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October 11 Yao MingEvery week the kids say things that make me laugh. They use English a little incorrectly or pronounce something funny. For example- one day this week, Leheca told me, “Jeneviev had her shirt on OUTSIDE IN.” I have heard many comments such as that over the last few years and they always make me smile. My favorite one this week came from Kyle. During reading class, he asked me, “Is Yao Ming North America?” I answered, “Well…I know he is from China, but he plays basketball in the United States.” Kyle shook his head and said again, “No, is YAO MING North America?” Confused, I responded with, “I’m not really sure which one you want- he lives in either China or the United States.” This time it was Kyle’s turn to look a little confused, “No Teacher Tammy, Yao Ming, the place. Where is it?” We continued like this back and forth a few times with me wracking my brain to try and come up with an answer about Yao Ming’s place that Kyle would accept and Kyle trying in vain to get me to understand what he meant. Finally he said, “The book says the Bighorn Mountains are in YAO MING.” Aha- the light bulb went on in my head…Kyle’s YAO MING was WYOMING! All along he wanted to know where Wyoming was, not where Yao Ming lived. My whole class got a good laugh out of it and a lesson on how to pronounce Wyoming! October 04 PrincessesLike most little girls, the girls at our shelter love princesses! They like to pretend to be them, draw pictures of them, and dress up in fancy "princess" outfits! Another of Jashly's older sisters, June, has really been into princesses lately! She absolutely LOVES them and is always talking about them. She likes to draw pictures of princesses and makes up imaginary stories. On Saturday she decided that I was going to be the princess. I was sitting on the edge of the sidewalk and she held a palm branch over my head to protect me from the sun. Then Juancho, Jocelyn, and Sheena decorated my hair with all kinds of "fancy" princess things (flowers and pieces of a palm branch). It was quite the interesting hairdo, but they loved it!  October 03 Field Day!A few weeks ago I wrote about how we are all a family here at CSC. I was reminded of that again today as all of the staff, houseparents, toddlers, and teachers came out to cheer on our kids during field day. Our P.E. teacher, Teacher Al, had organized for another school to come to CSC in the morning for running races and soccer games.
I arrived at the shelter at about 8 o'clock and the kids were so excited. They were jumping all over, cheering, and practicing for their events. They kept asking when the "enemy" was coming, and I kept trying to explain that you call them "opponents" and not the "enemy". They were very ready to get started...that is until the vehicles from the other school began arriving. As the vehicles kept pouring in our gate, several of them came up and grabbed ahold of my arm saying, "Teacher Tammy, they are MANY." They looked on in awe and a bit of shock as at least 70 strangers trooped out of the cars to meet them. But despite their initial shyness, the kids ended up having a great time!
The events started out with running races. The kids were split into age groups and about 5 kids ran at a time. We were so proud of them! They all tried hard and had fun doing it. June and Charydyn won their races by a landslide while Kyle, Nino, Angelica, Rafael, Christian A., Angillo, Bernardo, Andree Kaye, and Paula also all won first place in their heats! But as fun as that was to watch, my favorite part of the running came from the toddlers. All of the Cherne home toddlers had gathered in a Nipa hut next to where the older kids were running. They had a blast watching their older "brothers" and "sisters" race! Everytime a new group of kids came up to the starting line, the toddlers would begin chanting for the kids from their house. "Go Rael, go! Go Christian, go!" The cutest of all was Jovan. He began cheering for his brother Jonjon and he just kept calling out "Go Jonjon, go!" long after his brother had finished his race!
The running races were followed up by several soccer games, time for the kids to get to know eachother, and an awards ceremony. It was a great morning of fun, fellowship, and family!
 September 27 Highlights from my Week1. Last Monday, we had yet another holiday from school. (There have now been 7 since the beginning of August...crazy) I headed up to the shelter that morning to help Analiza out with some homework. She needed to go to school and research. I decided for lunch I'd take a few kids out to a nearby restaurant. It's never easy to decide who to take with you when you can only choose a few, but I ended up with Birny and Jonjon- two of our 11-year-olds. They were so excited to "eat outside"! Birny did a little jump in the air and pump his fist move. It was really nice to have just two of them along- they each got a chance to ride in the front seat and we had fun at the restaurant talking about school, sports, their weekends, and how none of us really wanted to eat the pickled papaya that was on our plates.
 2. This week in science we've been learning about echinoderms...for those of you who don't know what those are (as I didn't until I read this chapter in our science book) they are the "spiny skinned" animals that live in the ocean. Starfish, brittle stars, basket stars, sea cucumbers, feather stars, sea urchins and sea lilies. About halfway through the chapter I stopped and told my students, "I LOVE teaching you about echinoderms because many of you have seen most of these animals. Kids in Minnesota wouldn't know what many of them are. Do you know why kids in Minnesota don't know what they are?" It took a while, but finally after looking at a map they said, "Because Minnesota is not an island!" I went onto explain that there are not any oceans near Minnesota. I asked them how far they thought I'd need to drive to get to an ocean they guessed between 1-3 hours. When I told them I never saw an ocean until I was 14, they about fell out of their chairs in shock. They even asked me, "How do you know how to swim if there are no oceans in Minnesota?" Ha...I had to laugh at that- none of them have never seen a lake before so that concept is pretty foreign. I love learning more about their perspectives on the world!
3. Our bumpy, rocky road has been graded! If any of you have ever been to CSC, you know what our road is like- it is pretty hard to forget. It had potholes all over the place and it is pretty slow going at times. In my four years here, the road has been graded maybe 2 times. But today when I went up to the shelter there were dump trucks dumping piles of dirt on the road right in front of the school and a grader smoothing it out. I was quite surprised! I drove down the road later and it was AMAZING how smooth it was! I'm going to enjoy it while I can- hopefully it won't rain too hard and wash it all away.
 September 20 Constellations & SardinesMy reading group is learning about astronomy right now. All of our stories lately have been related to that topic in one way or another- stories about Galileo, stars, Mars, and astronomical observatories. Last week we read some myths about how constellations came to be. At the end of the week, the kids had to answer this question, "If you could make anyone into a constellation, who would it be and why?" I want to share two of their answers with you.
1. Christian (John Ray's brother) answered that he wanted to make Uncle Paul into a constellation because that way, even when he grows up, he can still remember CSC just by looking into the sky.
2. Kyle wrote that he would make a constellation of Jesus. Then every night when he looks into the sky, he will see Jesus and be reminded to read his Bible and pray because sometimes he forgets.
On another note, this evening Teacher Michelle, Teacher Shari, Uncle Joel, our visitor Julie, and I took our second group of kids up to the school to play Sardines. It ended up being 9 teenage boys from the Cherne home and then also Joselito (11) because it was his birthday today. As you can imagine, with that many boys, it was a bit wild and crazy, but it was so much fun also! There was lots of laughter and joking as the kids searched through the school to find the hidden person. My favorite of all was when Joselito hid in the garbage can. I was the first to peek in at him and he popped up like a jack-in-the-box. He tumbled out of the can laughing and giggling. We played for a full hour and a half before we all headed home, sweaty and tired, but happy and smiling!
September 13 We are a FamilyAt CSC, we are a family! We spend holidays and birthdays together. We laugh together, help each other with schoolwork, and play together. We share our hurts, our desires, and our joys with each other! And we pray together!
At school, I always start my class off with a time of prayer in the morning. It is a time where we can praise the Lord for things He has done and lift up to him our prayer requests. Often times over the years, I have shared praises and prayer requests about my own family with my students. When my niece was born extremely premature a few years ago, they prayed for her daily. They still like to get updates on her and love seeing her pictures. They have been praying for my brother who needs a kidney transplant, and they prayed for my sister April who was going to have another baby.
Last week some of our prayers were answered when my sister April gave birth to a healthy little girl named Ruby! Being the proud aunt that I am, I announced to my class, "I have a new niece- Ruby!" All of my students gave me a funny look and asked, "Ruby?...I thought it was a girl." When I told them Ruby was a girl, they looked at me funny again, "Ruby? A girl?" I guess they had never heard of that name before so I explained the difference between "Ruby", a girl's name, and "Rudy", a boy's name. After my explanation, Milbert still said, "Well...for me, Ruby is a boy's name."
Then this afternoon, I brought Analiza and Jeneviev, two of our high school students, up to school to do some homework. I proudly showed them some of Ruby's pictures and after looking at about 10 pictures, one popped up of her wearing a pink outfit. Analiza turned to me in shock and said, "Ruby is a girl?" So…I guess it’ll be my job to teach the Filipino kids (at least at CSC) that Ruby is a girl’s name. :) But even with the confusion over her name, I know that they will continue to lift her up in prayer with me. I know that in the months and years to come they will love to look at pictures of her and laugh with me at the funny things she’ll do. Because we are a family and that is what families do together! September 06 Sardines, Dimples, and the "Hoedown Throwdown"This evening Uncle Andrew, Teacher Michelle, and I took some of the kids up to the school to play Sardines. If you've never played it, it is similar to hide-and-seek. One person hides and everyone else has to try and find that person. When they find them, they hide along with them until everyone has found them. It was SO much fun! The kids had never played it before and thought it was hilarious. After finding the hidden person, they would just sit there and giggle- which made it VERY easy for everyone else to find them. Our champion giggler was Kyle, he had a hard time holding his laughter! And that made the rest of us laugh also! Our champion hider was Niño, it was at least 15 minutes of searching before he was first discovered. Kyle was the first to discover him, and then he couldn't stop laughing. It was a great way to spend our Sunday evening! The kids have already been asking when they will get to play again, "Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? Thursday?..."
Story from the week...one day I heard one of our older boys laughing loudly so I asked him what was going on. He pointed to his forehead and said, "We are laughing at my DIMPLES". (pimples)
Since I have now discovered how to add videos onto my blog, I am posting a video of Level C (and a few Level B students) dancing the "Hoedown Throwdown". They performed it at a morning meeting last month! It isn't the clearest video, but I thought you might enjoy seeing it anyways!!
August 30 Buwan Ng Wika & More August is the month to celebrate the national language of the Philippines, Tagalog. The celebration is called "Buwan Ng Wika"! Since it is the end of the month, this week we had our celebrations. On Tuesday, we spent the afternoon playing Filipino games. All of the children were split into groups- I was the leader of the "Puti" group (white group). Even though I was the leader, the kids had to explain everything to me because the directions were in Tagalog. They found it amusing to have to tell the teacher what to do. :-) My favorite comment of the day came from Leheca. As the kids were playing a game, one child got upset because he didn't win. Leheca turned to me and said, "We should be so sportsfest." She meant that we all should have good sportsmanship. Cute! On Saturday, we had our "Buwan Ng Wika" program. The kids sang a Filipino song and danced to another one, and the Filipino teachers performed some traditional dances. Uncle Paul and his band sang a great song about Philippine geography. In addition to that, four of us "Americanos" were asked to dance the Tinikling, a traditional Filipino dance. With the help of "You Tube" we researched traditional Tinikling moves, then we added in a few of our own creative ideas. Check out our video to see our great performance! The kids' band, the WORMS, also performed a Tagalog song. It is so fun to see them get up in front of an audience and perform! My favorite student to watch was Rael. Last year when he started playing guitar, he would literally stand with his back to the audience because he was so shy. Slowly he began to face the side, eventually the front, and yesterday he actually SANG!! This was HUGE for him! Take a look at the band in the video below. Left to right- Christian (keyboard), Kyle (bass guitar), Nino (drums), Milbert (lead guitar/vocalist), Anderson (guitar), and Rael (guitar/vocalist). In addition to our Buwan Ng Wika celebration, we ended our first quarter reading challenge. Since all of our kids had met their reading goals, Uncle Paul, Uncle Joel, and Uncle Andrew had to pay up. The kids got to shave poor Uncle Joel's head and beard, and Uncle Paul and Uncle Andrew each had to go up against some formidable wrestling opponents (don't worry, it was all scripted in advance so no one would get hurt! :-). The kids (and the teachers, and the staff, and the aunties) all cheered and laughed their way through the entire afternoon. It was a GREAT day! August 23 Goodbyes and a "Dirty House"This week we said goodbye to 6 of our kids as they joined their new adoptive families. Goodbyes are bittersweet! They are definitely exciting times because saying goodbye normally means that our hopes and prayers for an adoptive family have come true! But goodbyes are also hard! They are hard for the kids and hard for the staff. It is hard to say goodbye to ones you love- no matter how excited you are for them!
A funny story from this week- one afternoon I was sitting by the picnic tables talking to June (7 years). She began talking about the new house that was just built and how excited she is to move into it. She kept calling the new house the "dirty house". I kind of laughed at that- thinking she meant it wasn't very clean because the workers are still finishing it up. It will definitely need to be cleaned thoroughly before the kids move into it. But after she called it "dirty" a few times I thought I better clarify that the house WILL be cleaned before they move in so it won't be dirty anymore. She told me, "No...that is the name of the house. The DIRTY house!" I laughed- I couldn't help it! The new house is named the "Duterte House"- I wonder how many other kids have been calling it the "dirty house". August 16 My WeekMany weeks I sit down to write my blog and I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to write about. It isn't that nothing of real importance went on during my week- it is normally that so much has happened that I don't even know where to begin or what to focus on. That seems to be the case today...this week was full...so much went on that I can't decide what to tell you about.
It was a busy week, but it was a fun week. Overall I would definitely say it was a GREAT week!
August 09 Some Favorite StoriesA couple of my favorite stories from this week...
My reading class was discussing languages one day this week. My students were talking about how many they each knew. And all of them are far ahead of me- speaking English, Tagalog, and Cebuano. They began asking me what languages I spoke. Kyle asked, "Teacher Tammy, do you speak France?" I explained that it was "French" and I don't speak it. Then Milbert asked, "Do you speak Germany?" Again I explained that it was "German" not Germany and I don't speak it. Then my favorite question- Jenive asked, "Do you speak Texas?" I couldn't help laughing as I told her that they speak English in Texas. It took some time before I could convince her of that- she was certain they spoke another language there.
During American Studies class, we were learning about seasons. It is always interesting to teach about seasons...it is something I just knew growing up in Minnesota. But my students really don't have any first hand experience with any seasons other than "summer". The kids all loved talking about winter the most. Winter is a strange and exciting season that all of our kids long to experience. Snow- what does it feel like? What is sledding? Skiing? You can walk on ice? One of my students, Christine, told me that winter was her favorite season, but she was NOT going to walk on the ice. She was just going to stay inside. When I asked if she was going to sit by a fire inside, she looked at me in shock and said, "No, then I will be HOT!" Hmm...in just a few months, when she fully understands COLD, she may be wishing for that fire! I asked Christine what she thought people wore outside on their feet in the winter...after thinking about it for a little bit- she drew a picture of a Christmas stocking! I was great! August 02 Influence & Bart's DayLittle kids want to be like older kids…they try to follow them, dress like them, and act like them. This week all of our little preschool boys came to school with their hair gelled into all kinds of cool spikes and mohawks- just like the older boys. This week all of the little girls have been working on learning a new dance called the “Hoedown Throwdown” because they have seen the older girls doing it. And that wanting to be like someone older doesn’t just end with the little kids. Teens also watch older “kids” and adults…they also try to dress like them and act like them. It is a little scary sometimes to realize how much influence we, as adults, have in our kids’ lives. They watch how we dress, what we say, how we act, what books we read, and what music we listen to. As a teacher, I can help them love a subject or if I am not careful, make them dislike it. It is scary how much influence we have, but it is also an incredible honor given to us- molding, guiding, and encouraging these precious children! Please pray for all of the staff, workers, and teachers as we try to raise our children in a loving, Christian atmosphere. July 26 Time FliesIt’s hard to believe we have already completed a whole month of school! But time flies when you’re having fun, and my work here is fun! One thing I love about my job is that every morning, we get to open up our class with a short devotional and prayer time. I love it when the kids share their favorite Bible verses and pray together. What a great way to start our day!
Another thing I love about my job is the fun way our kids use English. I love listening to them talk- obviously they are all ESL students. All of them speak Cebuano and many of them have a good understanding of Tagalog- the national language. So in addition to those two languages, they also learn English. How confusing! I am amazed at how well they do speak English, but sometimes they say some pretty cute things. Here are two stories from this week!
-One day this week I was working with Sheila May on an assignment. After a few minutes she told me, “I am so confusing!” (meaning she was so confused) -This week we started our second annual reading challenge. The kids all have a goal of books or pages to read by the middle of August. If they all make their goals, some pretty funny things will happen to Uncle Paul, Uncle Joel, and Uncle Andrew. All of the kids are reading like crazy! They pull out books during every spare minute at school and walk down the hallways reading books. Jenive came up to me after the first day and said, “Teacher Tammy, I borrowed my sister’s watch and I alarmed it for 4 am.” She had actually gotten up at 4 o’clock so that she could read…amazing! At the rate the kids are reading, Uncle Paul, Uncle Joel, and Uncle Andrew have no chance at winning the contest! Hooray for reading!! July 19 A Big DayIt is amazing how quickly our classes can be cut down in size when a sickness spreads through the shelter. Since our kids live in such close quarters, it spreads pretty quickly. All week long we’ve been missing at least 20% of our school population because of sickness. I sent kids home 3 out of the 5 days. For two days, I only had 1 student, Milbert, in my math class. Praise the Lord that most of them are feeling better so we should have mostly complete classes!
Tomorrow is the big day for Jeremie and Arnel- both of their adoptive families will be arriving! Praise the Lord!! We’ve been waiting a long time for this to happen, especially for Jeremie. He has been in my American Studies class for a whole year now. He has learned a lot of American History in that year…over and over again. J Whenever new kids joined our group, Jeremie would remind me to teach them about certain things he thought important. For example- a week ago he thought the new kids needed to learn the proper American lingo. No more “ref” for the refrigerator or “CR” for the bathroom. He also wanted me to explain the American “personal space bubble” since the Filipino “personal space bubble” is MUCH smaller than ours.
Every time a student leaves from my level we have a little goodbye party. So on Friday Jeremie picked out some snacks for our class, and we spent some time just having fun together. We ate chips, drank pop, and played a confusing, but fun game called, “Four on a Couch”. Jeremie has been a part of my class for such a long time that it is going to feel really odd to not have him here anymore. He will be greatly missed, but I am so excited for him to begin this next step in his life! Please pray for both Jeremie and Arnel as they start this new phase of their lives!
July 12 School StoriesA few more school stories for you! This week in reading we got into a discussion about strengths and weaknesses. It was a good discussion about how everyone has things they are good at and everyone has things that they have to work harder at. After talking about it, the kids went around and each told a strength and a weakness. Julieto said that he was good at sports, but had a hard time with school. Jenive said that playing flute was a strength. Music was Milbert’s strength and science was his weakness. Kyle mentioned that math was his strength and science was his weakness. I told Kyle, “I am the same as you. Math is my strength, but I struggle with science.” I wish you could’ve seen his face. His mouth just dropped open in shock and he said, “You, Teacher Tam?! You have a hard time with science? I thought you are so smart in science.” I had to laugh at that and explained that science has always been my hardest subject and I have to study it a lot. I guess as kids we always think that our teachers know everything. In science this week we took our first quiz. The kids were a little worried about it, but they did great! Around half of them got 100%. Ardian was one of them! He was so proud that he said, “I had 100%! Tomorrow I will go to high school!” It was great to see his excitement because school does not always come easily for him! July 05 School Begins!Monday was the beginning of our brand new school year! The kids were all excited as they made their way up to the school for the opening ceremony. They all look so nice in their matching uniforms! Some highlights from the week…
The Preschoolers- I’d have to say that even though every year our preschool class is really cute; I think this year’s class takes the cake for being the cutest! A couple of the new preschoolers (Jashly, Charles, & Darel) have grown up in our nursery and it is hard to believe that they are already old enough for preschool. It was so fun watching Gigi, Rhoella, Bart, and Clyd be the “leaders” of the younger preschoolers. Gigi was especially excited for her brother Darel to be joining her in the class. On the first day, she helped him and a few of the other kids cut out their paper hands and showed them what to do next!
My Class- My main group of kids this year is Milbert, Kyle, Christian, Jenive, and Julieto. They spend most of the morning with me! It is their first year in my main group…and I have to remind myself that they don’t know all of my “normal” routines. Not really thinking about that, I assigned them 10 spelling words in sentences on Wednesday. I told them, “Choose 10 spelling words and write them in a sentence. 10 sentences.” It seemed easy enough, but I had kind of forgotten my students are ESL learners and sometimes need more detailed explanations. The next day I ended up with quite the unique assortment of assignments. Kyle and Julieto completed it correctly, but Jenive ended up choosing 10 spelling words and writing 10 sentences for each of them. The poor girl wrote 100 sentences! Milbert chose a 10 spelling words, but then next to them he wrote sentences that were generally about the word, but did not contain the word. Christian just chose 10 random words and wrote them in sentences. I had to laugh in private about it, but I’ll definitely keep that in mind when I introduce assignments in the future!!
Fourth of July- on Friday we celebrated Filipino-American Friendship day. Besides playing some games about the two countries, the staff put on a great parade! Complete with drums, trumpets, a trombone, a clarinet, two tambourines, a guitar, and two “fifes” (otherwise known as flutes). We marched around the school playing “Yankee Doodle” and throwing out candy. It was quite fun! My favorite comment from the day was from when Ge An saw the American flag...she said, "Look! It's the flag of Minnesota!"
June 28 I'm Back!!I’ve now been back in Cebu for a week and a half! Fifty-five hours after I first arrived in the Minneapolis airport, after cancellations, delays, and reroutings, I finally landed safely in Cebu. And as hard as it was to say goodbye to family and friends back home in Minnesota, it is also good to be home in Cebu! I love walking into the shelter after being gone for a while. All the kids start yelling, “Teacher Tammy!!!” and come running to give me hugs. I nearly got knocked over by the number of kids hugging me. I heard all about the summer activities, who did what, and who got ribbons. Some of the kids who are moving up to my level in school kept telling me how excited they were to be in LEVEL C!! Jenive has asked every day if we could PLEASE have school now!! I love that the kids here are excited for school to start (at least most of them). All
of the teachers spent the week up at school decorating classes, lesson
planning, and figuring out schedules.
It was a good week! And now school
starts tomorrow!! Hip, hip, hooray!!! I’m
sure I’ll have lots of fun stories to share with you from our first week of
school! May 18 My Miss ListWhether I’m in the Philippines or in Minnesota- I am always missing something. Both sides have their good parts and their bad parts- as most everything does. I’ve been thinking about that recently and here is a list of the things I miss the most from BOTH sides. When I’m in the States, I miss these parts of the Philippines.
When I’m in the Philippines, I miss these parts of the States.
Both lists could go on and on, but those were just a few of the first things I thought of. While it would be great if all those things were in the same place, I am thankful that no matter which way I am traveling there is always something for me to look forward to! May 11 Family Time!It has been a fun first week back in Minnesota! It has been so nice just to hang out with my family. We've played a lot of games- Hand and Foot, pool, and mini-golf. I've also been able to get to know my niece, Audrey, a little more. Last year she didn't talk at all, and now she chatters away. I love hearing her say, "Auntie Tammy!" She keeps us all entertained! And even here in Minnesota, I still get to see Filipinos every day- my brothers! Bowling, Dance Dance Revolution, and MarioKart are some of the fun activities we've been able to do together! :-) May 04 Home! After a long plane ride, I arrived in Minnesota on Friday afternoon. My time in MN got off to a great start- that evening I got to attend CSC's adoptive family party. It is a get together for the families of CSC kids. It was so much fun! I got to see many of my former students and their families. Some of them I hadn't seen in 3 years! There were many, many kids at the party- 18 of which had been my students at some point during the last 4 years! It is amazing to see how much they all have grown and changed. On Saturday afternoon, once again many of the adoptive families got together for some fun and games. They picnicked at the park, played a softball game, and just visited with each other. Saturday evening was the banquet! I am always amazed at how many people come to hear more about CSC! It was a great evening filled with good music, video presentations, and moving testimonies about how CSC has changed lives. It was topped off by an awesome offering- the largest banquet offering ever! What a blessing! In addition to CSC fun, I also had a great weekend with my family. We celebrated Christmas today- Christmas tree and all! It made me laugh, but how fun to spend Christmas with my family- even if it is in May! I'm looking forward to spending more time with them these next few weeks! |
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