24^th May. Friday.

It was a great night sleep last night and head to the community hall for the perfect breakfast as always. It was my turn to take teaching today. Today’s theme is Body Parts. Dayan came late today, just like any other days. She never have the heart to learn at all. From what I heard from the parents, she is always absent from school just like how she is absent for our lessons. The class was as fun as usual. After teaching several body parts, we had a little game with them where names of body parts are written on sticky note pads and given to each student to paste on a model (who happened to be larry). The purpose is mainly to test if they had really learnt the body parts by heart.

After the class, it was the resting time till lunch time. Somehow, during rest time we have to fall asleep. It is like a rule or something. You will often find a bunch of dead body either before lunch, or after lunch. So, after having the sumptuous lunch (as usual), Maoying and me went back for laundry. Michelle followed us back home to help us with the washing too! Lucky for her help, we manage to wash the clothes faster than normal. Our tita, Tita Nelia, even bought RC coke for us to drink, because the weather is too hot! That is so sweet of her. Then we rested till about 2pm, then we headed back to the community hall.

There is nothing much to do for the day. Afternoon class was taken over by Chu Hwai because he offered to take over me. We rested again till about 3pm and had our afternoon snack. The favourite time of the day. After which, we started to perfect the dance for the finale. We started dancing as a team at about 3.30pm after we manage to gather most of the people, except the people who are in the teaching team. After a while, the rest of the team came over, so we have to start practicing. This is when, we started having some discusson about whether the guys should dance or not and if not, what are they supposed to do. The conclusion in the end was that the guys should do the background music and the bass of our song, while the girls will both the dancing and singing. haha.

At 5.30pm, it is the fun and games again, with the children. Couldn't remember what games they played though, but definitely it was as usual rowdy. After that was dinner time, another sinful but satisfying dinner! Maoying and I head back home to have a chat with our Tita Nelia! During the chat, we found out how our Tita and Tito actually met each other and how are the expenses in the family handled. Firstly, their love story. They met each other in a very cliché way where our Tito is the chauffeur of the family, and our Tita is the maid of the family. She was staying in the Manila squatter in the past while our Tito stays in Bagong Silang slums. Then she moved to Bagong Silang in 1995 and tried bidding for the houses built by GK. Finally they manage to get a house in 2001. Her expression showed that she was really happy to move away from the slums especially when she related to us about how the cockroaches bite will cause your skin to be swollen for days and in the new home there is no more ipis! Perhaps this is the reason why our house is rather clean, with no ipis running around in the day.

We also found out about their income and expense. Our tito is able to earn about 1000 peso as a taxi driver when he drive for 24 hours. This is also the reason why we do not see our tito as often. He normally drives alternate days so in a month he is able to earn roughly about 15,000 peso or less. The electricity bills amounts up to 1200 peso per month and the food is about 200 peso every time she goes to the market. This short but fulfilling chat makes me feel how much they yearn to leave the slums, and I suppose most of the people who are currently living in the slums are having the same goal as my Tita too. To have a clean and simple home!

After both of us bathed and rested, we head back to the community hall. The reason is because we are spending the night there! The debrief started and ended at about 11 plus or 12am. It was a rather interesting night to actually sleep with your team mates, right at the place where u always have the 5 meals everyday! =)

-JOANNE