Dearest Austin, What Are You Doing?

It’s been a long time since my last blog post and things have changed. Here’s what’s up in a digestible snapshot, via list:

1.      EDUK has taken a serious backburner position. This has more to do with the nature of the beast; it’s difficult to fast-track a major social effort with an American at the helm. The program isn’t dead, but will be brought to life in a slow fashion, incrementally and likely not before I leave.

2.      The freezing of EDUK put me out of a program development job, so my main work has now been completely shifted from the office and into the field. I am now a teacher. I teach Street Children English in the best way I can, every morning until noon.

Teaching Street Children sounds complicated enough if you think of how much training real teachers get in their years of schooling. If I were to dwell on how un-certified I am at being a teacher, I would be reduced to puddle of tears. Ergo, I set my goals at a reasonable level: show up and try.

Class starts around 9am every day. The class is made up of two main groups: Street Children and Bajau Children. Street Children are defined in a myriad of ways but can be boiled down to: living on the street, working on the street instead of going to school, and can’t afford school. Bajau Children are the children of displaced Sea Gypsies referred to as Bajau. We have a settlement in Cabanatuan near the Street Children classroom and since the Bajau are incredibly poor, some of their children attend our classes.

The Children come in many different ages. We have a ultra-young group of children who are 5-7 and then the ages go up from there, all the way to one 18 year old. Median age is around 12. Usually there are 20 Children in attendance on any single day.

There are now three teachers, including me. My apologies to actual-fully-trained teachers for co-opting your title but please allow it in this instance for simplicities sake. The two other teachers are Susan and Odet and were formally volunteers but are now full-time employees. If you’re curious, they make 200 pesos a day and typically work over eight hours a day.

The classroom is simple and could be referred to as rustic in appearance. It’s in a donated room of the bus terminal on the edge of the city. The room is on the second floor. There’s no proper electricity but thanks to the police station downstairs (and a long extension cord) we have some electricity. There is no running water or bathroom. Most of the bus station is abandoned except for small stores, but the station is still used for transportation purposes.

Lessons last only until around 11am when snacks (merienda) are served before the Children leave at noon. The lessons us teachers provide are mainly Basic English and math lessons. The levels of the children range widely, some are still grasping the totality of the alphabet.

As a new teacher, I have modest goals. Currently I want to really nail the alphabet down. With the alphabet fully understood and the ability to write it as well, I think we can see some serious forward movement.

I’m still on the lookout for help from other PCVs here in the Philippines, and especially from the teachers in my batch. I’m hoping with their help I can at least push the Street Child Education in Cabanatuan City in the right direction before I leave in 6-7 months.

Hug/Kiss/Shake hands with a teacher. Education doesn't just happen magically. Although, I’m trying.