“Paying It Forward” Part VI. Lolos & Lolas at the Old Age Home

Lolo Carding recited Rizal's “Huling Paalam”, in its entirety to the students. To uphold UP's honor, recite ko rin ang “Ultimo Adios” but could remember only up to “Nuestro perdido Eden”. My Spanish professor mother must have been squirming in her grave. Lolo Peping crooned “You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Frank Sinatra style. This is the ritual of our visits to the Old Age Home, Lualhati ng Maynila, it is officially called.

VISITING AT LUALHATI NG MAYNILA

Preparing the students for these visits to the Boystown Complex and especially to Lualhati, I tell them that the residents and I belong to the same generation, except that my hair, light mahogany chestnut (courtesy of Herbatint color), & Olay make me look decades younger. So, I sternly admonish them, “When the dance music starts, no Lola who can walk or dance should be a wallflower”. We so dreaded being wallflowers at the “Monthly Socials” in our time.

THE LOLOS & LOLAS PERFORM FOR THE STUDENTS.

So these boys and girls bravely boogie and cha-cha and flail wildly to 60's dance music. Me too. This is my opportunity to show them that their professor is not only glamorous & youngish but a good ballroom dancer as well. Ahem.

The interaction pays off. The kids are appalled that the families of these elderly folk have abandoned them. Through the semesters they have been moved to repair the Physical Therapy Center, many comfort rooms, repair rusty broken down beds and replace their palletas gone rotten from the occupants' incontinence. They have also replaced the ancient dining tables' disintegrating formica tops, all with Engr. Bong's unfailing support.

They have also donated sound systems for the residents' entertainment.

Mrs. Leonie Borja very competent Lualhati Officer-in-Charge briefs the students on the heartbreaking case histories of some of the residents. She and Boystown management welcome without much bureaucratic “eck eck” donors & visitors. Many come, especially during Christmas time though the staff wishes more, bringing cheer, song, prayer, food and apparel would visit before and after Christmas.

My sister and I got introduced to the Old Age Home, cause our mother dragooned us into carrying kettles of pancit and whatever to serve the residents. All these while being threatened that since we were disobedient bad daughters, she would not live with us in her old age but move to this Old Age Home. All I can say is we did not enjoy those visits.

So our semestral jam session with the Lolos and Lolas is over. We go home and they settle back to dozing off idly waiting; for nothing but the next meal.

Class '61, UP College of Business Administration

Well, there's no denying it, despite my light mahogany chestnut hair and Olay glow. We're the Golden Jubilarians this year and we're celebrating at the UPCBA Alumni Homecoming in December.

We're meeting every month building up our fund which we hope will build a “ring-a-ding-ding” (Frank Sinatra) MBA classroom complete with state-of the art video equipment and furnishings at the proposed UP graduate school building in The Fort. Congressman Junie Cua, a BA alumnus who loves CBA dearly gave P50M from his allocation but we heard something happened in Quezon Hall and we lost half of it. Sen. Franklin Drilon, ever the supportive UP law alumnus gave his college P100M.

That's some of us at Peking Garden, Greenbelt 5. Of course we also have to dine in style while raising funds. Many of our classmates are flying in from the US to attend the reunion.

Left-right
Sitting: Lani Canullas, Minda Fernandez Caro, Yolanda Veronica Medina Desphy, Rene Peronilla, Vicki Bello Jardiolin Villa, Becky Tuason Kalaw

Left-right
Standing: Lucille Po Deniega, Luisa Sabater, Mike Arguelles, Imelda Cunanan Innocentes, Nora Ordinario Vinluan, Tita Lopez Mendiola, Jo Zara Santiago



To celebrate our jubilee and to welcome our classmates from abroad, here's our plan for the reunion.

Our schedule:

01 December Thursday 5:00 pm Dinner at the residence of Rene Peronilla (host)

02 December Friday 5:00 pm An Evening under the stars – Cruise along Manila Bay (hosts – Lucille P. Denega and Nora O. Vinluan)

03 December Saturday 9:00 am Mass at the UP Chapel

10:00 am Tour of UP Campus

11:00 am College reunion at College of Business with lunch.

Nice to be with classmates from UP. Parang kahapon lamang.

“Paying It Forward” Part V. Engine Repair Training

Yes, where will they go? What will they do with a high school education? Empathizing with the grim possibilities of young people like themselves going out in the world armed with only a high school diploma, a group of students sponsored eleven 3rd and 4th year Boystown wards for a ten-Saturday Training on Engine Repair and Diesel Engine Maintenance at Meralco Foundation.

Fund-raisingg Poster

Wow! Surprise! Taking time out on several Saturdays, they took turns bringing their trainees merienda. (Lunch was part of the P4,000 / trainee package.)

Trainees pose for a class picture

But the graduation they staged for the boys was even more amazing. Their long haired group leader confided to me that they thought this may be the only grad ceremonies the trainees would ever have. So they made it really memorable.

Each graduate, as he walked up the stage was introduced, his biodata read out his photo flashed on the big screen. Meralco Foundation gave the certificates.

Foyer of the Meralco Foundation, Inc. building

Then there was a sumptuous merienda of “Spag,” pancit malabon, cakes & other pastries galore, barbecue and drinks.certainly solicited from the group members' parents. Their funds, raised from frantic buying and selling of goodies, plus other money making schemes was just enough to sponsor eleven trainees. “


A good time, hopefully an unforgettable one was had by all.

“Paying It Forward”, Part IV. Repairing the Beds

Three generations of boys have slept and jumped and bounced on these beds. They're bent, rusty or broken,their wooden palletas threatening to break in the middle.

24 DOUBLE DECK BEDS FIXED UP BY CAL & BA STUDENTS

The group members applied Turco (rust remover as advised by Technical Consultant Engr. Bong de Leon, applied primer and finally paint. The straightened-out beds (courtesy of Engr. Bong's welders were, well, as good as new.

That's Engr. Bong doing a "bed repair" demo
To my great bafflement, the students were giddy again, reporting on their work. Is there something of a spiritual experience in repairing old rusty beds?

“Paying It Forward” Part III Repairing the Cottages

“A mango tree fell on Cottage G”. The ceiling of Cottage C, nahuhulog na. Kinain ng anay”. “Tumutulo na ang bubong sa Cottage A”. “Di na gumagana ang mga CR sa Cottage B”.

CEILING EATEN UP BY TERMITES

These are typical complaints of the devoted social workers and housemothers at the Boystown Boy Home Cluster.

At the beginning of each sem, to set the tone of the course, we have a field trip to Manila Boystown Complex (MBC) in Parang, Marikina. MBC is under the supervision of Manila. It was donated by Pedro Tuason, same man who donated the Ateneo & Miriam properties to the 2 schools. Believe it or not, this generous man is said to be a grand grand lolo of FG Mike Arroyo.

So the class gets a first hand experience of a charity institution run by the government. Growing boys are always hungry but here they seem much hungrier. Their 50 year old cottages are dilapidated and broken down. Seems the students go away feeling a little bit more blessed.

A group offers to undertake the repair project. These repairs were facilitated with the generous assistance of Engr. Elicito de Leon of Dominic Construction who rah rahed the students, helped with budgets “working plans” for the repair. If he has surplus or reusable materials from his projects, he donates them to the project. The students' funds, usually about P40K after much buying & selling of cakes, bollers, and soliciting go to paints and sundries and a culminating activity upon completion.

ENGR. BONG & STUDENTS PREP A COTTAGE FOR REPAIR

I insist on sweat equity. So they do scraping and painting, unskilled labor work. Please see photos.

SWEAT EQUITY

The cottages are transformed into bright well lighted places with working toilets. The students bring “spag” (“spaghetti” to you) and have a party. At this stage, they call me “Ma'am, can you help us with transpo for food from UP to Boys town?”

“Ok”, I say.
“Thanks so much Ma'am. God bless”.

“GOD BLESS” !! A transformation has occurred. They don't hate me anymore.

“Paying it Forward” at UP, Part II, Football for Education Project

The sem starts with these future leaders of PHL arriving in flipflops, bicycle shorts, walking shorts, and girls in very very short shorts. One summer, may fresco pang naka puruntong. Haay, UP.

To graduate, they have to earn 6 units of CWATS they call it. I announce to them that while they do not have to march under the hot sun and wear uniforms, they have to come on TIME and wear corporate attire.

By the time I get to this point, they all hate me already. Corporate attire, I explain is because our alumni in the private sector complain that UP applicants come to interviews in ratty T shirts & insist on speaking Taglish. (Reverse arrogance ng mga taga – UP daw, sabi ng Alumni). So on first impression, they lose out to the well dressed “Ingleseros” from Ateneo & La Salle, daw.

So they're all sulking. The semester does not start auspiciously.

As intro to the Boystown and the projects undertaken please see the Manila Bulletin article.

So Joao Pajaro my nephew and a much admired varsity football player in his tune organized them into a football team. A major objective was to get some good players football scholarships in public and private universities after high school. One girl made it to UP varsity and is graduating this year.

We hoped that the football would also teach them teamwork & discipline. Joao called me from a tournament one time to yell “P- - - - - i - - Tats, nagtampo ang goalie natin and walked off the field.”. We had to remind ourselves that these kids have no family with whom to learn teamwork and cooperation; to teach them these was one of the Project's objectives.

For the boys, the tournaments also offered an excursion to the world outside Boystown that they so looked forward to.

We had to bribe the boys with snacks to get them to even come to the field. Photo shows the first recruits. Fun to chase dragonflies on Saturdays nga naman.

So the students raised funds to level the playing field, had their ancient power mower repaired, installed goals, bought balls. Joao asked some UP coaches to train the players on Saturday & Sunday.

A Boystown team was ready to play in tournaments playing against large well-fed boys from Ateneo & La Salle. Please see photos.

I attended most of these tournaments cheering for Boystown and earning the “tampo” of my two apos, playing varsity, one for Ateneo, the other for La Salle.

They won very few games but for one “brief shining moment” (Camelot) they with their undernourished bodies and in their department store bought jerseys and not Adidas nor Nike nor Puma cleats were the equals of the privileged boys from the exclusive schools.

Next time, Repairing the Cottages at Boystown.

“Paying it Forward”

The movie “Paying It Forward” is the inspiration for the projects my students undertake in their Community Welfare Training System (CWTS) class.

Of course they enroll in the “CWATS” course as they call it to earn the requisite 6 units. I hope that at the end of the semester, they shall also have learned to “Pay It Forward”.

Reproducing here an excerpt of an article on the movie.

“Paying It Forward” at UP, Part I

The group was giddy with fulfillment. They had after all, made wishes come true. Having chosen the Make-a-wish Foundation to sponsor, they had spent the semester raising funds so three very sick kids from poor families could have their wishes fulfilled.

So they took Joseph who wanted to be a pilot to PATTS Flying School where he got to sit in a plane's cockpit & fiddle around with the dashboard with the student pilots.

JOSEPH IN THE COCKPIT AND WITH STUDENT PILOT

Mylene wanted to be Darna when she grew up and Jojo a superhero.

SUPERHEROES TO THE RESCUE

So for three afternoons, the CWATS group played Fairy Godmother. See photos.

A FAIRY COSTUME FOR A VERY SICK LITTLE GIRL.

I always promised myself I would write about my CWATS students' projects. People, especially their parents, I thought should know that these bright kids who incidentally are some of only 10,000 UP College Entrance Test (UPCAT) passers in a field of about 60,000 hopefuls from all over the country, are not just about sloganeering, rallies and protests.

CWTS (Community Welfare Training System) has by law been established as an alternative to ROTC. I've coordinated it at the UP College of Business Administration since 2003. Designed as a class in volunteerism where the mostly business students could develop social consciousness and get the glimmerings of social responsibility, they, together with their classmates from other colleges get an

early experience in project conceptualization, planning, organization and implementation. I hope anyway.

After all, I tell them, “you will be business and community leaders one day. You better learn your social responsibilities early”.

Another group a semester later sponsored another three kids with polysyllabic unpronounceable diseases. That was mostly easy. A little girl wanted a fairy costume, another a superhero (inspired by Richard Gutierrez he wished to meet him too but the man could not make it, they said.) The other girl just wanted to see and play in a real playground. See photos.

This is a series as a new semester of CWTS at UPCBA has started.