Day 7 :: 12. 4.09 [Fri]
Every Friday, the Children of Hope School [CSC's very own school for the children] has 'Morning Meeting'. Today, some of the kids and teachers put on a show for us to commemorate Jesus' birthday. It was really fun! These kids are so talented and fearless..
..and generous. CSC has a sponsorship program they call 'Junel's Box', in honor of Junel. This touching story brought me to tears [hopefully I'm relaying it accurately]. There was a little boy named Junel. He was very malnourished, was skin and bones, and couldn't stand or walk because he was so weak. His parents had passed away and so he was given to relatives to care for him, but they treated him very poorly. He was not allowed to play with the other kids or sit at the dinner table with everyone. Instead, he was told to sit in the corner to watch, and if there was food left after dinner, he was given the scraps. Someone brought this to CSC's attention and they went to rescue him. His adjustment to CSC was a slow one. The staff recall the first day he was able to come out to play with everyone [once he was strong enough to come out and join everyone], he immediately found his way to a corner and watched everyone play. The staff had to come over and tell him he did not have to sit in the corner anymore and encouraged him to come out to play with everyone else. They said the look on his face was priceless. He couldn't believe he was getting permission to play with the other children and with their toys [now also his toys]. Come dinner time, it was the same situation. The bell rang for everyone to come inside and find a seat. Once seated, the Staff noticed Junel was missing and looked around the tables but he was nowhere to be found. They then looked at one of the corners, and there was Junel, sitting, watching, and waiting. They came over to him and explained he never had to sit in the corner to wait for scraps anymore and took his hand as they led him to the table. Again, the expression on his face was utter disbelief. He looked around at the other children at the table, with his big wondrous eyes, in amazement that he was actually sitting with everyone else. Once dinner is over, the children bring their plates and leftovers to the kitchen, where they dump the scraps into the trash. Junel was staring in awe as he watched what was once considered his dinner, be thrown away into the garbage. Junel had a favorite toy he was given by some CSC staff. It was an old black film canister with a few coins in it, so the canister rattled whenever it was shaken. Everyone knew where Junel was because he would shake his canister all day long [he'd never owned a single cent nor his very own toy]. One day, the Staff noticed they couldn't hear Junel's rattling canister. They thought, "Oh no.. someone's taken his money." They asked Junel if he still had his canister and he pulled it from his pocket. They asked him, "Is it empty?" He shook his head yes. They then asked if someone had taken the money inside from him. He shook his head no. He said there was a family who needed money to buy food and gifts for their children, so he gave them everything he had. Here was this little boy who grew up with literally nothing and never experienced generosity and thoughtfulness from his very own family, and he gave everything he owned to this family he didn't even know, who needed help. And thus, Junel's Box was established. Every holiday, CSC finds a family in need and collects donations to buy things they need as well as a few fun gifts. The kids receive an allowance every week and often accumulate a good amount of money they can spend when they go on weekend outings to the mall. This year, many of the children donated their entire balance without hesitation or encouragement! It was motivated solely from their own generous hearts. It was so beautiful.
Following the show, we had a December birthday bash in honor of the December birthdays. One of the teacher's birthday falls this month and she wanted to throw a little party for everyone. In the Philippines, birthdays are traditionally celebrated opposite of how American's celebrate them. Rather than all the invited friends buying gifts and paying for the party, the birthday host fronts the bill/fun. Birthdays are a huge deal for these kids, and it was cute watching everyone having such a great time celebrating. Just like me, Filipinos love Ube [taro root - the 'purple stuff']. So there was cake AND ice cream of Ube - SO GOOD!
the cakes are presented!
blowing out the candles by all the December-celebrated birthday honorees!
Once the fiesta ended, it was back to Arlie's 'royal treatment of activity'. Carmelita contacted Marlys and stated she needed me to go back to City Hall to obtain my abandonment report from Monica. Marlys, Sandy, and I were off and met Ruth at City Hall. Monica awaited inside with copies of the abandoment report, as well as another copy of my birth certificate and case study [both of which I already have]. I thanked Monica again for all her efforts and assistance and away we went to meet Dr. Zubiri.
Dr. Zubiri is a prominent plastic surgeon in the Philippines. He spent some time at Harvard during his medical school/residency days. His many framed, certified accolades adorned the walls of his office. He is the surgeon who repaired my cleft lip when I was about 10months old. I was one of his first patients from CSC, one of what would become quite a nice handful. And he did so pro bono. He's what you might call a Medical Robin Hood - capitalizing on Filipino vanity to supplement pro bono services for CSC children in need of medical attention. He was very happy to see Marlys and Sandy again, as it's been a while since they've had to refer any CSC children to him. When they introduced me as the infant for whom he corrected a cleft lip, his eye contact went directly from my eyes to my mouth, and never left. I've received many compliments from various physicians/dentists/oral surgeons telling me how my lip was beautifully repaired. And now, I could thank the surgeon responsible.. in person! He claimed he still has all initial photos he's taken of all his patients, but wasn't sure where mine was filed away, but he wanted to take an 'after' shot to add to his collection. It was pretty spectacular to see him revel in his work. The procedure he used to repair my lip was a procedure few plastic surgeons used at the time, as it was still relatively new and experimental. Today, it's practically the only procedure surgeons use for cleft lips. Marlys asked Dr. Zubiri if he would write us a doctor's note requesting my medical records from the hospital where my surgery was performed, as Marlys was unable to obtain them without one. He gladly wrote it and we dropped it off on our way home. The receptionist assisting Marlys took one look at the date from which the records being requested were written [1980], looked at Marlys and asked, "30 years ago??" When Marlys responded, "yes" the receptionist politely said, "come back in a few days.." Remember my bit about Filipinos and organized chaos? This doesn't exclude their medical record filing system.
Tonight was Roselyn's birthday dinner [she lives in the Teen Home]. We drove back to the Teen Home in order to celebrate with her and the rest of the Teen Home staff and residents. This gave us another opportunity to watch Channel 7 news again at 5:20p, as Carmelita was told it would be aired tonight. Another 30 minutes spent staring at a fuzzy tv screen with no trace of my interview ((eyes rolling)). But the fantastic Filipino food afterward completely made up for it!
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