Tuesday, February 21, 2005
This is me climbing the steps up the hill from Busay School. The school is at the bottom of a steep canyon – the steps are set into the mud of the hillside – a scary thought after the recent mud slides. I am carrying flowers the children gave to me. Most of their parents are flower farmers and sellers. They sell the flowers on the streets of Cebu City. This area is about 15 minutes away from where we live! The school is divided into two parts. The older children have about 7 classrooms at the bottom of the hill in the valley. Half the school was washed away in mudslides in 1995. The younger children have their classes in a covered basketball court on the side of the hill – about 100 stone stairs up the canyon side. The Principal doesn’t like to go up and down the steps – she thinks it is too dangerous so she stays in the upper school and has a head teacher in the lower one. The school has a garden and the children grow vegetables. One class was making weather vanes out of cardboard in pots of plaster of Paris. We had a very interesting time visiting this school. They actually had a library for the older children, plenty of desks and supplies. The teacher for manual arts was a baker so they have a large oven and are teaching the children how to work in a bakery! This is in the same room with the saws and hammers where they teach wood shop. Yikes! Unfortunately, the school doesn’t qualify for humanitarian aid since the local school district and city charities have them fairly well-stocked – by the standards here. Elder Crespo and Elder VanderVeen – the two office elders, and Nats – our office cleaner – resident of Busay – and ward Young Men’s President, went with me. We had a great time.
