day 3 in Philippines!!

Day 3.

OH YEAH! We went to Commonwealth Elementary School, pito(uncle) Ray commonwealth was the biggest highway in Philippines. Commonwealth is a public school, its free and has less facilities, unlike the Ateneo school which is private and has more facilities. Normally, students from the public school, don’t study as well as the students from Ateneo, because they are always hungry, so they get distracted easily during lessons, and also, after school, they normally help their family to earn money instead of studying, they have limited time for studies. This made most of us quite guity because we had the luxury to study and all like the ateneo school but we didn’t really appreciate it well. He also told us about the system in Commonwealth School, he said the school has no computers or laptops, so in order for them to do their research, they have to rent the computers at the shop for 20pesos, and if they want to print out their research, they have to pay extra pesos.

When we reached Commonwealth School, the students welcomed us warmly, they were so excited to see us, this shows that they do not have many visitors in their school.

Now each of our members in the group will share our thoughts and feeling when we first stepped in the school.

Rachel: When I first entered the school, I was quite shocked to see how bad the condition of the school is, they do not have many facilities like what our school in Singapore has. Not only I was shocked, I was also a little overwhelmed, because I thought my school, my life in Singapore, just by looking at their school, and how thin the students were makes my heart ached a little. Just look at Woodlands Sec, we have indoor sports hall, proper classrooms, chairs, table, and some of the rooms have air cons, we have smooth corridors, pavements, we have big toilets, clean toilet seats, etc. But, my friends including myself, often take these for granted and we kept asking for more facilities. We complained that our school is old, ugly, but look at theirs, their condition is much worse than us. We often complained that the toilets are smelly, unhygienic, they don’t even have more than 3 toilet seats in the ladies! I looked around, I realized, all this while, I was too blind to see that im fortunate enough. From young till now, all I cared was material things, all I cared was all the nice clothes, shoes, bags in the malls, when they don’t even have proper clothes.

I was glad that we planned games for them and all, all I wanted from the starting is for them to feel happy and loved. When I went through all the games with them, they were really happy, and excited, I was thankful that im able to make them smile, really. This is like the best gift on earth, it feels like nothing can beat this kind of happiness I have there. After the games I have them the notebooks, pens, and the dragon flies I made, and I was really touched when they hugged the stuffs I gave, its like a treasure to them. They asked for my Facebook and email address, I was willing to give them, because I don’t want to end the friendship between us. I want to watch them grow, I also hope that they study hard and realize their dreams. Not only that, as for myself, I wish that I could cherish the things around me more, and not taking things for granted.  

Choojing: actually the school size is comparable to our school’s size whats different is that their school population was way bigger!! Imagine ,our school tarmac area is like already too small for us the whole population of 1000+ students to sit on but their school have like 9000+students that need to squeeze in!! luckily their school aren’t like Singapore which need morning assembly for the whole school! Their assembly only need individual class chairperson to attend>.<

At the commentweath school we had conducted games in order to interact with the student leaders there and my role at this time slot in to be a group ic>.< I am in charge of a few 12 years old kids>.< at first I thought that the students there will look like normal 12 years old student in singapore but when I reached there, I was dumbfounded! The size of their 12 years old student were as big as my 8 year old size!!! They are so skinny and small!!! I was SO SHOCKED!