June 22, 2013 was our scheduled day where we distributed
the school supplies and school bags (donated by another group) to kids
at Talon-Talon elementary school where kids from Layag-Layag go to. When
I arrived at the front gate I was really 'overwhelmed' by the amount of
people at their auditorium. The first question that popped up "are
they sure that those are all 350 kids? Looks like 500 kids" When I got
down from the car, I instantly grabbed a box of school supplies and in
an instant I was swarmed by kids and they gave me way and in a split of a
second a little girl wrapped her arms around me and gave me the biggest
smile. I felt really welcomed especially since I was an outsider from
their own community. The little girl said "Ate, taga Yellow boat ka?
tutulungan na kita! sige na please" and I replied "Parang ganun na...wag
na kaya ko na to and bigat nito eh." and she just continued to smile
and ask me questions.
Translation: "Sister, are you from Yellow Boat? I'll help you, please"
"Something like that...no it's okay. This is really heavy"
(All the kids from Layag-Layag)
(A better view)
(Started distributing at roughly 9:15am)
(Kids queuing for their school supplies and new bag)
(Teachers who helped us hand out the school supplies and bags and tickets/claim stub)
(A photo of me with some kids from Layag-Layag community :) they were really nice!)
(Another
photo. The little girl in purple was the first kid to come up to me
when I got down from the car. She insisted on helping me carry the heavy
boxes. The girl on my left was the same girl in the official video of
the YBH foundation. She told me about them filming the video. They asked
me where I'm from and if I was Chinese and why did I speak in Tagalog
(which made me laugh a lot) then I asked them what their favourite
subjects are (they said English!) The last thing I said before they had
to go back home was to study hard and they smiled and said "opo" which
means yes in formal tagalog.)
