail service is called Balikbayan. It
picks up the boxes from your house, takes them to the shipping yard where they
will then travel by boat, and then be delivered to my house. It was a really
good way to ship things to the Philippines and the weight is unlimited. Since
it is being delivered by boat though, it takes about 2 months. Finally on a
Sunday afternoon, November 4, I was sitting at a friend’s house having lunch
and got a phone call. The caller was speaking Tagalog and we had trouble
communicating so I handed off the phone to the house help. It was the driver
who had my boxes and was headed to my house but needed directions. The house
help gave him directions and he said he was on his way. I called my neighbor
friend and told her and asked her to tell my landlord. About two hours later
the neighbor says there’s no sign yet of the boxes and I’m on the jeep home. I
get another phone call and pass it to a student’s Mom on the jeep. She talks to
the man and all I can understand after their conversation is that he is on his
way. Ok, well two hours later, I’m not sure what happened. I got to my house
and my landlord is anxiously waiting and so excited about my boxes I will be
getting. Yes, I have told her it’s for the school, but of course she is
expecting something too. Then, my cell phone rings again and I hand the phone
to my landlord. She talks to him and they are almost to my house. When they get
there he explains that they had a flat tire and it took a long time to fix.
Once they all left my house, I opened the boxes one at a
time and started going through them. The first box had several things for me
which I was very excited about. Then each box after that I thought, oh it will
just be school supplies, but to my surprise my Mom had packed every box with
some things for me! I had given my Mom how many boys and girls in each class.
She had packages all the supplies into boxes and put them in trash bags with
the grade on them. Very helpful! Not much sorting I had to do! She sent lots of
things for the teachers too. So that Thursday night, I spent a couple hours
sorting out things to put in the teacher bags. My friend, neighbor, and
co-teacher, Dayday helped me sort, which of course she was super excited about
too because she was getting lots of stuff! We made piles for each teacher and
then put in bags and I brought them to school the next day. My principal called
a meeting to discuss a few things and when she was finished she announced I had
something to share. I showed the teachers the flier my parents had given at
church and told them about what we had been doing back in Texas. The teachers
of course were very excited and had so much fun looking through all their new
things. They got the regular school supplies plus staplers, chalk, erasers,
copy paper, folders, notebook, sharpies, highlighters, and many more things.
The plan for the students was to bring all the supplies to
school on Monday. We asked the barangay captain if he could drive the barangay
patrol car to come get the boxes from my house and man power to help carry. He
graciously helped us. Once at school the principal said why don’t we do it
tomorrow after flag ceremony. I was very disappointed because I had the
supplies with me that day and wanted to do it then! But then I guess I saw her
point that after flag ceremony we would all be together and make it a big deal.
Then… that afternoon, she said she would be absent the next two days so wait
till Thursday when she was back to do it. I was SUPER bummed about this! The
next morning I text her saying how excited I was, as well as the other
teachers, and the students. They had seen all the boxes being delivered the day
before. So my principal said ok, go ahead and hand them out but be sure to take
lots of pictures. We called up each grade to the flagpole and passed them out.
I handed each student their box as they said thank you. They went back to their
designated areas and starting looking through their boxes at all of their
things.
I had planned a project to do with the kids after they got
their school supplies so they could use them. I had Xeroxed copies of a fish
picture and found two Rainbow Fish books. One to read to grades kinder through
two and the other I read to grades 3 to 6. After I read the book I had cut up
some construction paper they could use as the colorful scales on the rainbow
fish and they could color the rest of the picture. Every grade loved the activity
and spent time coloring their pictures. They all wanted to know what my art
project was going to be the next day… I really should plan another one, but
have yet to do it. They are still getting out their supplies boxes to get their
colors, scissors, or glue. They use them all the time!
Thank you to all my friends and family who helped make this
happen! I wish you all could have seen the beautiful smiles on the children’s
faces : ) And thank you especially to my Mom!!! It would have never happened
without you!
