My Vacation Hotchpotch

My Vacation Hotchpotch

               I’m not going to talk about Jessica Sanchez or CJ Corona or Manny Pacquiao, even if they are the big names that filled the headlines all throughout my thirteen-day summer vacation. Even if Jessica really has a great voice for a sixteen-year-old and it’s the second time that a Filipino made it so far as the finals in the American Idol, but still not far enough to win. Even if CJ Corona made history with a decisive 20-3 vote to convict. Even if I still think, and I’m sure many people all over the world think the same way too, that Pacquiao won with beastly power punches against Timothy Bradley’s cowardly hugs. Anyway, Jessica still has a great future ahead if she uses her voice wisely. Anyway, I believe this is not the end of Pacquiao’s career and that a rematch may prove successful. And anyway, I’m not unlimited.

               So I’ll deal with a relatively harmless yet infinitely more significant matter in years to come: culture and education (not that Jessica, Manny and CJ Corona won’t be part of our uniquely Filipino culture in years to come). I’m talking about the Flores de Mayo and the MTBMLE in action.

               Flores de Mayo, or the Flowers of May, is a month-long festival in the Philippines honouring the Virgin Mary. Incidentally, it is in May, the month of flowers, that our town is the most monochromatic green, because the flush of flowers in bloom is only seen briefly before the children in catechism classes take them away and offer them to the Virgin.

               Observing the catechism classes, it seems to me that the children of today are generally no more different than what the children of our day have been. There is still the same ningas cogon attitude, in both the catechists and the children themselves, of coming to church in large numbers at the beginning of the course, and dropping out along the way. There is still the same eagerness to go to the church as early as possible; in some instances, the children themselves are the ones to open the gates of the church. After the catechism, the children are also as excited to go out of the church, to catch up on their play. The reasons for going to catechism class are still the same, namely: to get religious instruction, and as a perk, free snacks. Sometimes, getting free snacks is even more important than getting religious instruction. (In the case of some of the catechists, the souvenirs are more attractive than the job itself.) The only notable differences are that the children of today are naughtier, more inclined to disbelieve, to question everything with that sarcastically incredulous remark, weh?!, and to master the art of poker face while the lectures of the catechism teacher enter one ear and go out of the other ear. The children of our day have now become the catechists themselves, with the added benefit of being able to hold the backs of the children and pushing them gently forward to guide them in offering the flowers to the Virgin. The only thing that is unpredictable is the number of the children attending the catechism classes. Anyway, it is dependent on who the hermana mayor is.

               The Santacruzan is also pretty much the same, albeit, with younger participants. There is still the same shyness overcoming each of the maidens as they take a procession around the town. There is still the same tiny crowd serving as audience to the procession. And there is still the same rowdy crowd watching or participating in the disco the night of the thirty-first. A decade doesn’t change much when it comes to Filipino attitudes, although it does change the size of the average Filipino. The Reynas did seem smaller than usual, although they are still about the same age as the Reynas of a decade ago.

               In education, however, it seems a decade will bring a lot of significant changes. Even a week using the MTBMLE spawned new developments or new problems, depending on whose eyes you view it with. On the parents’ side, although it is certainly easier for them to teach their children on homework with this MTBMLE, the habit of teaching English stock phrases is still hard to break. The kindergartner, coached long ago in answering to questions or commands such as ‘What is your name?’ or ‘Sit down’, now meets difficulty in answering to ‘Ano it imo ngaran’ or ‘Lingkod’. The memorized introduction routine ‘My name is…I was born on…I live in…’ becomes a little more difficult when translated to ‘Ako hi…Gin-anak ako han…Naukoy ako ha…’ mainly because the child has been drilled on the English version, not the Waray one. Even the Filipino version of ‘Ako ay may Lobo’ is still more familiar to the children than the local ‘May ada Ako Lobo’. For now, the Waray language is effective only in classroom management, when the teacher has gotten fed up with the hyperactive energy of the children, and as the usual recourse when the pupils don’t understand the English term. In some cases, however, as I have seen in a Grade I class in our elementary school, the pupils were more familiar with ‘palace’ and ‘princess’ than the local counterparts ‘palasyo’ and ‘prinsesa’ (this may have been due ALSO to TV soaps like Walang Hanggan and Princess and I). The fact still remains that our pupils are still adjusting, and the process may be slower than we think it would be.

               As controversial as the Philippine events were during the thirteen days of my summer vacation, I’m sure the Philippines will be more colourful still in the coming days.