Scouting in the Philippines

Scouting was introduced to the Philippines by an American named Lieutenant Sherman Kiser. in 1914.  Since then it has grown to be the largest youth organization in the country. Girls and boys advance through a series of levels until they reach Senior.  This level accepts all 13 to 17 year olds. At Impact Learning Center, the teachers are the leaders and they set aside school time during the year and on weekends to facilitate scouting events.

Engineer Abdon M. Balde Jr.

It is a beautiful January day in Daraga and I arrived at Our Lady of the Gate Church at 8 AM to participate in a Daraga School District Cultural event aimed at preparing teachers and staff for the Cagsawa Festival 2013.  That festival will run from February 1st until the 28th.  It is the 199th year since Mt. Mayon erupted and devastated the former Cagsawa church and the original site of the town of Daraga.  The Provincial Governor has called upon civic and community leaders to come forward and help plan a day to day celebration to commemorate  this event.  

The attendees were privileged to hear from a Pilipino  author and poet, Engineer Abdon M. Balde Jr. Mr. Balde worked as an engineer for 33 years and then when he retired in 2000, he began pursuing the writing craft.  He told me that he never dreamed that he would be as successful as he has become.  Awards and accolades from all over the world have been given to Mr. Balde.  From 1970 until 1999, his writing was in English.  Since that time he has returned to his Mother Tongue.  He writes in Tagolog and the Bicol Oasnon dialect. He did acknowledge that he will insert a Bicolano word from another dialect if it is a better fit then his own.  Mr. Balde resides in Manila but returns to Daraga every three weeks or so to explore the region and interview the older citizens, taping their stories and making notes of their vernacular.  Poetry, myths, humorous text are all part of his published repertoire.  Mr. Balde is also prominent in producing text for the primary grades in the Mother Tongue.  He is a proponent of preserving the traditional vernacular and has been frustrated by the loss of historical fact and stories because they were not written down and can no longer be remembered.  

Nipa Hut As A Classroom

Children in the Philippines attend school in a wide assortment of buildings and shelters.  There is a serious lack of facilities to house the students and teachers. One of the solutions is the nipa hut.  It is made of an East Indian palm and the result is sturdy, cool and well ventilated. In the heat of the Philippines, this type of building is well suited.  However, when the monsoon like rain comes or the typhoon winds, the nipa hut looses its suitability.  The children just don't come to school. You can also tell by the photographs that the desks are made of wood.  What you may not be able to discern is that the surface is so gouged and uneven that students cannot write on it without putting a table of notebook underneath.  The notebooks and bollpens (not a spelling error) are not provided by the school or school district but rather by the parents or by a charitable organization such as UNICEP. The comfort rooms or "crs" are also in short supply. Most of the male population uses any bush or wall that is available and the girls use the facilities on campus or just go home. Innovation, resolve, tenacity, fortitude all of these adjectives describe the educational system here in the Philippines.