This Post is Gonna Be A Doozy!

After a very long and amazing day, I find myself lying on my bed wanting to take a nap before dinner, but also wanting to take a moment to reflect on our field trip!
The Education sector visited 5 different area schools today: a few elementary schools, a few high schools, and a college.  I absolutely loved all of the schools and all of the children but I'm beyond excited to be working in an Elementary school after seeing a few today!  We pulled up to the first school and saw lots of little hands reaching through barred windows waving at us!  It was so cute and made us feel like celebs!

Here is the Vision and the Mission of the first school we visited:

All of the faculty and staff at all of the schools (children, also) were so incredible welcoming to us!  There were smiles on everyone's faces and most schools had "Welcome Peace Corps Volunteer" signs poster around the school!

Most of the classes we walked into said some kind of welcoming chant in unison.  Here's an example!

('Mabuhay' basically means 'Welcome!")

The first class we observed even performed their daily song for us! (Can you imagine American kids doing this??)  Here's the link to my YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y097omYve40&feature=g-upl

Most of the kids were wearing shoe caps on their feet so that their classrooms floors stayed cleaner.  In some classrooms, the students even took off their shoes and walked around in socks!

At all of our observations, we had time near the end to take a group of students to chat with.  We were able to ask them questions in Tagolog and they would answer in English so that we could both practice our languages.  This was my first group, they were so excited to take a picture with me!

The resources at all of the schools are very sad.  Some had a "library" but upon closer inspection, all of the books were covered in 2" of dust and were published in 1980.  Others didn't have a library at all.  One school had a really nice "Media Room".  They had a few working computers and were even using a SmartBoard!  This "Media Room", on the other hand, needs some work.  One good thing, though, is that they definitely have enough chairs! :)

 Most classrooms were inside (with open air windows) but this classroom was completely outside with a permanent roof over the desk area.  I can't even imagine how distracting the environment must be for these little ones!  It looked like they must have been Kindergarteners or 1st graders, too!

Here's another one of the greeting we received when arriving at the school:

At this school, some of the students even put on a little show for us! I have the 5 min. long recording but it's too long to mess with right now.  I'll try to upload it later.  Here are some of the students in their costumes lining up before the show, though!

By this point in the day, it was so ridiculously hot that we were all dripping with sweat.  I noticed that mostly everyone had some sort of folded napkin or folded bandana to pull out of their pocket and wipe the sweat off.  I'm definitely going to start carrying one!  There are fans in most of the rooms, but when it's close to 100 degrees, a fan blowing hot air around doesn't do much for you.  

Here's the 2nd group of students I was able to chat with.  They were equally as excited for pictures!

This school had beautiful outdoor spaces for students to spend time in.  There were also paintings EVERYWHERE, all over the walls throughout the school and outside.  You can see Dora in the background here!

Did I mention that these Elementary school serve thousands of kids?  The first one, I believe, enrolls 4,000 kids and the second has 2.400 students.  They go in shifts at the first school.  Shift one goes from 6:30am to 12pm and shift two starts at 12:30 and goes to 6.  They're trying to implement a third shift that will start next year, they didn't really say what time those students will go to school, though.

  

Here's my third group of kids!  They were very talkative and some spoke very good English!  I told them I love to play basketball and they asked if I was friends with Lebron James. Haha!

We went to a Science HS in the afternoon to observe and chat with students and the building looked pretty amazing compared to what we had seen before.  The kids and staff were just as welcoming and energetic.  For a lot of the kids I spoke with today, I was the first American they had ever met!  Each and every group asked me if I had a boyfriend and when I said "yes" they all giggled.  It was so cute!

Here I am with my group in the Science High School!

Loved this school's motto!!

On our trip we passed by a beautiful vista of the "world's smallest volcano" (or so I heard).  It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but the volcano is the sloped looking mountain on the far right of the island.  Apparently it has a lake in the crater!  The last eruption was in 1908 but every once in a while it will smoke or blow some small chunks. No worries, though! :)

It the City College we visited I spotted this sign that said the students have to pay one peso for every Tagolog word they say in the "English Speaking Zone"!

This is the college building:

That's it for my photos from today.  I feel like I have so much more to say about the schools we visited so I may do a "Reflections" post later.  Stay tuned! :)