10 September 2023 Week #50: We went to bat for Genard Gomez, and Passed!!
Dear Family and Friends,
In our Monday meeting 8 projects were presented. We presented our project for Dr. Vicente F. Gustilo Memorial National High School. It is a high school in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental. They have almost 8,000 students and more than 250 teachers. It is a 7-12 school. They run 3 sessions a day. They have 66 locked secure classrooms and 16 open air classrooms. The teacher we have worked with on this project, Genard Gomez, is a member of the church and has been wonderful and patient to work with. We are providing for them a health clinic, TVs, printers, a copy machine, and stand fans. The health clinic had nothing, and with that many students you better have something to assist when kids are sick or injured. We are providing a bed, water cooler, air conditioner, (so when they come in from heat exhaustion you can cool them off), computer to keep track of all the patients, a table, and a chair, and medical supplies. Then for the classrooms, 55 TVs. For the office a copy machine, and then 10 printers, one for each department, health, science, math, etc. Our proposal passed our committee.
There were several great presentations. The Haynes are working with Single Drop to do water for an entire island, 11 different municipalities, servicing 85,000 people. The different towns are working well together, not something you see too often, but they want their island to become a tourist island, so they can get out of poverty. Each of the different towns will be getting their water in a different way and then all the towns will be linked together on the same water system. Pretty cool. When the Haynes go big, it is BIG. Go BIG or go HOME! When we go big it is to a larger school. One of our five major initiatives is literacy and numeracy. Clean water is another one. All I know about water is, if the faucet doesn’t work, call the plumber. That doesn’t work so well here.
The Huffs are doing some huge Literacy projects with elementary schools. They currently have 4 huge divisions on board where they are targeting 200 schools in each division, 800 total schools. They will provide them with literacy materials for K-3 grades and a program for peer tutoring. It is really good. The key will be how well the peer tutoring goes. The materials are good, but like anything else, the peer tutoring along with the teachers is what will make or break it. If the teachers don’t buy in, it won’t matter. So training is going to be very important.
The screen printing didn’t take on the Kangaroo Tubes, so we met with Rabbi Rabanes at the templex in the afternoon to show him that. He agreed and will do them again. He only has a motorcycle, so we needed to take them back to his place. We arranged to take them back on Tuesday morning.
Between Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they finally replaced our two Air Cons that have gone out. Oh, what a joy to have a cool apartment again!
On Tuesday morning we headed to Rabbi’s place to deliver the 1400 Kangaroo Tubes again. We actually found it without help this time. We have to drive some narrow roads with the last one being so narrow that you can’t have a body between you and the wall of houses on either side. You honk before you start down the road and see if someone is honking back because you have to go around a narrow corner. Then when you get to his place his neighbor has a gate that will let a vehicle in a little way. It is a 10-point turn to get out of there and back down the narrow path to the narrow street. Oh, Boy!
We stopped and did some grocery shopping on the way back to get supplies for feeding six sister missionaries that evening. We had Taco Tuesday, and some Rice. They love their rice. I had tacos and nachos. Clyda spoils me and them.
On Wednesday morning we woke up to a 10:00 p.m. email the night before that our project didn’t meet the core managers approval. Kenneth is our advocate with them on Tuesdays. We needed to make some changes before our meeting with the Area Welfare Service Reliance Committee (AWSRC). We needed a cheaper copy machine and fewer TVs. We got a hold of Jude and got a quote for a cheaper copy machine, 156,000 pesos instead of 350,000 pesos. I still didn’t know what to do about the TVs.
That afternoon we then had our last Friday AWSRC meeting. We didn’t have it last Friday because it was the kickoff of the “My Plan” for returning missionaries being held at the new FSY facility, and the Philippines Director of Temporal Affairs had to be at that with a few others that also need to be to our meeting.
The Welches invited us over for dinner Wednesday evening. All the other couples are on vacation and playing down at Dumaguete and Siquijor. They spent a week down there. The Welches needed to stay because they have English Connect with the missionaries every day and they need good internet connection. They didn’t dare risk being away. It was a wonderful dinner with Sister Welch’s famous Chicken Enchilada Casserole. It was delicious! They also showed us an amazing “English Connect” video that Sister Alvez had just made for them. She did it with her missionary phone. Sister Alvez is a Filipino who speaks great English. The missionaries practice English each day, and it is called “English Connect”.
We woke up at 5:00 on Thursday, got cleaned up and headed for the Floro T. Bongco Farm School turnover on Negros Island at 1:00. We left a little after 5:30 and arrived at the Tabuelon Port at 7:45. We looked at a full barge that pulled out at 8:15. The next barge came and filled up with vehicles ahead of us at 11:30. We now knew we were in trouble. It is a 2.5 hour ferry. We did get on the next barge at 12:30, but we for sure weren’t going to make the 1:00 turnover. We arrived at the Escalante Port at 3:00. Then a 20-minute drive and arrived at the school, where we had a 3:30 turnover. We had called ahead, and we kept them updated on our progress. The school day doesn’t end until 4:30 so it all worked out. The only problem is, we still had to go back to Cebu. We got home at 1:00 a.m.
I couldn’t sleep thinking about our project not being presented the next day. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind, including the recently viewed video of “English Connect” along with all the research that indicates increased academic learning with the use of technology as opposed to just a chalkboard and lecture. Genard had provided us with a great research paper done from a high school up by Manila where they had two classes of 40 students each who were taught in two different ways. In the pretest both classes scored at almost the same exact scores. After 6 weeks of instruction the class that received video power point instruction scored twice as high on the posttest as the other class.
At 4:30, and a lot of tossing and turning, I got up, checked to make sure I could show the “English Connect” video with my computer. Then I started to make a couple new slides for my power point presentation to the AWSRC the next morning if I got a chance. On the second slide, after introducing the school, I then started with bullet point #1 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes so strongly that the Filipinos learn English well that they take time out of valuable proselyting time each day for them to study, practice, and learn English. They know how valuable that will be to their future success in life. (I wish I knew how to show you the video, but I don’t.) #2 - Every Filipino should have the opportunity to learn English well to improve their chances in life. #3 – One of the very best ways to help them is to see the English language written and spoken correctly, via Projectors or TVs. On the next slide I shared the results of the research paper.
I went back to bed at 5:30. I woke up at 6:30. The zoom meeting started at 7:30. I still didn’t know if I would get a chance to present. On the agenda we were listed last, and it said (pending changes). At 7:15 Kenneth calls and asks if I got a cheaper copy machine, “Yes”. He asked if I reduced the number of TVs. I said I did not. How do you give them to half the classrooms and not the other half. It is either all or nothing, they will have to decide, I’m not going to.
We were last on the agenda. I asked if I could share a short 3-minute video first that I thought they might enjoy. They loved the “English Connect” video. It is impressive! I then went through the presentation, and it PASSED!
I have come down with quite a cold because of lack of sleep, but I’m excited for Genard Gomez and his school and the teaching staff. I have taken a nap both on Friday after the meeting and again today, Saturday. We have some more projects pending so no rest for the weak, weary, and wicked. One project we really need completed is for Prosthetics. We hope we get it going. We are behind the 8-ball on it.
After walking this morning, we hit the open market at 7:00 with the Taylors and Koyles who got home late Friday night from another vacation. They start back at the temple this Tuesday. They have had the last 4 weeks off and have done some fun things. After the market we showered, studied, and headed to the office. After about 3 hours work, we watched the Cokeville-Lovell football game on the 65” TV in the office. Thanks, NFHS for “on demand” films. Congratulations Cokeville on the big win! With that big of a screen we felt like we were home. We could just walk a couple blocks and arrive at our beautiful home. However, a couple blocks later we had come back to reality with kids and adults begging and poverty all around us, jeepneys running, and busy city streets and noises and foul smells that come from these situations. Reality is rough. Another nap, then more work on a couple projects, Casadillas for dinner and cookie dough for dessert. Life is good!
Excellent meetings at church today. The Sacrament and Priesthood meetings were centered on The Family Proclamation and respect in a marriage. The talks were excellent and the discussion was great. We made a couple more connections today at church with people where we know their relatives in other parts of the Philippines. That is always fun for me.
After church we picked up the last 135 Kangaroo Tubes that need to be screen printed. (Clyda will sew a few more on occasion, but these are the last that were sewn by the stake relief society.) We then headed for Rabbi’s place, about a half hour away if the traffic isn’t too bad. We go down some pretty narrow streets! We have returned safely and Clyda is fixing salmon, baked potatoes, carrots, and grapes for dinner. It will be wonderful.
Holy Habits
Week #50 9/4-9/10
In our Monday meeting 8 projects were presented. We presented our project for Dr. Vicente F. Gustilo Memorial National High School. It is a high school in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental. They have almost 8,000 students and more than 250 teachers. It is a 7-12 school. They run 3 sessions a day. They have 66 locked secure classrooms and 16 open air classrooms. The teacher we have worked with on this project, Genard Gomez, is a member of the church and has been wonderful and patient to work with. We are providing for them a health clinic, TVs, printers, a copy machine, and stand fans. The health clinic had nothing, and with that many students you better have something to assist when kids are sick or injured. We are providing a bed, water cooler, air conditioner, (so when they come in from heat exhaustion you can cool them off), computer to keep track of all the patients, a table, and a chair, and medical supplies. Then for the classrooms, 55 TVs. For the office a copy machine, and then 10 printers, one for each department, health, science, math, etc. Our proposal passed our committee.
There were several great presentations. The Haynes are working with Single Drop to do water for an entire island, 11 different municipalities, servicing 85,000 people. The different towns are working well together, not something you see too often, but they want their island to become a tourist island, so they can get out of poverty. Each of the different towns will be getting their water in a different way and then all the towns will be linked together on the same water system. Pretty cool. When the Haynes go big, it is BIG. Go BIG or go HOME! When we go big it is to a larger school. One of our five major initiatives is literacy and numeracy. Clean water is another one. All I know about water is, if the faucet doesn’t work, call the plumber. That doesn’t work so well here.
The Huffs are doing some huge Literacy projects with elementary schools. They currently have 4 huge divisions on board where they are targeting 200 schools in each division, 800 total schools. They will provide them with literacy materials for K-3 grades and a program for peer tutoring. It is really good. The key will be how well the peer tutoring goes. The materials are good, but like anything else, the peer tutoring along with the teachers is what will make or break it. If the teachers don’t buy in, it won’t matter. So training is going to be very important.
The screen printing didn’t take on the Kangaroo Tubes, so we met with Rabbi Rabanes at the templex in the afternoon to show him that. He agreed and will do them again. He only has a motorcycle, so we needed to take them back to his place. We arranged to take them back on Tuesday morning.
Between Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they finally replaced our two Air Cons that have gone out. Oh, what a joy to have a cool apartment again!
On Tuesday morning we headed to Rabbi’s place to deliver the 1400 Kangaroo Tubes again. We actually found it without help this time. We have to drive some narrow roads with the last one being so narrow that you can’t have a body between you and the wall of houses on either side. You honk before you start down the road and see if someone is honking back because you have to go around a narrow corner. Then when you get to his place his neighbor has a gate that will let a vehicle in a little way. It is a 10-point turn to get out of there and back down the narrow path to the narrow street. Oh, Boy!
We stopped and did some grocery shopping on the way back to get supplies for feeding six sister missionaries that evening. We had Taco Tuesday, and some Rice. They love their rice. I had tacos and nachos. Clyda spoils me and them.
On Wednesday morning we woke up to a 10:00 p.m. email the night before that our project didn’t meet the core managers approval. Kenneth is our advocate with them on Tuesdays. We needed to make some changes before our meeting with the Area Welfare Service Reliance Committee (AWSRC). We needed a cheaper copy machine and fewer TVs. We got a hold of Jude and got a quote for a cheaper copy machine, 156,000 pesos instead of 350,000 pesos. I still didn’t know what to do about the TVs.
That afternoon we then had our last Friday AWSRC meeting. We didn’t have it last Friday because it was the kickoff of the “My Plan” for returning missionaries being held at the new FSY facility, and the Philippines Director of Temporal Affairs had to be at that with a few others that also need to be to our meeting.
The Welches invited us over for dinner Wednesday evening. All the other couples are on vacation and playing down at Dumaguete and Siquijor. They spent a week down there. The Welches needed to stay because they have English Connect with the missionaries every day and they need good internet connection. They didn’t dare risk being away. It was a wonderful dinner with Sister Welch’s famous Chicken Enchilada Casserole. It was delicious! They also showed us an amazing “English Connect” video that Sister Alvez had just made for them. She did it with her missionary phone. Sister Alvez is a Filipino who speaks great English. The missionaries practice English each day, and it is called “English Connect”.
We woke up at 5:00 on Thursday, got cleaned up and headed for the Floro T. Bongco Farm School turnover on Negros Island at 1:00. We left a little after 5:30 and arrived at the Tabuelon Port at 7:45. We looked at a full barge that pulled out at 8:15. The next barge came and filled up with vehicles ahead of us at 11:30. We now knew we were in trouble. It is a 2.5 hour ferry. We did get on the next barge at 12:30, but we for sure weren’t going to make the 1:00 turnover. We arrived at the Escalante Port at 3:00. Then a 20-minute drive and arrived at the school, where we had a 3:30 turnover. We had called ahead, and we kept them updated on our progress. The school day doesn’t end until 4:30 so it all worked out. The only problem is, we still had to go back to Cebu. We got home at 1:00 a.m.
I couldn’t sleep thinking about our project not being presented the next day. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind, including the recently viewed video of “English Connect” along with all the research that indicates increased academic learning with the use of technology as opposed to just a chalkboard and lecture. Genard had provided us with a great research paper done from a high school up by Manila where they had two classes of 40 students each who were taught in two different ways. In the pretest both classes scored at almost the same exact scores. After 6 weeks of instruction the class that received video power point instruction scored twice as high on the posttest as the other class.
At 4:30, and a lot of tossing and turning, I got up, checked to make sure I could show the “English Connect” video with my computer. Then I started to make a couple new slides for my power point presentation to the AWSRC the next morning if I got a chance. On the second slide, after introducing the school, I then started with bullet point #1 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes so strongly that the Filipinos learn English well that they take time out of valuable proselyting time each day for them to study, practice, and learn English. They know how valuable that will be to their future success in life. (I wish I knew how to show you the video, but I don’t.) #2 - Every Filipino should have the opportunity to learn English well to improve their chances in life. #3 – One of the very best ways to help them is to see the English language written and spoken correctly, via Projectors or TVs. On the next slide I shared the results of the research paper.
I went back to bed at 5:30. I woke up at 6:30. The zoom meeting started at 7:30. I still didn’t know if I would get a chance to present. On the agenda we were listed last, and it said (pending changes). At 7:15 Kenneth calls and asks if I got a cheaper copy machine, “Yes”. He asked if I reduced the number of TVs. I said I did not. How do you give them to half the classrooms and not the other half. It is either all or nothing, they will have to decide, I’m not going to.
We were last on the agenda. I asked if I could share a short 3-minute video first that I thought they might enjoy. They loved the “English Connect” video. It is impressive! I then went through the presentation, and it PASSED!
I have come down with quite a cold because of lack of sleep, but I’m excited for Genard Gomez and his school and the teaching staff. I have taken a nap both on Friday after the meeting and again today, Saturday. We have some more projects pending so no rest for the weak, weary, and wicked. One project we really need completed is for Prosthetics. We hope we get it going. We are behind the 8-ball on it.
After walking this morning, we hit the open market at 7:00 with the Taylors and Koyles who got home late Friday night from another vacation. They start back at the temple this Tuesday. They have had the last 4 weeks off and have done some fun things. After the market we showered, studied, and headed to the office. After about 3 hours work, we watched the Cokeville-Lovell football game on the 65” TV in the office. Thanks, NFHS for “on demand” films. Congratulations Cokeville on the big win! With that big of a screen we felt like we were home. We could just walk a couple blocks and arrive at our beautiful home. However, a couple blocks later we had come back to reality with kids and adults begging and poverty all around us, jeepneys running, and busy city streets and noises and foul smells that come from these situations. Reality is rough. Another nap, then more work on a couple projects, Casadillas for dinner and cookie dough for dessert. Life is good!
Excellent meetings at church today. The Sacrament and Priesthood meetings were centered on The Family Proclamation and respect in a marriage. The talks were excellent and the discussion was great. We made a couple more connections today at church with people where we know their relatives in other parts of the Philippines. That is always fun for me.
After church we picked up the last 135 Kangaroo Tubes that need to be screen printed. (Clyda will sew a few more on occasion, but these are the last that were sewn by the stake relief society.) We then headed for Rabbi’s place, about a half hour away if the traffic isn’t too bad. We go down some pretty narrow streets! We have returned safely and Clyda is fixing salmon, baked potatoes, carrots, and grapes for dinner. It will be wonderful.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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