If I put myself in the Filipino teachers' shoes, I can imagine us "foreigners" may be unintentionally intimidating. It could appear that us and the Canadian principal are on a "side" with each other, which isn't what we want at all. I'm sure it's not super reassuring to them that we all are able to naturally connect better with the person who is leading the school. Hopefully that's not how they feel, but I try to imagine their point of view I can imagine that as a possibility. The fact that Jhing waited until I left to tell the kids about the new system worries me that she may feel that way, like I would disagree with her or something! But maybe she just did it then because she didn't want to interrupt my teaching earlier in the day. Who knows.
As a side note, there are I believe seven classes in the entire school. Whereas I maybe wouldn't have gone to talk to the principal in the U.S. with the same situation, here she's able to get more personally involved in each classroom and wants to give ideas on how to help and make things run more smoothly for every class. My intention definitely wasn't to tattle on Jhing, and Shannon (the principal) knows that. In fact, I've told her a few times that I really need help, too! I'm pretty open about my lack of experience and am not ashamed to admit that I'm clueless when it comes to some things. Maybe sports has helped me to appreciate constructive criticism and I'm always seeking it! I need it!
Okay, so that's school! Our system is basically to give the kids two warnings for misbehavior and on the third time there's a call home to the parents. I still need to be a little more clear on what exactly our rules are, but at least we have something. Hopefully Jhing will really be willing to follow through with giving those third strikes and making the calls, because I think the kids will figure out pretty quickly if it always stops at two. Hopefully, I will be bold enough to give those third strikes, too! I can be a softie...
Shifting gears...
After meeting with the principal today, it was time for me to leave. As Jhing was heading back to the classroom she asked me if I was going to the party today. The what? Jhing is pretty good at English, but may be the worst of any of the teachers. She was saying it was the birthday party of one of the teacher's students, and I told her I didn't know anything about it. She said all the teachers were invited, and she asked if I was free. Something like that. I was pretty clueless as to what was going on. I kept asking her where and what time and she kept giving me different answers and finally told me to be at the school at 3:30. I thought it odd that the party was at the school, but hey, I'm new here so maybe school is party central. Considering I didn't know anything about it, I figured the other foreign teachers didn't either, but I know it's not the Filipino way to leave people out. I think it's just a matter of people hearing things in Tagalog and speaking about things in Tagalog and not passing the information on in English. So, knowing I would probably be the only foreigner, I figured it still would be fun to go since I had nothing to do anyway and it was just at the school.
I went home and had my alarm set for 3:00 to wake me up from a nap, but my phone beeped at around 2:30 with a text from Jhing saying, "You can come now in school." That was odd because, if anything, people usually run late around here. I rolled out of bed and headed to school only to find the Filipino teachers just visiting. Somehow I eventually found out the party was not at school and that we would be going somewhere else. Not quite what I had in mind, but okay! We waited around at school for a while for whatever reason and I sat and listened to everyone talking in Tagalog, and finally we left. We got outside of the school and stood there...and stood there...everyone else knew what was going on but I didn't want to sound silly and ask. Finally Jhing volunteered the information to me that we were waiting on the "multi-cab" van thing that's used to transport some kids to school (kind of like a school bus). They weren't trying to keep me out of the loop ever, but it just kind of happens when there are about ten of them and one of me.
I was hoping we wouldn't be going far in case I wanted to leave early because I had no idea how late the party would go or if I would be bored out of my mind, but of course I still don't even know where we ended up! So, I figured I might as well embrace it and remind myself that I had nothing else to do anyway. Part of me wanted to ask how late birthday parties go, but I figured that would be rude. The reason I was a bit worried is because the karaoke parties I hear next door sometimes will go super late, and I think some of those are kids' birthday parties.
At the party, it seemed like everyone was being hospitable to me and trying to make me feel comfortable more than anything! The first thing we did when we walked in was get food. There was a lot of it! Jhing told me that here in the Philippines, birthdays at the ages of one, seven, 18 for girls, and 21 for boys are always especially big celebrations. She said that even if you're poor, there will be a party. Well, this family was poor by American standards for sure, but there was rice, a noodle dish that's popular here (it's kind of bland but for some reason I really like it), spaghetti (of a sort), a couple of potato/meat dishes, and fish. Everyone filled their plates, and Jhing told me not to worry about my diet today. Ha! As if I had one, ever, at all, of any sort.
With the exception of maybe a couple extended family members and a couple of kids, we were the only guests! It find it interesting that this was a "huge" birthday party but there were no games and we hardly saw the birthday boy as he kept going from his room to outside and there wasn't a cake. It revolved around the food...and karaoke! No, I didn't sing, although they tried to get me to a couple of times. The only ones that sang are three of the teachers that also lead worship at church. They took turns for a few rounds, and then Jhing came over and asked me if I needed to get back for anything. I told her I was fine and didn't have anything going on and I thought she said the party would go late, but almost right after that it was like all everyone stood up and said "salamat" (thank you) to the hosts at the same time, while I sat there probably with a blank look on my face. I had just starting adjusting my mindset for a late night and then we were leaving! I hope we didn't leave early for my sake! The birthday boy appeared and we sang happy birthday to him. Then, our pastor's wife prayed for him, and we were on our way by about 5:30. I may not have gotten bored had it gone into the night, but I enjoyed my time at the party and am happy for the little bit of bonding I had with the teachers, even if they did speak Tagalog during group conversation!
After I got back, I had time to do some grocery shopping and then Elizabeth, Olivia, Lauren and I watched Memoirs of a Geisha at the house. It was a fun, homey, movie night with some amazing peanut butter popcorn Olivia made. They have a tile floor but have some long padded things that we laid on to watch the movie. I love it when I get to do fun things here like I would do at home! Makes me appreciate them that much more. To top it off, the six of us "singles" are going to have breakfast at the house in the morning. Yum! More homey fun.
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| Pastor Rolando is at the very back and Teresa in the red jacket is his wife. The rest of the adults are teachers. I caught Andrew in the middle of karaoke song. |
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| The birthday boy with his back to me. The girl in the middle and in the pink are Jhing's children. |
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