The long and winding week
After four days of non-stop yakking by yours truly, I am proud to say we have finished with Phase 1 of training for the MGP School I.T. program. There were hitches and glitches yes, but the fulfillment of seeing a room full of people who have never laid hands on a mouse or keyboard, now helping each other register for an email address, that brings tears to one’s eyes.
This is me, a frustrated teacher, finally finding a way to realize my dream. This is 4 schools in as many municipalities in Masbate, who may have a few computers on campus—but hardly any of them working, and none of them connected to the Internet save for one school in the city—finally connecting to the internet. This is several teachers some of whom were over the age of 40, but have hesitated to come near a computer for fear of breaking something. This is more than 40 educators, now directly linked to the immensity of information on the internet.
There are no phones in these municipalities of Masbate, save in the city itself, so there is no DSL in Milagros, or Baleno, or Balud. People have mobile phones yes, but wireless internet has been impossible because of the line-of-sight necessary for antenna-based internet connections. The SmartBro USB Internet device has changed all that.
Just the mere sight of a teacher who had never been near a browser now coaching her fellow teacher, after discovering just how easy it is to find information on the net, on how to enter a URL into the browser’s address bar, is enough to make up for the lack of sleep as Tech Guy Diom Felecia and I assembled tables long into the night. The tables on which the new computer systems rest, and the gas-lift chairs that go with them, are all part of the CSR project, and saw form in our hands. The table assembly was difficult and arduous, but for each drawer that I put together I remembered my father who passed on the love of tools and of making things to me. We, the teachers and I, are parables of Fig trees with a twist—after being fruitless and bare for so long, now thick with new possibilities.
There is triumph in each successful double-click (don’t move the mouse when you double-click), in each right click, a feeling of fulfillment when you have managed to change your desktop wallpaper all on your own. For us who have been around computers since time immemorial, this is trivial, but for someone who has been intimidated by computers but now finds himself master of one, this is a feat worthy of applause.
I am not extolling the virtues of teaching, neither am I pandering to the generosity of companies who have come to our country to extract what it can and then leave when there’s nothing left.
I am celebrating the joy of learning, because for me it is never too late to learn.
On the road again
Back to Masbate it is for me, for the implementation of Filminera Resources Corporation’s Corporate Social Responsibility Program for certain schools in that province. This would be my second trip to Masbate, with the first being the needs assessment trip two weeks ago. This time we’re ready with the 13 Lenovo K200 PCs, printers etc. Tomorrow I will begin the series of training sessions with the schools’ faculty.
Posting this while on the road from Legaspi to Sorsogon. Sure hope this van has got good car insurance.
(continuation, posted from Puro, Aroroy, Masbate)
Here’s my very own photo of the Mayon Volcano, taken from aboard Philippine Airlines flight PR 277 bound for Legaspi. Better than taking a photo of MMDA Chairman BF a few kilometers from the airport going to Sorsogon. Yep, the posters are still there.
But the good news is, so is the Mayon Volcano.
The Masbate Project, Day 3
(Nov 7) There wasn’t supposed to be Day 3, we were supposed to be heading out of Filminera camp at half past three in the morning to make the first trip out on the Lady Jacqueline of Leighton. But Typhoon Quinta decided to hover about Masbate where Signal Number 1 was raised, effectively keeping all sea craft port bound. And rightly so, after all the sea mishaps that have occurred in our islands quite recently.
There was little rain over Masbate, however, and gusty winds with the sun trying its darnedest to come out from behind the clouds. I spent most of last night sitting just outside the door of Staff House 3 with Quinta in my hair. In the morning we managed to have breakfast at the Mess Hall, much to my delight, as meals at the Filminera mess hall were always something to look forward to. I had the tocino and the grilled tomatoes with my coffee, plus an extra helping of bread, some of which I took back with me. The bread at the Filminera mess hall is the best I have had in several years.
After breakfast Blair and I went on a tour of the facility. This is where my safety boots came to good use. What little rain there was turned most of the ground outside the housing compound into sticky mud. But the view from the top made it all worthwhile.
Ten o’clock found us back on the Lady Jacqueline to take us back where we came. This time I opted to sit outside in the open air area, instead of the rather cramped but air conditioned cabin. It was a good hour and a half back to Sorsogon and the waters were calm enough for me not to be too worried. We arrived in Pilar Port with no incident, I even managed to walk calmly on the same gangplanks I walked on two days ago. But this was because I now had two bags instead of three, and the tide was higher than it had been the other day.
I even got a glimpse of Mayon Volcano on the way to the airport, as well as the obverse view of Bayani Fernando’s tarpaulin poster more or less on the same spot where I saw it on our way in.
Even as I was leaving Masbate I was already thinking of my return in two weeks’ time, with the brand new Lenovo K300 systems and the two days I was to spend with each school to teach them how to use and care for the equipment. The mining industry is one of the highest income generating industries for this country, but at the price of the destruction of our mountains and sometimes even the surrounding seas. Nevertheless, Filminera is one of the companies known for responsible mining (although some people, perhaps including myself, may consider that an oxymoron), and this CSR project of theirs is something I believe in.
It’s time everyone gave something back.
The Masbate Project, Day 1
The Masbate Project, Day 2
The Masbate Project, Day 2
We stayed overnight in Masbate City, in a small but cozy and quiet place called the MG Hotel. Blair had gone back to Filminera base after the Baleno visit, and so Flo and Cesar and I finished off with Liceo de Masbate later in the afternoon. By the time we got to the MG I was knackered and wasn’t even interested in going around the city. I figured I could do that the next day.
Right now I was feeling everything you would feel if you’d been up since 4 in the morning, gone through Terminal 2 in your slippers because they wouldn’t let you in with your steel toe boots, traveled in a speeding van from Legaspi to Sorsogon and being greeted by a BF tarpaulin, having to cross three gangplanks of varying widths, lengths and inclines while trying to balance knapsack, overnight bag and a third bag with your steel toe boots, to sit for almost two hours in a boat across the choppy waters where a few miles away a passenger boat had capsized in a squall off Dimasalang, Masbate.
In the morning I felt much better, ready for the visits to the Liceo de san Juan in Milagros, and the Immaculate Conception Academy in Balud.
All of the schools, including the two we visited the day before, already had computer facilities, but they were ancient Pentium Systems with huge CRT monitors, mostly donations from failed internet cafes. Only the Liceo de Masbate had internet access on its entire network. The teachers in the other schools said they had to go to Masbate City when they needed to get on the Internet. As with Baleno and Masbate, we were received with much warmth and food. There was food for us everywhere we went, it was almost embarrassing.
My worry was the state of some of the stretches of road from Milagros to Balud. The municipality of Balud is 47km (just under 30 miles) away from Masbate City. The national highway was paved but only around 60% of the way to Balud was good riding. The rest of the road will give you the feeling that you’re in one of Masbate’s famous rodeos.
When we got back to Filminera compound it was discussed that we could go to Balud over the water instead of on land. If we chose the latter, we would have to detach the hard disks from the towers prior to the trip, and then re-assemble when on site.
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