KHA COMMUNITY LIBRARY Project

          The KHA Community Library is a collaborative effort of Keep Hope Alive Youth Volunteers Organization, Salvacion Elementary School teachers, Barangay Officials, concerned citizens and local community people to design, build, and equip a public library open to a high-poverty neighborhoods/communities with low academic achievement in Maliwanag, Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro. This library will include new books, and other reading and instructional materials, a “Parenting Corner” for parents/guardian to visit the library, informal reading areas, Mangyan resource corner and separate areas for study and research, instruction, and group discussion. This will benefit the students and learners from the neighboring communities and public schools. 

         The community library project and its partners hope that a fun, safe and enlightening space in this project will contribute to a child’s love of books and will help them to develop critical reading and thinking skills. More so, the dream of the project stakeholders is that these spaces will engage the entire family and community more directly in the schools' learning effort through partnerships with extracurricular and educational programs.

I.             The goals of the Library Project are:

• Create uniquely designed library for elementary and high school pupils, Mangyan learners, as well as local community people that include new book collections and instructional materials
• Strengthen/instill the love of children in reading and support each school's curriculum and serve as the educational heart of the school and community
• Design a practical and replicable model of community-based educational sustainability resources for other public schools in the area.
• The project is an all-volunteer effort, and 100% of the book donations being raised will be spent on the revitalization of the library.
• The renovations of the first Library room will be completed by March 2015. The remaining two  rooms will be completed by the end of school year 2015-2016.

II.            The Site: Salvacion Elementary School – Maliwanag, Mansalay Oriental Mindoro

Salvacion Elementary School - Brgy. Maliwanag, Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro

The Official site of the Library Project

III.           Materials Needed

We need books and other reading/reference Materials. This project couldn’t exist without your donations 

Books We Need:

• Dictionaries(English-Tagalog)
• Encyclopedia
• ESL study guides
• Story books
• Leaflets/Maps
• Atlas
• Preparatory/Kindergarten textbooks
• Elementary textbooks
• High school textbooks (all subjects)
• College textbooks (intro level)
• Philippine and World history and fiction
• Laboratory/Science Materials
• Other reference/reading materials

We are happy to receive shipments of donated books.

c/o Elcana Gamol
School Principal
Salvacion Elementary School 

Maliwanag, Mansalay

Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, 5213

Or contact:

Shernan Gamol

+639494743512

sfgamol@yahoo.com.ph

What I've learned so far in life

These are the good ol' days.

There's a little exercise I love to do, especially when I'm frustrated and wondering what the heck life is all about....

I close my eyes and imagine that I'm 95 years old now. I really feeeel it. My life has gone by and it's almost over; a photo album, some stories, memories, accomplishments, loved ones. I've gotten used to feeling achy and tired. I spend much of my day just getting up and around. My kids are all grown and aged themselves. Most of my lifetime friends are gone. My parents are dead.

And here I am, looking back, thinking how wonderful it would be if I could go back in time and taste some of it again; maybe do things differently. To be young again, to be healthy and strong again, to have a lifetime of opportunity before me again, to play with my kids or grandkids again while they were still children. To hug my parents and friends again. To say thank you again. To help. To appreciate. To love. What a gift it would be to relive part of my past. I really feel what it's like to be 95 years old now.

And then I say, "Please, God, let me go back in time. Let me be young again and appreciate all I had. Please." And then, when I'm really longing for it and feeling like that life is a dream that will never really come true, and my life is really almost over... I open my eyes.

Try it some time. If you're like me, you'll experience the total blessing of being here, right now.

Ever notice that the good ol' days of our lives are somehow always in the past? I try to remember, despite whatever challenges are facing me, whatever better future is eluding me, that these are probably the times I'll look back on - even if they're hard times - and say, "Wow, what an amazing time that was."

I've also come to believe that the worst and hardest times are often the times of greatest transformation and learning. And when plans don't unfold the way we imagined, when things go terribly wrong, the universe is simply realigning our course. I try to practice acceptance and have faith that it will all turn out somehow.

And when I look back on the worst times and tragedies of my life, I can't help but notice all the blessings that logically resulted, and that things never turn out nearly as badly as I had feared.

So I remind myself never to worry about things I can't control. To worry is to suffer by living in the future. And the future is unpredictable.

Are you hurt now? Have you lost your life savings now? Are you alone now? Or are you perfectly safe, warm, and healthy, imagining a bad thing that might happen tomorrow?

If the bad thing doesn't happen, you will have tormented yourself in vain. And if it does, worrying could not have prevented it anyway. And right now, whatever may be going on, it's all happening in the good ol' days.

Shared by: Chris Balthasar, a financial advisor and consultant.

GFF Bonding and Adventure

Prayer Mountain & Hinulugang Taktak - Antipolo City

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"Kung Bakit Espesyal si Tatay"

      Whenever I would come home every vacation from Manila, I would always find my father waiting at the bus terminal to pick me up; ready to bring me home. He would always extend his warm regards with his hands. Most of the time, however, his efforts went unnoticed.

           I grew up in a remote area in Mindoro. When I was a kid, there was no electricity except the generator that worked for three hours every night. Fresh clean air, blue skies, clothes drying in the sunshine, peace and quiet, seclusion away from the hurried "what can we go buy at the mall?"-type of life.  Not the life for everyone. But it was for us and all our critters. I wouldn't want to miss a single day of it. During weekends or harvesting time, me and my siblings were going to the farm riding our Carabao and "karusa" (cart) to help my father and play in the haystack afterwards.    If someone were to ask me what experience has shaped my life and personality the most, I would say, without hesitation, growing up on a farm. 

           They said I was one of his favorite sons, because he's always talking about my achievements, but I was never close to him. I spent most of my childhood days without him at my side. I was a little bit uncomfortable whenever he was around. He was also a silent-type but disciplinarian.  I have experience a lot – physically and emotionally, whenever I would commit mistakes or silly things that made him mad.  I never heard him saying a lot of words, as my mother always do. He’d rather sit at the corner and calculate on papers or fix something with his machinery tools. 

       When I was in High School, I never told him how I did in my academics, the name of my teachers nor my classmates, nor my crushes and love interests. I thought they would not interest him at all. That was what I thought then. I never tried reaching to him because I feel awkward to do so. Those were the days before I realized his sacrifices and hard-works.

(Farming with SUKOB, my father's beloved Carabao)

(My Father with his brothers and friends during one of their typical drinking sessions in the province)

       One afternoon, when my father became drunk after an occasional drinking session with his fellow farmers after his usual rice field routines, I heard him telling his friends how proud he was to have a son like me. He almost narrated all my academic and extra-curricular achievements. I heard all those stories directly from his mouth. From that day, my perception about my father started to change.

(The usual weekend with my siblings back when I was a child)

        

        No other experiences this world can offer even come close to watching the sun set over the mountains while carrying harvested coconuts with my father, smelling blooms as they drift up from the dike bottom or saving a baby goat from sure death. These are things you can't appreciate until you've experienced them. These are the things life on a farm with my father is made of.

(Our Backyard Rice field)

       One day, while watching TV show about farming. I urged to ask him about the show, which I think he knew a lot. He eagerly and earnestly shared what he knows. Each time I ask him questions, he never failed to satisfy my curiosity. His eager countenance changes as he briefly recounted his experience in farming. That afternoon talk made a vivid impact in my memory.

(My father's Hand Tractor)

(My father)

      As years passed, my father exerted silent effort to prove his being father to us. He was both a quite ordinary and yet, remarkable man, hard-working father who spent so much time in farming to provide us with foods and other necessities. I commit mistakes or do bad thing sometimes, but I never heard anything from him, not an angry look or a harsh word. His understanding and acceptance mean a lot to me.

        Before I graduated college, I finally realized how much my father means to me. I was a Sunday service – a father’s day special. That day I learned that he was suffering from hyperthermic attack for several days. I was anxious of his condition because I knew how much he worked hard in the farm every day. I was afraid because I knew I had never done any significant thing for him. I never fully expressed my appreciation and love for him. On that moment, I promised myself to give my best effort in showing how much I owe him. I made a phone call for him for the first time and asked about how he was doing and his condition. From that day, I always bring something for my father; material things or anything that would make him feel valuable. Last Barangay election, despite my loaded work schedule I chose to go home to support my father’s candidacy. Thank God he won.

        

      Now, whenever I would come home, I would find myself holding something for my father as he looks out at the bus terminal to pick me up - things that cannot be replaced by any possessions or riches in this world. More than the material things I have for him, the love and the warm embrace are worthless expression of how much I love and appreciate him. Perhaps, the wall between us is completely torn down, and I can finally say to ORIE FADRI GAMOL, “I Love You, Pa”. You are my hero and my secure foundation. Happy Father's Day.

(ORIE FADRI GAMOL, my beloved father)

  

 
Tatay 

Ang "Tinapay" Ni Aling Besyang

Tuwing umaga, kapag maaga ako nagigising, nakaugalian ko nang bumaba mula sa ika-anim na palapag ng gusaling aking tinitirhan para mghanap ng panlaman t'yan sa almusal. Agad akong dumideretso sa tinapayan sa kabilang kanto. Ito ang masasarap na tinapay na bumubungad sa mga parokyano tuwing umaga sa bakery ni Aling Besyang. Nakakahalina ang amoy, masarap sa mata at swabe sa panlasa.

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