Biongbong and ALS

Dear readers,
If I read my title I am like where is this going to led the story? What will the story be about? I as writer even think oh wow? But then I think the moment I write it the title will be so clear. Because this is the first title that I wrote before I will write the story. Hope you enjoy.
Then the names of the Gecko’s I have decided will be Tom & Jerry, because it fits perfect to those Gecko’s. But last night Ï saw a baby Gecko for the first time. (=Or at least that I realized it was a Gecko, the baby ones are funny, they have big marbles on their head, which are just the eyes.)
Anyway here it is been hot, humid the last days. If it is humid it means rain is coming. But that is what they have been saying for the last few days. I believe rain can come any day, but I don’t see it happening any time soon. But never say never. So how is your place?
I just finished watering the vermi and now I have breakfast. So it might not be the most perfect English because I am a little tired after the weekend, not a good night sleep and waking up early. So let’s hope my English is still readable.
This weekend I was in Biongbong and at ALS. If this would have been the end of the story it would still not be clear. So I will right a bit more, so you understand it.
This weekend was not a ‘You are free on the weekends’-weekend. It was more a weekend like ‘You have a lot this weekend’-weekend. The weekend I am talking about is the 25th/26th.
Anyway imagine this on Saturday you wake up at 6 to be ready at 7, then you leave the farm school to go to Hazels house, she is not ready at the right time, so you are waiting for half an hour/45 minutes. Then she realized last night she forget her USB-stick at the farm. That is why you now have to turn around and go back to the farm. Then you think ‘Could I have stayed in bed and be ready now?’ Anyway then all of you go to Biongbong. Why are you even going there? Only because Nene invited you and you couldn’t say no to this farmers meeting. Do you like it? It is nice but they speak a language you don’t understand, so that is a lot of fun! (-Sarcastic) Well in the morning there was a 15 minutes film spoken in English so yes you could understand that. It was about how to make your soil become the best to start farming which means mostly planting and harvesting rice. Then there was a lot of talking you don’t understand at all. So what you do is waiting outside, looking a bit at the birds flying and taking pictures of the farm you are at. Maybe you also listen a bit to music. Then the rest of the people come outside, mostly to wait for lunch. Then the lovely lunch considers rice, which you totally didn’t expect at all. Oh and chicken with vegetables. After that they suddenly ask you to come to the field. And guess what you are going to do? Plant rice. You take of you flipflops, you roll your trousers bit higher. And yes I know you are not looking forward, but you are going to stand in the mud and walk in the mud. Then somebody gives you some plants with mud and you have to hold that and then you have to plant the rice in squares. It means that the squares are already made and you put one rice plant in a corner. You totally finish two lines. After that you climb out of the mud, you wash yourself with water and then you see that all your nails are orange. You wonder how is this possible? So you ask somebody and there answer is ‘This farm just turned a few year ago on organic farming, but the chemicals that they once used are still in the ground that is why your nails are now orange. It will still take a few years before all the chemicals are out of the soil and they will be a totally clean organic farm. It is good that they made the switch to organic farming but it will still take a couple of years before their soil is also organic.’’
Well now you have a new experience. Then they ask everybody what they learnt on this meeting, what they liked and disliked. My answer but maybe also yours would be I learnt planting rice. I liked falling not in the mud. And I disliked not understanding it all.
After that we had to wait for the tricycle to pick us up and drop us back at the farm.
The next day you have to be ready at half past 8 but the fact that a roaster waked you up at half past 5 is not really appreciated. The fun thing is the roaster was just next to me, only the thin wall was in between. After that somehow you don’t fall asleep and you just decide to get out of your bed. You take a shower and in no time you are ready, which means ready at about half past 6. This means you still have two hours, so what you decided to do is just use the wifi, work on some pictures, listen to music etc. At quarter past 8 you already leave to walk with Nene to Melissa, she clearly lives far away. After that you take a tricycle and get off at a sudden point to firstly walk to a school. And you are like this is small building. Then in the heat of the sun they decided the building is to small and we will have to walk to another building. Only this building is meant for children between 4-6 old. At least that is the size of the chairs. Somehow you don’t fit in a chair and somebody goes back to the old building to get a big chair for you. Also because the moment you sat in the 4-6 year old chair you wanted to stand up but the chair was stuck to you and the moment you try to get off it breaks. So that is the main reason you get another big nice chair. Then the ALS started at half past 9, ALS is Alternative Learning System, it means that Nene teaches children that for some reason dropped out of elementary or high school and still want to get that degree. Most women stopped because they married at 16, got pregnant at 16 and dropped out of school. Only one boy said it was because of financial reasons. Later you ask Mina, how is it possible that they get married at that age? Mina answers ‘Getting married is illegal at that age, you might celebrate it but legally they are not married, probably they also can’t afford a legal marriage. Because to have a legal marriage the girl has to be 18 and the boy has at least to be 21.’
Anyway at about 12 you get lunch, then at about 1/half past 1 the school starts again. They asked you to teach English and Maths. Which just means +, -, :, x.
After that they have to write one more essay and they get their homework for next week. At about 4 you are free and will go home. When you are back on the farm you realize how much work Nene actually has, especially that on also her free Sunday she likes to help others to get their school degree. To me, Nene is very dedicated to her work and to the children she teaches. She really loves the job at the farm school. I learned to appreciate her although sometimes she is so annoying.
So I went to Biongbong and ALS in the weekend. This was the story. Hope you understand it now. I am sorry, or well I am not that sorry that the story became so long. Clearly it was necessary to tell all this information to make the one sentences clear enough.
For now I wish you a very sunny but humid day!
Love,
Joëlle
Ps. Don’t forget to water the plants inside and outside if it has been hot for a few days!