“Today was amazing! We got to hang out with the students at the school. I spent a lot of my time with a 7-year-old girl called Kristen. She is beautiful and has an amazing personality; she is also very energetic. We played on the monkey bars (even though I was too tall and could walk). We went down the slide many times. By the end of the day my arms were sore from pushing the swings so much, but it was worth it to see the joy on their faces. The playground was a hit for all the students as they were climbing over everything.
The kids love to paint and face painting was great fun with them. The popular choice was a clown face but the flowers, butterflies and dragonflies were done beautifully by the girls. At the end of the face painting activities, there was a mess of paint everywhere and on everyone. A game of chasey evolved which was funny to watch. James had his guitar with him and he got all the kids to paint and print on the case. It looks absolutely amazing.
After all the painting and once we were all cleaned up, us Swan students handed out presents to everyone. The smiles we received were gorgeous as they were so happy to get a Christmas present from us.
School then finished and it was time to say goodbye to Kristen and everyone. It was hard not to cry as she hugged me goodbye, but I told her this, “It’s ok, just think about all the wonderful times we shared.” She smiled at that. It surprised me that I’d known the students for 5 days and yet it was so hard to leave them after making strong friendships.
The feeding program was exciting, Mrs Gageler read a story which was translated for the children. After the story, they went and got their meal. Whilst they were eating, we were busy making many balloon animals, swords and hats. The kids went crazy over the balloons. Two girls came up to me, Gemima and her friend, who I tutored earlier that week. They were so happy to see me, I was able to make them a sword each and it was funny to watch them have a balloon sword fight.
After the feeding program, we said goodbye to all the other children. This was also quite saddening and many tears were shed. The girls gave me the biggest of hugs and then we left for the ferry back to Boracay.
We were smashed when we got back to the vista. We ended up having a night in with PIZZA for dinner. Mrs Gageler and I had a contest to see who could eat one slice of pizza the quickest. Mrs Gageler only just won and not by much. It must have looked ridiculous to watch us stuff our faces.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed today, it was absolutely amazing and I think we all had so much fun.”
– Veronica Burbidge