Discussions of the story that is unfolding day by day and filming schedule discussions over the next few days planning and discussions with John, Barclay, Judy-Anne and Paul. The puzzle and story is evolving before us as each day happens. John coached us from the beginning that in true documentary fashion, the story will reveal itself. This is happening as some scholars and subjects of the film rise in focus and others drift back.
We have the sense that the next several days will be as large in experience as the previous 358 in the making of this film. Representatives from the previous year’s journey will join 6,000 to 10,000 children, youth, parents and aging for a celebration of our collective walk toward discovery, understanding, compassion and freedom. It has been a great journey so far. We enter the week in amazement with eyes (and cameras) wide open for its revealing.
Thank you from our crew, staff and sponsored families for traveling with us. – Paul
Visit to community Camino Nuevo (The New Way). This was the location of a tremendous fire that destroyed numerous homes last year. A lively and unified CFCA community.
Visit to Edwin Andrews Air Force base to request to “borrow” one of their helicopters. Maribel calls this her mission impossible requested by John. The base is on “red alert” but the mood and posture of the front guards is pretty relaxed. Only Maribel got to go inside the commanding officer’s office to deliver our formal request containing the purpose of CFCA, the concert and film. Barclay, Rose and I peeked around the corner of the building to get a glimpse of two helicopters. We decided they look better when they’re about a 1,000 feet in the air than at this distance. While exiting past the guards, we decide that the base is actually on more of an “auburn alert.” Later in the week, we found out, to our amazement, that they’ve agreed to fly John around the city and concert site during one of their maintenance flights.
John Nosack, film director and CFCA thinker and storyteller, testing camera heights and sight lines from one of the carpenter’s makeshift and portable cameraperson stands. There will be three of these stands for the concert.
John has been training CFCA scholars to run the tape edit deck and invites them to be part of the making of the film by providing translations. There are many languages spoken in the film interviews: Chabacano, Tagalog, Visayan, Samal, English and others.
This, my friends, is the generator for our jungle concert! The mother of all hybrids runs on diesel and cranks out 125 kVA and will power the stage lights, house lights, and sound system. It’s alarmingly loud. We’re working with the owner and Abbas for a sound silencing solution. We’re still laughing on this one. Each day has several surprises, but when they fired this up, John captured Barclay’s expression of utter concern and confusion. We haven’t named it yet.
Visit to community Patalon. Community by the sea. Fifty-two sponsored children and parents along with three sponsored aging welcome us to the tune, Zamboanga – Hermosa y Preciosa. A strong typhoon hit this community this past November 2007. Fishermen earn an average of 150 pesos/day. They fish with small nets, sometimes in the day, sometimes in the evening, sometimes all night long. In general, they say there are fewer fish these days. Some days are lucky, some days are not. The community, led by CFCA parent and area volunteer Irlinda, creates a very special atmosphere of unity and joy. There’s music, food, speeches and dances. Really relaxing home visits in the community with ocean breezes. The two families we visited had 12 and 10 children respectively. The three aging assured everyone they were going to dance for the entire concert.
Conversations with Abbas about his seven years in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, his thoughts on Filipino architecture, and his love for westerns and country music. He says he’s proud to follow international standards in all his designs regarding doorways, counter heights, stairs, etc. However, he longs for a more distinct Filipino architectural style. He says much is borrowed from the outside. On country music, he says it’s always so happy!
Visit to Kabaluay community and home of area volunteer Edgar. Today is the barangay- wide fiesta. Most houses are having some sort of family get-together along with activities in the community. After a meal of lichon and buku-salad, we sit on the small front porch of CFCA father and area volunteer Edgar. Not enough building projects and high transportation costs are challenges for Edgar. Edgar was approached to run for barangay captain, but he decided to stay as lead CFCA area volunteer. He quoted CFCA policy on not mixing the program with politics. He talks of the loneliness both he and his wife experienced while she was in Bahrain for two years and he was home. They have agreed that neither will go abroad because they miss each other too much. He’s a carpenter by trade and his house really shows pride of workmanship. He’s painted the living room wall a light pink picked out by his daughters.
Late night discussion and planning with the team.
Visit to Lumbangan community and dumpsite. Discussion with barangay officials and parents. Top concerns voiced were lack of regular employment (no one is employed by companies, everyone has to find daily labor, and if someone is employed, it only lasts for six months, then they are laid off so the company does not owe benefits; education for their children; better access to books other than those being used in the regular public school (usually there’s only one copy of the book per classroom); and the obstacle of high transportation costs for their children to get to the high school. Daily wages working in the dumpsite are 90 pesos (about $2); a round trip to the high school costs 40 pesos (about $1). Also, there are periodic fees for school projects; this can be 20, 40 or as high as 200 pesos.
They also describe the difficulty of getting a job once a student graduates. They said that you have to know someone, or pay something under the table to get a job. Parents are frustrated that if they invest their scarce resources in a child’s education, they have no guarantee that the child will be able to find a job. Sponsorship can relieve quite a bit of this pressure from the family budget.
We are talking within the project of expanding the Saturday outreach program to include a learning/resource center that would be open to all ages and open several days a week. The learning center could house a small library, adult literacy training and livelihood training. We are also brainstorming about how to give the community access to affordable transportation.
The narrow spaces of the Lumbangan dumpsite.
Rehearsals with scholars at Centro. One of the last rehearsals with all scholars together as they all have mid-term exams through the week. The exams account for 40 percent of their grade. We will be relocating the instruments from the Centro to the CFCA office/library in town. This way, individual or small groups of scholars can come by to rehearse for a short time to take a break from studying.
We asked the scholars what they want from this concert:
“to be happy”
“that people who are less fortunate can be together with people who are more fortunate”
“to make people happy”
“even though we are less fortunate, we still have talent”
“to do inspirational songs”
“this is my first concert to see, let alone play in”
“I want this to stay in the memory of the aging”
A concert comes to the edge of town. Following are several images showing the concert stage progression. There’s a core group of dads led by CFCA dad Abbas building the stage. Lot’s of film interviews and storytelling are happening around the stage.
A load of bamboo being delivered to the site. Abbas calls this rig the Filipino Volkswagen.
While we had a break from a variety of continued preparation, Barclay and I sat down with project coordinator Maribel for a discussion of the CFCA project’s special outreach with the Lumbangan community located at the Lumbangan dumpsite. The parents and children working this dumpsite are at the most marginalized position in society. A full day of scavenging for recyclable materials provides about 90 pesos per day (about $2). The project’s outreach centers around volunteer service from CFCA service scholars who are pursuing teaching careers, and parents of sponsored children. The Saturday outreach helps prepare previously un-schooled children to enter into the regular elementary school, and also provides supplemental learning to kids in school. Sponsored and non-sponsored kids are welcome at the outreach. Groups of parents take turns preparing lunch for the students.
There are many simultaneous activities happening each day. John, Barclay, Paul, and Judy-Anne are sometimes together and often in different efforts – site prep, filming, stage construction, interviews, community visits, rehearsals, staff meetings, planning, story for the film, blogging and updates to Kansas, etc. The days are also getting longer and longer. Nights at the Centro run after midnight, and nights back at the hotel are short as well.
We’re worried about the amount of rain we’re getting. It’s rained for parts of almost every day and often overnight. There are standing pools of water in the field that we will be attempting to drain. We are in rice-growing territory, and we’re sure the dads with the carabao have a few more tricks to show us.
Look in the dictionary under “welcoming” and you’ll find a picture of the Philippine CFCA staff and sponsored friends.
I arrived in Zamboanga yesterday late afternoon. After walking from the plane into the small airport terminal, I was greeted by a battalion of luggage handlers. One man stepped up and asked if I was Judy-Anne from CFCA. He told me his name was Wilbert and he said that his daughter was a sponsored child and if I’d give him my claim checks, he’d bring my bags out. “They’re waiting for you,” Wilbert said.
I walked out and found a crowd of people smiling at me, with a banner in front that read, “Welcome, Judy-Anne.” About 40 people – local CFCA staff, children and parents from the projects, and the U.S. crew (Barclay, John and Paul) had come to meet me. It was an amazing reception – warm, kind and powerful. The shape of things to come, I think.
Among the wonderful group was Maribel, the CFCA Zamboanga project director who arranged our in-country flights. She’s an amazing woman of deep compassion who is at the helm of operations for the concert – making sure everything is in order, like procuring 500-plus lanterns to light the field; convening the group of mothers who will be ticket takers and guides for the concert goers; handling logistics for getting everyone to the concert; and a million other responsibilities too vast and complex to fathom!
I also met John – our brilliant director and cinematographer. When we got back to the office, we found a group of CFCA scholars who were working on translations for some of the footage that John had shot. John is mentoring them on using the editing software. The footage looked wonderful, and the teens were having a great time and taking the task very seriously.
Our evening was capped off by a delicious dinner prepared by a group of CFCA mothers. The feast included fried chicken and shrimp in a thick, ginger sauce. Then it was time to check into my room and enjoy my first sleep in the Philippines, with the promise of seeing the concert site in the morning.
Filed under: Field Notes from CFCA staff
Sponsored member Elicel with mother Evelyn. Elicel participates in the Saturday outreach program. This picture doesn’t capture the tears that filled her mother’s eyes when she talked about what sponsorship will mean to her. Elicel is the oldest of three girls and the family’s fourth baby is due in February. Evelyn expresses that she always wanted a daughter like Elicel (bright and eager to learn) and she’s so happy that she’ll have help going to school. Elicel was newly sponsored in December.
Orientation with new sponsored families at the Centro. Some of these families have been waiting for up to two years to enter into the program. (These are mostly local application and wait times. There is great demand on the project for new applicants.) The hope and excitement in the young people, moms and several dads present is evident in the very attentive faces to staffer Christine. The families are learning the history of CFCA, CFCA presence in the world, and core principles of education, participation, communication, benefits and services. Christine conveys an excitement and a real welcoming to the CFCA community for these families. Sponsored kids and parents are all taking notes during this talk. They will write welcome letters during this day to their newly found sponsors.
Meeting with El Pueblo dance and theatre instructors. El Pueblo will present a multi-faith doxology (praise dance) to open the concert and introduce the Philippine national anthem. Then they will present dances spanning several hundred years from the original Subanen tribe up to modern times. Theatre instructor Baby and Maribel were co-workers back in Claret school. Baby is happy to be a part of this community concert and excited that it will be filmed. She wants to promote Philippine culture and the arts. There are 255 high school youth in their performing arts program.
