School Award Ceremony

Two of the younger girls at SDC received class awards for ingenuity and best interpersonal skills. I attended the graduation/award ceremony to show my support. The Mayor and his wife even showed up to the event and handed out some of the awards to the children. It wasn't until this moment that I realized that I've lived in Asia a long time... Looking at the picture I can tell there are a lot of people for a school courtyard. However, while at the event it didn't seem crawdad at all. I was even surprised how ample the seating was, even though I has to stand for most of the event.

Hemp Bracelets

Thanks to a donation of art supplies from my friends Crystal and Shawn, from Eureka CA, the girls at SDC got to make hemp bracelets! The girls chose a bead to represent themselves, as well as a bead for their past, present, and future. I was worried that they wouldn't like the hemp rope, because they generally only value synthetic materials. However, the girls loved it! The staff even liked the bracelets so much they thought about taking them away from the girls, to put on display, so the girls couldn't loose them. After explaining the temporary nature of hemp jewelry, and the reassurance we could do the activity again the girls got to keep their creations.

Golden Eggs

Today I told the girls the Aesop fable about the goose and the golden eggs. The girls then came up with the morals in the story, and got to say what they would buy if they had a golden egg. The overall consensus was that they would buy a house or food. The only deviation was the youngest girl at the center who said she would buy a beautiful car. After reflecting on the story the girls got to decorate their own golden eggs with crayons, pastels and for the first time in the center, watercolor paint! Their eggy masterpieces are now the fist thing anyone sees when entering the center.

SBMA

I have been spending all my time at home or work, so I decided to shake things up with a walk by the bay.

St Patrick's Day

St Patrick's day, the magical time of year when paper plates transform into shamrocks. Despite the Philippines being an intensely Catholic country, no one at my center had heard of the holiday. I had an interesting time explaining St. Patrick, leprechauns, four leaf clovers, and pots of gold at the end of rainbows. The girls had a great time painting and decorating their shamrocks (Thanks to the paper plates and glitter glue donated by my grandmother and great aunt). I also printed themed coloring pages for them, painted their nails with green glitter, and taught them Irish slang. Look out Philippines you just might have a new holiday on your hands.

Death of a Potato

Before leaving for a training a potato found it's way to the floor. By the time I found it, the critters in my apartment had hollowed it out. Makes me rethink my whole sleeping on a foam pad on the floor situation :/