Holy Week Observance 2009

My husband and I, successfully followed all the holy week rituals at our parish, the Queen of Peace Church in Cotabato City this year and loved them.
1. We had confession on Holy Thursday, attended the "Last Supper" mass and did 30 minutes of vigil at the transfered tabernacle. The confession and mass was heard and presided by Monsignor Antonio Pueyo, DCC. Father Pueyo used to be our parish priest some 15 years ago and I think he was here this holy week to help out our ailing priest Father German Tiaga, DCC. Father Pueyo and Father Tiaga were former classmates in the seminary.
2. We also got to follow the Way of the Cross procession done on Good Friday morning. One of the stations, the Six Station was put infront of our store at Magallanes St. This was a special favor given to my sister-in-law Conchita A. Tan, who has been a very active leader in the church. I was the lead reader of the Six Station. In the afternoon, my husband and I also attended the Adoration of the Cross and communion service at 3:00 PM.
3. The Easter Vigil Mass with the renewal of the baptismal vow on Saturday was the longest mass ever but the rites in Queen of Peace Church didn't make it feel that long. I was able to attend Easter Vigil masses in many other churches in the Philippines, and I must say, I do appreciate it more inside my own parish church.
4. Then my husband and I woke up at 4AM this morning to join the "Salubong" and happily we participated in the Easter Sunday Eucharistic Celebration. I was also inducted as a new member of the Lecom community. Happy Easter everyone!!!

CCI faculty trip to Davao

It was a well organized faculty field trip, kind of a year end fellowship excursion. We were more than thirty members but only 26 came along. Transportation was sponsored by book companies Phoenix and SIBS. They provided the school with 3 vans and 3 drivers plus cost of fuel for 3days and two nights from April 6 to 8. I brought my own car and driver though and together with Lechu, Sofia and Tuanchu, my travelling company went on convoy with the rest of the groups.
Our first itinerary was Agco, Kidapawan - the now popular hot spring location at the foot of Mt Apo. I had visited the place before but this time I climbed a wee bit higher with the teachers to have a bigger view of the steaming hole. The scenery was magnificent and beautiful. I can go back again and again and not get tired of the view.
We reached Davao at four pm and were billeted at the WaterWorld Resort. We stayed in a two-room dormitory with 10 bunk beds in each room. The karaokes at the resort played all day and all night. Some teachers slept early, others woke up early. Some teachers slept quietly, others noisily. hahaha!
When I woke up drowsily the next morning, the teacher at my right bunk Mrs. Grace Quinones was already afresh and dressed up. I looked at my watch and thought my watched had stopped at 3:30 AM.
 " What time is it Maam? " I asked softly and sleepily.
 " 3:30 AM Maam, Good morning" Came the cheery reply.
 "What?!" I really couldn't believe it! How can they be up that early!
I thought I needed to go to the toilet, so I got up. Along the way I saw most of my colleagues already awoke and talking. I slouched myself silently through for I wanted to go back to sleep, but all the toilets and bathrooms were fully occupied. I had to wait for 20 minutes or so, by that time, I was fully awake liked the rest of them. Hahaha!
Day 2 - We went to the Philippine Eagle Center, Malagos Garden Resort, GAP Farm. By 4 pm we were already all sweaty and hot, so we decided to forgo the Crocodile Farm. We went to SM Mall instead and stayed there until 9 in the evening. That night I went to sleep at past midnight serenaded by all forms of snoring. hahaha! but I didn't hear the karaoke blasting all through-out the night though, for some of them sang until all their money were gone.
April 8 and most of the teachers woke up later than the previous day. hahaha. Sofia and Tuanchu and Mr. Benjun went to market to buy the necessary things for our cook-out at the beach. The beach was nice and clean and the water not icy cold. We took our swim before the sun became too hot. We had early lunch at 10 AM with sinugbang bangus, barrileson, liempo, fresh cucumber, tomatoes, mangoes, latu and lots of rice. After the picnic lunch, we got all set to come back home to dirty and troublesome Cotabato and home sweet home :) It was a really a fun worthwhile trip! I'm going to miss the outing next year! Hahaha!

Off the hook

Finally! I did my last day of reporting on March 31, 2009 at CCI.
It was card giving day and most of the class advisers were busy. Since I wasn't a class adviser, I had actually nothing much to do except helped an English class adviser answer questionnaires for a student who was transferring. Then together with the Chinese teachers, I had an early pot luck lunch at the Chinese faculty room. While eating with the Chinese teachers, I participated in a discussion that concerns faculty membership fees ( or a refund of them ) - an issue that divided into two factions of thinking and grouping. Since I was relative new and didn't know what transpired many years ago, I stayed passive and neutral. The Chinese teachers though had plenty to say but the problem with them was few were vocal during faculty meetings. ( Probably there is only one teacher who can really voice out her opinion but sometimes she is short of hearing and understanding of meeting agendas.) They wanted me to speak for them but I told them that I'm out of cci starting April 1st and that the next faculty meeting would be on April 16. Infact I told them that the issue had been discussed already during two separate meetings and since they were present but nobody opposed, the refund (or in any other form of name) was already approved. If they wanted to take up the matter again, they have to be present during the next cci faculty meeting which will be on the 16th. The Chinese teachers this time wanted the meeting to be moved earlier, infact right that day,  for they were kind of heated up already but the English department teachers wouldn't agree to it. One Chinese teacher became nasty though declaring war, and they moved the meeting one day earlier from April 16 to April 15...............which I doubt would make any difference.
I had lately taught at cci from June 2008 to March 2009. For those ten months I was there, many things were so unorganized and still are............. I am glad I am out, finally!

a very long March

This March finds me working hard, finishing my tasks in school:
1. Going over all the notebooks and work texts of the kids, pasting all remaining quizzes,  finishing remaining exercises, computing all the grades, getting the weighted percentages   etc etc
2. Preparing finals test papers - I make lively test papers with lots of picture clues. I enjoy  making good looking test papers though. hehehe
3. Signing pertinent papers and records as department head.
4. Deliberation of honors
5. Graduation rehearsals ( lots of issues here )
6. Graduation Day
7. Recognition day for undergraduate honor pupils ( many issues from the parents )
8. Parties, parties and parties
9. Reports and clearances
10. and everything is not over yet....hehehe...more eating engagements to come

To add to all of these physical activities ....is an emotional concern for my family in Manila....... Two weeks ago, a house maid in Manila got sick. After an on and off recurrence of fever, she was confined at St. Luke Hospital. The doctors there would not admit her in the ward but rather put her instead in a private room for suspicion of infectious disease. After undergoing several blood testing, she was diagnosed to be sick of german measles. Angel, my daughter-in-law who attended to the sick helper while at home was six months pregnant and this really got us all worried that she may get contaminated with rubella. For the boys,  Tom and Emil had either contracted or was vaccinated with the disease but the girls, nobody could recall. Angel went to see her OB and the twins, their pediatrician. They went through certain blood testing to determine whether they had the illness before. While waiting for the results which took days, I asked all of them to pray. We were most concerned about Angel and the baby in her womb. (The sickness is most critical to the unborn child.) During those few days, I think my heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. I prayed really hard... I added my call for help to the Blessed Mother who is a mother to us all, to St. Joseph - protector of our homes, to St. Therese of the Child Jesus to intercede... and finally Angel's test result came and lo, I was so happy for she had been exposed to the illness before and is immune from it already. I am really really very thankful for her protection. I love you my God for loving us.
Updating the blood results, the twins had negative indications and so they went for their vaccinations last Saturday. After which they celebrated their birthday with their high school peer group at trinoma.
And Tom has renovated and repainted the children's room this March. I saw the pictures from Tom"s site. What a long March :) Done so many things and the month is not over yet. hahaha

cci finals

CCI is having its final examination week. All testing must end this Friday, yet today March 10 is already my last day of finals in English Communication. But there is no relief yet. There are still test papers to correct and grades to compute and deliberation of honors and faillures too. Infact a lot of parents came to school this morning: those who were fetching their children to bring them home earlier after the exam, those who came in behalf of their children to ask for special consideration due to illness, some parents came to see me to discuss about a kiddie graduation party in the premise; and a lot more parents I saw in the administrative building discussing with teachers and department heads regarding their children behavioral and academic problems. (By the way the principal was not around the whole day through). There was this one unreasonable mother crying. She was angry at a certain teacher. She couldn't believe her daughter would lie to her and blame it all on the teacher. Then as if things were not chaotic enough, we were informed of a faculty meeting at 10AM. I left all my uncorrected papers hurriedly to attend the meeting. The faculty meeting was conducted by the president of the faculty organization. It was about our forth coming teacher's excursion in April and the sewing of new sets of uniform for the next school year. Hahaha Surely, I'm going to miss the hullabaloos at cci next school year. hahaha!

35th year wedding anniversary

Our 35th wedding anniverary was happily celebrated with with friends and relatives. Sister Jeannette gifted us with an anniversary cake and it was fun eating it and drinking our champagne too :) hahaha! Enjoy our pictures. ( I just realized that I wore the same outfit as I did during the Chinese New Year) hehehe. What a happy prosperous coincidence!!!

Chinese New Year Pics

The three senior Tan brothers were present this year namely Lucio, Luna and Lucas. Conchita was out of town, Tina was around and I did most of the preparations at home. Lucio came in early. Eugene and family were late, so there was no picture of them. Lucas took few pictures only. I think he was busy drinking beer with Lucio :) hahaha