F.L.A.G

Monday, March 28, 2011

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

Friday, March 25, 2011

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

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

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