An Educational Field Trip to USLS for Bahay Pag-asa Boys

The engineering students at the University of Saint La Salle (USLS) invited the Bahay Pag-asa residents to visit their campus during University Week.  Classrooms were set up as stages, museums, zoos, and laboratories for young visitors to explore the worlds of science and culture.

Activities included a math contest (see photos above), dramatic presentations about mythology in the Philippines, interactive science displays, a museum of human anatomy (see below), and a zoo full of exotic animals including a young salt-water crocodile.

The boys really enjoyed the trip and, judging by their questions afterwards, they learned a great deal. This year we hope to have more opportunities like this so that learning for these kids can be as interesting as it can be.

Future Police Officers Visit Bahay Pag-asa

A big batch of criminology students from the Central Philippines State University at Kabankalan visited Bahay Pag-asa to learn more about programs for children in conflict with the law.  They were an attentive, polite and friendly bunch of future law enforcement officers and we were delighted to have them visit us.  The residents toured them around the center and told them a little about their experiences of being at BPYC.  Programs like this are very important because these young people will be the first contact that many CICLs (children in conflict with the law) have with the law.  If these criminology students see CICLs not so much as criminals but as future responsible citizens, then they will work with us to provide the opportunities to steer kids away from crime and into safe, happy and productive lives.

Cutting edge work - very low tech!

Here's the challenge - a field full of waist-high weeds that must become a vegetable garden to produce fresh and nutritious food for the table at Bahay Pag-asa.  Resources available:  shovels, hoes, wheelbarrows, bolos, and the dedication of staff and residents.  We have three days to get this project largely underway.

First, using a hoe ("sadol"), shovel, or your bare hands, you dig out or pull up the weeds.  This is more painful than you might think - a plant called "shy-shy" (because of its tendency to fold its leaves when touched) has vicious thorns and is mixed in with the other weeds.

Then you pack the weeds in old rice sacks so they can be transported across the property to holes prepared for their disposal.

Then you carry the weeds to their final resting place.  This bag is very heavy, but our tough resident wants us to see that he can manage this with no hands.

If all the rice bags are being used, you use a wheelbarrow.

As a last resort, or if you are an older American Brother not likely able to carry an entire rice-bag full of weeds and soil, that you can try this weed transporting method.

Finally, when the weeds are gone you begin to prepare the rows for the crops.  This row will have to be checked over the next week to continue to break up the soil and to remove any remaining weeds or weed seedlings.  Our next photos will show you the delivery of seeds and the planting of the restored garden.

Traffic Report

How's the traffic in the Philippines?  Well, like anywhere else, it depends on where you are and the time of day.  Here's a photographic report.

First, here's traffic in Manila...

Next, here's traffic in Bacolod on the island of Negros...

Now, here's traffic in the town of Granada (1 km from Bahay Pag-asa)...

And finally, here's rush hour at Bahay Pag-asa Youth Center...

So, as you can see, there are lots of options here...pick your traffic jam.

When you can't afford music lessons...

Music seems to reside in the heart of every kid here at Bahay Pag-asa Youth Center, but with budget limitations and the rising costs of the basic needs of the residents, education for the arts can easily find itself cut out.  Of course, we would prefer to have regular music lessons for the boys, but if that isn't possible, what's the next best thing?  Well, this electronic keyboard (just donated by Club Pag-asa at Cathedral High School, Los Angeles) is one way to keep music education going here.  In addition to its many functions, this keyboard has lighted keys which can teach kids how to play certain songs.  This young resident has a good ear for music and can sound out melodies.  Using this new keyboard, he is able to learn how to add chords and produce a full sound that we can use in the chapel for Mass and prayer services.  Next, he will teach the others.

Another young man has discovered that with downloaded Youtube videos and the tutorials in Garage Band, he can improve his guitar-playing.  (This computer belongs to Br. Dan, but this resident gets to make use of it each day.  He is currently working on both English and Tagalog versions of the song "Dance With My Father."  Thanks to these technologies, we can continue to offer music lessons (albeit it limited in scope) even when we can't afford the teachers we would like to have.

The Classroom as Sacred Ground

Over the course of this last busy week, I have been waking up every morning to find my chalkboard covered in facts about stars, planets, and the universe.  I'm not really used to this.  Usually, if I want science notes on the board I have to put them there myself.  It turns out that this is all the work of one boy here - our newest resident.  He is a former street kid and seems to have had little formal schooling.  But what he does have is a big interest in learning.  Two nights ago, the clouds gave way for a while and we set up the telescope.  Mars and Saturn were out, but a thundercloud blocked our view too quickly.  So we looked at some big bright stars - Vega, Antares and Arcturus.  This boy was there - eager to get his first real look through a telescope.  Yesterday, he approached me and said, "I read in a book that Jupiter rotates once every 10 hours.  Is that true?"  I realized that I wasn't sure...it seemed too fast.  But, he was right and he added this to his board facts early the next morning, before I was even awake.

As a teacher I'm used to forcing the issue.  Too often I give up on inspiring and resort to some sort of thinly-veiled threat of failure.  But when a boy who spent a very long time sleeping on sidewalks in the marketplace greets me every morning with his desire to learn all he can, I have to recognize that I may have stumbled upon sacred ground.  A burning bush would be less surprising than this manifestation of hope and wonder from a kid who should be concerned only with food and shelter.  Despite my best efforts, it's hard to be cynical here.

I wish you could see it...

A young boy walks away from his home early one morning, because life has become unbearable for him. He walks until midnight, finding himself in another city. There he lives on the street, sleeping in the market, avoiding hostile groups of teens and malicious adults. He becomes painfully thin, finding just enough to eat every few days to keep himself alive. He suffers from respiratory ailments and skin diseases. Eventually, because of petty theft or violation of curfew laws, he finds himself in a police lockup. A social worker finds him and looks for a place when he can find a temporary home. That is often when we, at Bahay Pag-asa, first meet a "child in conflict with the law." Many are quite surprised when they first come to Bahay Pag-asa because there are no "cells" like they experienced at the police lock-up or jail. They find that they now have three meals a day, classes, recreation, livelihood training and even the medical care that they may never have received previously. But most importantly, they find a family and a sense of belonging. I wish that you could see it...it's the good news of the Gospel in its most unmistakable form.