Simply Belle

I have been busy these days because my girls are with me for a short visit and I wanted so very much to maximize my time with them so I haven’t had a chance to think of a topic to write about. Instead, I thought I would share a preview of a song that Steffi recorded just a few days ago via computer. It is called “Every Song.” This song will appear in an upcoming album that she wishes to record sometimes this fall, time permitting.

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I poster earlier a cover of Bon Jovi’s song Livin’ on a Prayer by Stephanie, but for some reason, it was no longer available and for that I apologize.

Here’s another video of one of Stephanie’s songs that I found on YouTube. Yes, I came across the video on YouTube so she doesn’t have any idea I am posting it here in my blog. It is called “Trust.” The video is composed of several images that came to her mind during the writing, arranging, and production of the song- currently her favorite from her repertoire.

Here it is:

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In this day and age, when all the fruits and veggies you buy in the store are not only expensive, but adulterated, and pesticide-laden, wouldn’t it be a good idea to avail of the vacant space in your backyard and fill it up with your favorite vegetables and fruits? Not only that, it practically costs nothing to raise a garden especially in the province where rain is a plenty. Unlike here in our place where water rain is scarce and so it costs expensive to water a garden even with drip irrigation installed.

While I was in the province vacationing two months ago, there was a time that I couldn’t figure out what to cook for lunch. There was no fish available because it was the day after typhoon Frank. I looked around in the property and in no time, I knew exactly what to fix for lunch - “Kamote top salad.” That was really good and refreshing dish! And it is such a good feeling to be able to turn to the yard and make a meal from it without spending a dime. Plus, knowing that it is organic makes one feel good.

Before our Philippine trip, when everything was at an all time high, I suggested to my husband that we start a garden again. I don’t know if you remember in one of my old entries, we had gopher invasion in our garden last year and turned our yard into a complete disaster. They attacked from below the ground and cut off the roots of the plants and pulled the dead plants inside a hole and nibble on them. They did it methodically until all plants were gone. Seems like a battle hard to win, huh?

But not for long…

My husband outsmarted the pocket gopher by putting a hardware cloth, which is a wire mesh fabric, and spread it out at the very bottom of the raised bed. He used blocks to make the garden bed. It took him 3 weeks to finish the whole job. That whole process deserves another post and will be posted shortly.

Two weeks later when all the seeds had a chance to sprout up, here’s a sneak peek of my husband’s hard work.

Pechay

Beets

Tomatoes that we planted in the pots before the Philippine trip so gopher will not get them.

Herbs are being eaten off by some insects.

Figs up close

Prolific fig tree

Delicious Johnny Gold apples

Persimmons

And my lovely visitor that frequents my yard.

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Once in a great while, when our medicine cabinet is low on supply, my husband and I go for a long drive to Mexico. I happened to have long weekend this week at work so that gave us time to do some sightseeing on the side, as well. A drive to Mexico usually takes 6 hours including bathroom, rest, and lunch stops.

I was hesitant on taking the car across the border for fear that it might take us forever to get back as experienced in the past. Parking spaces in the US side were nowhere to be found, last Friday afternoon. But, before we knew it, we were suddenly on the Mexico side in our car. “Bahala na” (come what may), I mumbled. We didn’t need to ask for direction because we had been there before. I didn’t even have to speak Spanish because the salespersons had no trouble understanding English and sign language. Transaction went swift.

Then I proceeded to the next store that was totally new to me, to buy cosmetic stuff for my friends. I had no choice but ask for direction this time from some random guy on the street. I spoke to him in spanish and he replied in English. (Whoah, I could have saved those few spanish words for later…hehe.) I remember what my spanish teacher told us in our spanish class that Mexican are not the best people to ask for direction. I couldn’t make sense with his direction. Instead, we drove around in circles, read every name on the building, and finally spotted the place.

The nearest parking spot to the building required us to make a U turn on an L-shape road with a yellow solid line, and so we did just that. While my husband was backing up on a corner for a U-turn, we saw a police car approaching from opposite direction. For some reason, I always get bad vibes every time I see a police car. I didn’t like it at all. If I were the driver, I would have just dismissed the the idea of a U-turn, continue driving and make a turn somewhere that is safe. But, it was my husband driving, so…

While my husband was doing the parallel parking, the police car stopped parallel to the car behind us. Then the lights from the police vehicle started flashing. I knew from that moment that we did something wrong. As I got out of the car, two policemen with hands near their guns approached my husband. He spoke in straight Spanish as if my husband knew what he was saying. He then asked us if we spoke the language. We chorused, NO! From my little Spanish knowledge, he was saying that we were not supposed to make a U-turn on a curve (especially with a police car nearby) but there was no sign that said we couldn’t. My husband backed into a curve to avail of the nearest parking space right across the road oblivious of his surroundings. He wanted to get the job done and get out of there as fast as possible.

Due to the language barrier, however, the police officers weren’t getting anywhere with us. What, huh, were the few words we uttered back. After a while, out of frustration, I supposed, he had to let us go. Whoah, that was a close call.

Sometimes, it is best not to say a word when in some foreign country.

Beautiful cloud like this makes a good subject for photography, don’t you think?

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I first saw this adorable girl while I was riding on a tricycle in Bato on my way to Virac. (Yes, that was my form of transportation on my recent vacation to the Philippines as I was trying to save on gas.) She was dressed in that beautiful checkered outfit standing outside her house. I was fascinated by her looks and wondered which school in Bato she went because of how beautiful her whole ensemble looked. I thought she went to some private school in town.

Then, one afternoon, a friend of mine in high school paid me a visit in my place. She had with her a letter. I didn’t read it right away because I basically knew what it was all about. Solicitation letters abound in the province and they usually target the abroaders/bakasyonista. Gosh, I get about 4 to 5 solicitation letters whenever I go home, and sometimes, I avoid going into places just for this reason. Or I usually time my vacation when there are no scheduled fiestas so I can avoid solicitors. 4 to 5 of these add up, you know, and money doesn’t grow on trees abroad.

But this letter is not just any ordinary solicitation letters. This involves young and beautiful children with disabilities, one of whom belongs to my friend. My friend’s eyes welled up and her voice broke as she narrated her story about her son, Mark. She said, for some unexplained reason, the nurses who assisted her in the delivery chose not to disclose the information about her son until later when she discovered the truth herself. I didn’t quite understand why nurses had to do that. Of course, my friend blamed them big time for it.

Her son and the other 15 children with disabilities including the cute little girl above have been living with the reality of exclusion. These children have no access to rehabilitative care or support service, and unable to acquire proper education. They are often viewed as mentally challenged, and so people would treat them differently. In many cases, these children are often withdrawn from community life. Nevertheless and regardless of what/who they are, they require special attention and care otherwise, they risk living in exclusion in a more emotionally disturbed state for their rest of their lives.

Sped classes in the town of Bato have currently 16 pupils coming from different baranggays and all are crammed in a classroom without facilities and needing repairs. Actually, they only have one book at this moment, and a colorful ABC puzzle. I was told that some of these children have been enrolled in same classes repeatedly, and couldn’t quite keep up with the core curriculum in the regular classes. Thus, the need of SPED classes has been implemented to give these kids a place where they will receive specialized instructions by special educators to reach their full potential.

But the sad reality is the school is not solely owned by the Department of Education, but by the LGU, the community and the stakeholders, and it hardly has anything to start with. And for this reason, they turn to you for help to carry out this noble undertaking, be it in cash or kind like TV set, DVD player, ceiling fan, used computers, kids’ educational toys, etc so they can provide the best education possible for these children.

This is all that the kids have at this moment and a book.

I asked them to form their names from the letters on the table.

And here’s what Noel came up with. He got stuck on his last name.

I believe he is 16 years-old yet he has difficulty putting his name together.

Here’s 18-year old Melagrosa reading a second grade textbook. Considering her age, she was the best reader of the whole class. See Desiree in the background? Poor girl, she never says a word.

One and only textbook they have, so far.

If you would like to help and would like to get a hold of the SPED teachers, please contact the following persons:

Marites O Tatel - cell # 09102529823; email add: mababe_ot@yahoo.com

Regina Rojas- cell # 09065713951; email add: eeza_30@yahoo.com

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