Interesting

Interesting, how another person in England by the name of Pat Stanley was able to visit my site due to my blogging about Father Caroff.

Father Caroff was initially a customer. He came to the store to purchase items for his farm project in Timanan, Upi. He came to my husband specially for the purchase of car parts because his car needed to be in good condition to travel to the far flung area. My husband and Father Caroff became good friends. He was invited by the good priest to visit Timanan several times. At one occasiion, Lucas made preparations to go but a big rain canceleled the trip. It was unsafe to travel on a zigzaging dirt road to Upi. My husband never got to visit him in Timanan, more so when Father Caroff was kidnapped in the 80's by the Muslim rebels.
Soon after he was released by his captors, Father Caroff was transfered to Antipas, North Cotabato. Father continued with his farming project in Bugwak. Although the new location was nearer Davao, yet he continued to purchase from the store in Cotabato. He showed pictures of his new farm. He was very proud of it. The gravity pump he used for irrigation earned him a lot of respect. His New Galilee farm was even featured as a model farm in one of the Philippine magazines. But his visit to Cotabato city became less and less. For a long time, we were not able to see him - a period of two or more years maybe.
Early this year, a Filipino priest who took over Father Caroff former project in Timanan came to the store. He told us that Father was gravely ill and that he could no longer walk nor move around. He was afraid that father Caroff may not last till April. Upon hearing the news, my husband and I immediately took a trip to visit him in Bugwak. We found him still all right despite his crippling disease. Although physically weak, he was still very much incharged of the model farm and its people. We knew he could still hang on.

Father Caroff  is sick because his body can not expel the toxin inside. He is physically disabled but his mind is lucid. He is however well taken care off by people he brought from Upi. He is happy when people visit him. He is 82 years old and he may not live longer than 5 years but we are happy to have visited and talked to him. We continue to communicate with him through cellphone calls or sms texting. He is such a dear person, no wonder he has many friends who are concern about his well being.

Roy in Seattle

 Roy has arrived Seattle safely last Sunday. He went on a cross country drive from Virginia to Seattle. That's pretty far. He will be staying temporarily with Joel, his college friend from UA&P. Here's wishing him more than the best of everything in his new job. Thank God for his safe trip. 

yearbook

So, this morning we had a 15th year anniversary lay-outing seminar for our school yearbook publication. We shall be gathering materials and of course soliciting sponsorships. Anybody who would like to volunteer? I am sorry I have to tap some friends and also a few relatives for the sponsorship. Don't ever avoid or hide from me. hahaha! see you soon!

free food

I got lots of free food from relatives and friends who came home from either Manila, Davao and Kidapawan. Thanks to the following:
1. Chin Chin my wedding inaanak from Kidapawan - rambutans
2. Siolan who came home from Davao - machangs
3. Dominic & Carol who came home from the Kadayawan in Davao: marang, durian and tofu
4. Conchita Tan shared her gifts from bride to be Josephine Cue - longans, apples and oranges
5. Alex Chiong- durian
6. From a customer in Upi - 5 native durian fruits.
7. Lucio- hopias from Ongpin
Not to mention I have young coconuts from my lot which I can freely pick everyday. It's no wonder that I am gaining weight. yum yum yum

teaching

I love teaching. I am passionate about how my students or pupils learn from me. I become exasperate whenever there are two or more who don't get the lesson right. I use various teaching devices or methods to get across. I forget about my personal problems when inside the classroom. All I want is for each pupil to learn. Infact I focus more attention at the slower ones, giving more seatworks and homeworks to drill. I give more than 10 quizzes in a grading period to have more bases for evaluation. I like to tell relevant stories for motivation, give lots of drills and also plentiful of blackboard works for practice and mastery. Recently my newphew Eugene asked me whether it is difficult to be a teacher. I said "No, it is difficult only when parents begin to contend for their own children's academic honors." hahahatsk, tsk tsk....

Lucas' paintings 2

birthday party at Jollibee

Happy Birthday Dylan

Dylan's Jollibee birthday party

Dylan had his first public birthday party celebrated at Jollibee on August 11, 2007. Tom and Angel invited their friends and relatives to a superheroes theme party. I added a few of my intimate friends too and they all came. There were face painting, ballon twisting, games, clowning of the Jolibee mascot and snacks for kids and adults . Guests arrived at 3:30 pm and the party was over at 6. It was a well attended party and Dylan was the happiest birthday celebrant you ever see. He was laughing and laughing and screaming at the Jollibee mascot. He reached out to touch him and laughed real loud. Dylan wasn't afraid to let relatives and friends carry him. He was very friendly and so he was happily passed around. He was the perfect host of his own first birthday party. hahaha!!! Here's wishing him for more birthdays to come.

Dylan's first birthday

Dylan turned one year old last August 10, 2007. Lucas and I were in Manila for the happy occasion. Luz (Angel's mom) was also at our home to teach Angel how to cook birthday noodles.( cha misua is really tricky and difficult to cook ).  All of us helped prepared the ingredients the eve before the birthday and Luz cooked the longlife noodles early in the morning of August 10. The noodle was well done and delicious. We shared them mostly to our relatives and friends near home: to Claire Chua, Joan and Jocelyn Tan, Jun and Jean Ledesma, Helen Tansuk and their families.
At night we further celebrated it with a simple family dinner at home. We had custard icing birthday cake for Dylan, palabok, fried native chicken, soup and rice. It was indeed a happy day for celebration. Happy happy first birthday to my grandson Dylan Noah Tan!!!

Doctor Roy Patrick Tan

Hi, I am very happy and proud to announce that Roy has successfully defended his ph.d dissertation last August 8. Thank God for this wonderful blessing He shall soon be leaving for Seattle to embark in a computer corporate career. Congratulations Roy!!! And thank you everyone for your prayers.

Into August

August 3 at 9 am, I got a call from Marion from the infirmary of Ateneo de Manila. She had abdominal pain. The doctor suspected appendicitis. She wanted Marion to be brought to the hospital for blood exam. Martha had no classes that day and together with Angel who absent herself from work, they took Marion to the er at St. Luke hospital. I enplaned the same day from Cotabato to Manila to see Marion. Although I was worried but yet I was kind of calm for Marion had the same malady 5 years ago.

5 years ago, she had abdominal pain and was brought to see a doctor. She was diagnosed by a well known surgeon to have appendicitis. She went through several tests but it was not appendicitis, some false alarm. I brought her to another internist for a second opinion. The internist said it was nothing alarming but the pain can reoccur again. 

So it did, but whatever the pain was, I wanted to be with my baby. The results from the hospital turned out negative for UTI or appedicitis. We were told to observe further but the pain subsided after 2 days. She is now back to school but is refraining from doing strenous activities. In the meantime, I am staying in Manila for a few more days for further observation and most importantly to be with my children. Don't worry, Marion is fine, I am sure.

long and eventful July

Today is August 2 and I heave a sigh of relief. Not that I don't like the month of July but that so many things had happened last month that I had to cope up with a lot of concerns. I prayed for things to turn out right and thank God everything has come out good.
1. To begin with, I dismissed my new house-help on July 2 for not coming home the second time after a sunday's break. I was busy looking for replacement as there were lots of cleaning up to do at home. I found two stayout helps soon enough.
2. The family driver had a slight car incident on July 6 in Ateneo. Distressingly, the other car owner was not very rational. It was a good thing that Marion acted logically and sensibly. As I was not in Manila, I prayed to God to enlighten the other party and hoped for the insurance agent to decide rightly. Our car was brought for repair and returned good after two weeks. There was no further claim from neither one of us.
3. For the whole month of July, my most dependable and reliable teacher went on maternity leave. I had to carry on additional tasks and assigned some works to the other teachers. Yet I soon found out that the other teachers took the absence and work of Mrs. Hornido upon their own shoulders. They were really quite responsible. I really do appreciate the teamwork here.
4. Martha got lbm from the food of a wedding banquet she attended at Crowne Plaza on July 30. The episode started early in the morning to late afternoon. She was absent from school the whole day and was feeling weak. If her condition worsen, we would bring her to the hospital. As I was in Cotabato, I worry as to who would take care of her in the hospital. Angel, my daughter-in-law volunteered to watch over her. I was greatly relieved. Martha got better though that night, but still Angel and the whole family slept with her in the room. I verily thank God for having Angel as my daughter-in-law.
4.That same night while I was talking to my family in Manila over the phone and praying hard for Martha to recover, another incident took place here in Cotabato. The maids of Tina ( my sister-in-law was vacationing in Baguio) were fighting violently in their own room. They were sisters though,  the younger girl stabbed the elder sister with a sharp scissors. Blood spurted all over. I went over their house to help take control of the situation but I got scared at the blood and the crying of the wounded maid. Instead I scolded  the perpetrator and told her to help her own sister. My maid was fast enough to help  with a tourniquet handkerchief. Dominic brought Tina's maid to the emergency clinic and she came home with a bandaged arm. We separated the two sisters that night, the wounded girl slept in my house and the other sister slept in theirs. Oh what a mess.
But everything is ok now. Martha is well and the violent maid was sent back home.