Parents Helping the school

These are the girls'  parents cleaning the day before the graduation

Everyone has to pitch in

It would be nice to have my boys come and help one day

All the furniture looked brand new after they cleaned it.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

I think Monica wants to stay here with the girls

Monica watching them dance

Angel, Monica and Lyrics.  SMILE Angel!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

They might be small but they are big at heart!!

Jon's spends as much time he can with them during our visit

Leslie ( on his right) she is spunky one! He is like Santa !

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

STUDENTS ALWAYS LAUGHING

It seems that every time I visit the school, they always have a big smile on their face. I always think there's something on my face that makes them laugh. There is one shy girl that doesn't interact as much as the others. She is always smiling but doesn't talk much to others much. We will get to the bottom of that.

The girls health is good but we will need to have them checked thoroughly because the free service here for check up is not very good, they only check blood pressure, eyes, all the very basic things but they don't extract blood for testing so we don't know if they have any type of illness that cannot be diagnosed by the basic check up. We hope that we can find a doctor here that would do that work for us as a volunteer service.

They are in desperate need of a dentist, their teeth needs work from my visual assessment. They brush their teeth at least twice a day. They were taught to take care of it and we provide them with the necessary tools to do so. I am hoping to connect with a local dentist to help us with treatment and check ups.

The girls are very happy and looking forward to see Monica. There's no school on Monday, but we will be at the school because the parents are coming over to clean the school. They help with the cleaning and making sure the facilities are in good condition. I love the fact they do come and help and that they are committed to their children's future.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

Travel and Food tips

If you travel to the Philippines and use the public transport such as, jeep, tricycle, bus, etc. Just a quick tip, if you can use the LRT or MRT, it's the fastest way to travel. Sometimes faster than the cars. There is so much traffic in Manila and surrounding areas that if you travel by car or bus, prepare to be late, wherever you go. Dasmarins to Manila is about 2 1/2 - 3 hours depending on traffic, it's only 44 km away.

If you need to take the taxi from the airport, don't settle for the metered taxi, although it's much cheaper than the airport taxi but they will drive you around in circles just to get their meter fee higher. I am not saying they all do it, but it does happen. Use the Airport taxi, it's more expensive but since you pay a flat fee, they don't need to drive you in circles just to raise the meter fee, you get home faster. If you get a good driver, TIP THEM ( if you can), they work hard for a living.

FOOD:
Jolibee Spicy BBQ Chicken - Good deal for the price you pay. for under $4 you get 2 pieces of chicken with some rice. Chicken is small so if you have a big appetite, this is not for you. Flavour is okay it's more sweet and spicy. This is our McDonald's

Max Fried Chicken - For under $5 you will get 1 quarter chicken (small chicken) some rice with fresh lumpia. the chicken is very deep fried that you barely taste the chicken and more like eating chicken chips, that's how crunchy it is. If crunchy is what you're looking for then this is for you.

Dencio - they have very good Sizzling Sisig and fried shrimp. they also have a bucket of beer for $5, there's 5 beer in a bucket. For the people out there that's familiar with San Miguel Beer, their light beer is fantastic. They call their promo "sub zero temp beer". It means they serve you the beer really cold. I thought that's the way it should be served, but what do I know, I don't drink that often. They also have great service.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

Parent / Teacher meeting

The girls and I had a good time today. We are getting to know each other more each time. It's going to be hard to say goodbye to them when I need to leave for Canada. We play, laugh, learn and sing more now and they are such Angels that it will be so hard to say goodbye.

Met their mothers and/or guardians today, explain to them what will happen now that some of their children will be attending regular academic grade school. We have been notified that 2 more of our students have passed the grade school acceptance test, however we are not sure if the other two girls are psychologically ready to attend regular academic school due to their attention to detail.

The ones who are leaving will still be joining our school in the afternoon for tutoring. Their classes are only in the morning and they will be back at our school in the afternoon to ensure proper hygiene is followed and that they are fed, also to review progress. They will also be attending our summer school to ensure they can keep up with the public school system. Since they were street kids, they need more attention and guidance.

My mother in law and her friend joined us today as well. they are both retired teachers and offered to help. They will visit the school often to help with the girls, teaching, cooking, etc. they also taught elementary grade school kids, they are used to the chaos.

Next week will be the graduation and the kids are now practicing their presentations and getting ready for the next stage of their lives. they are really excited and it's a bitter sweet feeling for them. They don't want to leave because they know that we helped them so much and treated them with love and care. They do know that moving forward will make them learn more and interact with the other school kids their age.

More to come, we will be interviewing the parents and children that are coming in for the June 2011 school year. exciting time. Stay tuned!!

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

New Photos

Jon captured few pics before summer vacation begins!!

Here are some of them. 

So well behaved! It was only a year ago when we started

This is where he belongs..

I'm sure he was telling them some silly jokes

Lunch time.. yum

Nap time

                      goofing around

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

Monday morning class

The girls have changed so much since we met them last year. They have gained weight, well behaved and interacts really well with people. I will be posting pictures later and you might fall in love with them as much as we did. As soon as I walked in the classroom, they said good morning all together like a girl band singing. They were shocked at first because they only see me normally via video chat. Once they realized it was me they started hugging me and jumping all over me. That was very happy moment that even if we are so far apart from each other, they knew that I love them so much. I wish one day that my boys will get to meet all of them, The girls and my boys would really get along well.

To all of our donors, thank you very much for your support with your help we were able to help these children be better people and become little angels they were meant to be.

 Please watch out for the picture I will be posting soon.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

Finally Here

Arrived at the Philippine airport at 11:00 on March 17. Hot and humid about 29c with the humidity probably around 35 at least. Haven't had a chance to see the girls yet, it's the weekend and they are not at school and I missed the feeding program because it's usually around lunch time. When I see them on Monday, I will take pictures and videos.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

Flight Update

The Korean plane was great for the price we paid.

• There's a TV on every headrest for personal viewing.
• You can select the shows you want to watch
• They provide you with slippers, toothbrush, toothpaste, pillows, blankets and headset for the tv.
• The food was not good but edible
• Flight was long over 14 hours but this is one of the shortest flight in the market when you're going to the Philippines.
• The seats were uncomfortable but all plane seats are uncomfortable, unless you travel first class

The security checks are fast becasue it's 4:00 am Korean time so there's not a lot of travellers at this time. Now I am just playing the waiting game, I have 4 hours to burn with NO stores and restaurants open. Time to watch movies on my laptop.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

Airport Waiting

This was a fantastic time to travel. My boarding time is 11:20 pm with Korean Air going to the Philippines. I arrived at the airport at 9:30 and I was checked in within 26 minutes. Fastest I have ever experienced in check in, including security checks for international flights.

I suggest to people that will be travelling to the Philippines, use Korean and take the midnight flight on a Thursday. Not a lot of people.

now my stomach is grmbling from anxiety, cant wait to see the girls and give them all a nice big hug. Worried about my boys in Toronto, Hope they will be okay within the time we are away. Hopefully no parties.

More later.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs,

The F.L.A.G team

Introduction to this BLOG

Hi All,

If you don't already know. My wife and I opened a school in the Philippines last year. We visited the Philippines and met many new people including very poor children. All of them have never attended school. They are within the ages of 6 - 11 years old, even though we only met them a couple of times, it's hard not to fall in love with them. They are such wonderful children and looks at the world much different than we do. Most of them are lucky if they have a decent meal every 2 days, that's how poor they are. They sleep in cardboard boxes in a room smaller than our closet. They don't have houses but lives in a shed or whatever roof they may find.

We decided at that time to give up whatever we can financially and build a school to better these children's lives. Check out our website at Fundamental Learning Academy for Girls and meet the girls that attends our school. At the school we provide them with food, uniform, school material and basic equipment. Most importantly, we provide with the education not only academic but the entire fundamentals that we all learned in Kindergarten, such as hygiene, sharing, communication, conflict resolution, etc. FLAG is preparing them to enter the regular academic school and be placed to as close to their proper grade level.

Last month, we were notified that six or our students passed the exam and have qualified to enter the academic public school system. This was a proud moment of all of us including our friends and family that joined the cause. We are opening the school up during their summer season (April and May) as well, to ensure their progress and to help them with the standard curriculum for the public school system.

Monica and I will update this blog regularly for you to meet the girls at our school, meet the new students that are coming in for the coming school year and to understand why we are doing this for the Philippine community.

Thank you and I hope you follow my BLOG. I promise to make it as interesting as possible.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again,

Hugs from,

The F.L.A.G team