Santa Arrives Early at Pinagalaan School

 

School supplies being prepared for distribution today 

Christmas arrived early at Pinagala-an Elementary School today when a fresh batch of school supplies was distributed to all the pupils at the school.  We had been getting close to using up all the money we have so far raised when we got a very generous donation of 250 pounds from a kind hearted individual in Newton Mearns.  This meant we have been able to do another distribution of school supplies to all the teachers and the pupils. Thanks a lot “Mr A” – the pupils really appreciate your gift.

Last week we therefore went up to the school and asked the teachers to give us a list of which school supplies they needed most.  This worked well as we were able to make sure everything they got was what they really needed.  We even got details like what brand of chalk etc. was their favourite – not something I would have thought of if they hadn’t told us (it is a brand called ‘Venus’ in case you want to know !).   

We also took them some pop-up books Bill brought out from Scotland with him, which my sister Karen had bought at a school sale in Newton Mearns.  They were all about grammar, science and maths but in a pop-up book form.  All I can say is that if the pupils get as much fun out of them as the teachers did they will be a huge success as an addition to the new school library !  

 Bill and I hand out the schools packs to the pupils.

Bill and I have spent the past 4 or 5 days buying in the supplies to make up the packs for the children, and putting the packs together in the evening.  Packs included jotters, pencils and pencil sharpeners in a plastic or cardboard wallet.   

 The Grade 1 class with their packs, and a ‘thank-you’ poster they had made for us.  Each of the classes has made us a ‘thank-you’ poster, which was very touching and greatly appreciated. 

All in all, the cost of the school supplies was around 100 pounds, so we still have some money left for other things, like the mass feeding  and child health programme. 

  Today’s meal for the children – a fish, rice and noodles and juice.

 

The feeding programme is continuing, with the children being fed in school twice a week to encourage them to attend classes instead of trying to earn money to feed themselves. 

Last Friday all the children were also all wormed, and I am assured that the worming has been effective with worms being ‘expelled’ as planned (strangely enough, I don’t have a photo of that!) so that in itself should improve the nutritional status of the children! It must feel better not to have a gut full of worms stealing your food !! 

 Children queue up to file through the shelter where Bill is handing out bags of food during the mass feeding today. 

We have been providing the funding for the ingredients for the feeding programme from your donations, but the labour to prepare and cook it all is provided free by the staff of the water district who go to work early (at about 4am!) to make all the food for the children.  They are real heroes for taking on all that work.  

 

Every teacher also recieved a pack of supplies including a ream of plain paper, graph paper, crayons, glue, scissors, neon colored paper and card for making displays, manila paper, marker pens, pencils,  chalk (Venus brand!), and a blackboard eraser.  The headteacher also got a globe, a compass (or science lessons) and we have promised him a microscope and magnets for the science class too ! 

Finally, with our new donation we have also been buying some additional clothes for distribution at Christmas.  These will be handed out the week before Christmas in Pinagalaan and in the Agusan Marsh, along with the clothes and toys donated in Scotland which Bill brought out when he arrived this time. We bought 50 pairs of new shorts for 20 pisos each, 20 t-shirts for 25 pisos each and 20 pairs of pants at 15 pisos each.  Not bad, since there are about 90 pisos to the pound, so we got all those clothes for about 20 pounds !  

All in all, the kids and teachers at the school are very grateful for the help and donations they have received.  Thanks to all of you who have made it possible. 

A Day in the Life Of…

A local man brings me is ‘catch’ in a coconut shell to examine by the Andanan River. The fish is a tiny tilapia – an introduced species which is not native to the Philippines but which is now one of the dominant species in the river. 

Having looked back at my blog it was apparent that there was more about my ‘out of work’ activities than about my “day job”.  So here is a bit more about what I do in working hours.  Recently we have had two main activities ongoing -

1. identifying the key issues which a Managment Plan for the Andanan Watershed will need to address, in terms of sustainable use of natural resources, and achieving conservation whilst meeting the livelihood needs of communities
2. documenting what is happening in the watershed, including
   • land use activities
   • natural resources present in the area,
   • pressures on water resources and natural resources, and
   • biodiversity in the area. 

As soon as you start doing anything like fish sampling (we hired a local fisherman called Dante to catch fish for us) a crowd of locals gathers round to try and figure out what this crazy foreigner is doing ! 

 

A crowd of locals gather round to watch us work – we are catching dragonfies, placing them in a glass tank to take photographic records, then releasing them. Soon some of the locals started catching more of them and offering them to us ! 

We wanted to know what fish were present, which had died out and what the health of the fish stocks in the river is.  Toxic chemicals are often used (illegally) by locals to catch fish by poisoning them (would you eat a fish which had been poisoned by insecticide ?).  Between that and the introduction of non-native species which dispace the native fish we think around nine species of fish which were present in the river in living memory may now be locally extinct. The size of the remaining fish being caught is very small. 

While Dante was fishing, other fishermen came to show us their catches.  We also spent our time catching samples of different dragonfly and damselfly species to record the species diversity in the area.  Dragonflies are thought to be indicators of good water quality. We have recorded about 20 different types already, and have seen others we still have to catch ! 

   

A few of the species we have caught and photographed.

I order to identify the issues in the area we have also been consulting with local residents as well as barangay (village) officials and tribal representatives.  Today we had a big workshop which brought together a lot of these people in order to find out their views on the issues in their area, and what they think should be done to improve the situation.

 

The Barangay representative from Mount Ararat explains the local peoples’ views on the issues in the mountian area. Behind him are cards on which they have posted up the key issues that need to be addressed.    

It was a very useful  discussion, and I certainly learnt a lot from them, which will all help in the development of the Management Plan for the Andanan Natural Park.  It as been another busy day, so it is now time for bed (as Zebedee said). 

Tomorrow we are off to Pinagalaan again for the mass feeding programme for the school children there.  I will post another blog page soon with an update about the school.