High Point

Sorry for the long delays in posting.  It's been very frustrating getting any internet access!  Argh.
I'm with Alana and Jacques at a fancy Internet cafe near the waterfront.  We went for a long walk along this fancy pedestrian boulevard after the first day of the workshop.

I'm still processing the craziness of the workshop, but I wanted to tell you about the awesome experience I had last night...

Alana and Jacques, as it so happens, are wonderful and generous folks.  They're donating their apple laptop and projector to the LCP (little children of the Philippines) where Alana worked for two years.  The laptop has about 300 movies on it!  We watched on with the kids last night "White Fang" with Ethan Hawke.  Not a film I would normally sit through, but sitting in a big room with 27 boys and girls (from 6 up to 16) in the muggy heat, watching a film about the frozen Klondike...well, that was a treat.

When a grizzly bear suddenly shows up and starts chasing Jack...OMG you should've heard those kids scream!  Their reactions to the various twists and turns of the plot were priceless.  I did wonder what they made of the evil dogfighting men and scenes, given that cockfighting is the national sport.

Alana passed out 2 little Halloween Peanut Butter cups to each of the kids.  I declined to take any, but then I  had three or four kids offer me their second candy!  So generous!  These are kids living in a freaking orphanage!

When Jacques, Alana and I went back to our little building and he opened the door a HUGE toad jumped out from inside and we all let out a yelp!  At first I thought it was a rat!  I fell asleep with a smile from the sweetness of the kids, but also smelling burning garbage from down the road.  This is a very different country.

Today we had 27 people show up for the workshop, which was great.  Turns out there actually are windows with actual glass and the noise from the big carnival across the road wasn't that bad.  There were other frustrations and weirdness though.  Big time.

For example, Filipinos are used to just talking during class.  Jacques warned me about this.  They just chat with eachother whenever wherever.  Shockingly disrespectful if it happened in the US.  Totally normal here.

Also, no one will raise their had or answer my questions in the group.  It was like pulling teeth to get a volunteer.  Except there is a woman from Nigeria, different culture!  Thank god.  Some of the people are very sharp and seem to be getting it, but others I can't tell at all.  And the whole thing about having to stop for snacks....it's a big deal and seems so juvenile somehow.

Apparently their school system, Catholic school for all!, trains them to be totally passive.  Nothing much is expected of them, according to Jacques.  I did a lot more group tapping than I usually do--they really respond to that, and lots of gory case studies.

Oh well, enough for now!