Annoyances – Part 1: Incredibly loud PA systems.

Whenever announcements are made or music is played it is always done really loudly. So loud that often the words or music are distorted by the volume. During our time here we have been to several parties and the volume of music being played is a negative they have all had in common. It becomes impossible to talk or hear anyone else speak. These very loud PA systems can spring into action at any given moment, we have occasionally been woken up very early by screaming Karaoke from the local neighbourhood.   The  Filipinos just don't seem to be able to use volume controls responsibly!

The Importance of Getting Excited!!!!!!!!!!!

The Philippines is a land of many festivals. Barely a week goes by here without there being some reason to celebrate, be it a birthday, a cultural festival or a religious feast day. Very often when we are out in the cities the route of our journey will be disrupted by a procession of some kind. Our work with the Technical students is frequently, to our continual annoyance, interrupted at short notice to make way for yet another holiday or important event which need celebrating.

What I find really interesting is the complete lack of celebration fatigue. Whereas in the UK there are many people who don't like parties, and many people who will start to moan if celebrations go on too long, here that doesn't seem to be the case. No one worries about the loss of productivity caused by another day off declared at short notice. When the next event is announced there is always genuine excitement.

Another example is that of Fr.Rex, one of the Salesian Priests here, he recently spent sometime in Germany. Both before he left and since coming back he has spoken with such excitement about his time away experiencing a completely different culture.

I think that in the culture here there is a more developed understanding of our need to have celebration and our need to be excited. Life should include things to look forward to, it should include things to get excited about. Too often in the UK we treat excitement as if it is something we should grow out of in adulthood.......we say to anyone showing signs of getting a bit excited, "Calm down, there is no need to get excited"

But perhaps we should get more excited? Perhaps having things to get excited about is part of what makes life rich and full? Maybe if we never, or seldom, get excited about anything we are not making the most of life?

So next time you experience something exciting "Don't calm down, get excited!!!"

Mark 2:1-12

At this link are my thoughts on todays Gospel Reading which is Mark 2:1-12

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzVxKp_r3opxNjcwMjc3YzItZjdiMi00MTIzLWE4NjgtZGM0NGFjNTlhNWEy

A Filippino Theology? - Part 1

Most Filipinos are Catholic. Most of them practise their faith seriously. They pray regularly, they attend mass commitedly, they make regular confessions. The rites and traditions of the Catholic Church permeate the centre of Filipino culture far more deeply than in any other place I have visited.

What I have found striking about their faith, other than its fervour, is how much the European construction of Christianity dominates the Filipino church. The church buildings here look like European church buildings, they are decorated with European styles of art, they are patronised by European Saints, liturgies are conducted just as they are in European Catholic churches. 90% of the saints whose feast days are celebrated are European. The Filipino Church is very much a carbon copy of the European Catholic Church reproduced thousands of miles away.

The European nature of the faith practised here goes beyond decorations and rubrics. In Europe the ongoing dialogue between culture, philosophy and theology has moved the Church (Catholic, Anglican and Protestant) towards a very individual orientated perspective. During the last 500 years our emphasis has gradually moved from being that of the community to that of the individual. Hence we tend to think of communal worship in terms of its usefulness to the individual. Catholics will speak of an individual obligation to attend mass rather than a communal obligation to celebrate mass together; the sacrament of reconciliation is understood in terms of an individual repentance made in private not in terms of the community collectively dealing with its corporate sins. The same threads of individualism run through the practise of most European denominations, we practise a belief in individual salvation which owes as much to our cultural worldview as it does to the New Testament.

All of this European grown philosophy of religion has been parachuted into a very different Filipino culture whose underlying values are very different. There is a deep discord between these two philosophies of life which isn’t immediately evident.

Filipinos (here I am obviously speaking in generalisations) don’t like to be alone. Autonomy is not valued as it is in Europe, people much prefer to live and work in groups. At meal times very often several people will gather round one large plate, or banana leaf, placed on the floor and eat together rather than each having their own plate as we do in Europe. At more intimate social events their culture is to drink from a shared cup passed around the room rather than each hold their own cup.

Of course the reality is more complex. Many richer Filipinos have adopted European (or American) cultural practises. Individualism is a growing cultural trait particularly in the sphere of economics. However, more generally speaking, this sense of the communal does persist particularly among the poor.

Set against this background it seems to me that the way in which Christianity is practised with its individually orientated rituals is a problem. How bizarre that a people already, in their wider lives, eating from one plate and drinking from one cup when at the Eucharist queue up in ordered lines to receive individual wafers? How bizarre that a people accustomed to eating in a circle couched together on the floor should at mass sit in ordered rows set back from their meal table? How bizarre that a culture which embraces collective working should be encouraged to seek reconciliation individually and privately?

Maths Exam

Here is the Senior Monthly Exam for January.

All answers welcome.....no calculators allowed!

Earthquake

Just before midday today we were hit by an earthquake, 6.7 at its epicentre on the nearby island of Negros.

Immediately the electricity went off and everyone fled out of the buildings onto the playgrounds and streets waiting to see what would happen. Shortly after it was followed by a smaller aftershock.

Earthquakes hit other parts of the Philippines quite regularly but don't occur in Cebu very often. For Cebu this one was big. The ground shook quite vigorously for something like 15 seconds, although it is hard to be precise about how long.

There doesn't seem to be any visible damage to any buildings, and no one here (at least) is hurt in any way. However there was quite a bit of shock, and following the shock there was a lot of giddiness and excitement from all the children. Lessons have been cancelled for the day and everyone sent home.

We are both completely fine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16901385

Founder's Day Part 2

What does it mean to be a Saint?

There are a handful of people in human history who have managed to realise a bit more deeply than the rest of us have just how much they are loved by God. Because they have embraced this love so fully they have a clarity of vision when looking at the world which enables them to see more clearly what is really important and what is not so important. Sometimes these individuals are recognised and celebrated, often they are not.

Giovanni Bosco was such a person in his time. As a young priest working in Turin during the Italian industrial revolution he was shocked by the poverty which was growing all around him, especially the number of abandoned and neglected children. He was also shocked by the reaction of the many wealthy people in the city which was to be blind to the problem or to blame the poor themselves for being poor. So he took a leap of faith and began welcoming some of the street children of Turin into his own home. From there his work grew, in his lifetime he founded many children’s homes and training centres teaching practical skills. He also wrote many books on working with children and on the teaching of all sorts of subjects.

The Salesian congregation today sees its vocation as the continuation of the work of St. John Bosco. Much of the work they do is extremely good, among the poor and destitute children of the world. Here in Cebu they run a youth centre in one of the poorest areas of the city, they work with child prisoners, they run several technical training centres for young people who would not otherwise be able to afford to be educated, and they run a children’s home for abandoned children. They do a lot of very good work.

However, here at DBTC where we are based they also run a private school which charges fees which only the wealthy can afford; and they have a further education college run on similar lines. Here at DBTC the TVED department, where we work, is very much an island of the less well off in the midst of a community with plenty of wealth. Such realities are very much points of debate among the Salesians here, many of them prefer not to work in the institutions orientated towards the rich.

For us there is no room for judgement, after all Steph and I were lucky enough to be born into a country where a good education is provided to all free of charge. The rights and wrongs of private education are set against a very different reality here where what those who cannot afford private education receive is normally substandard.

And yet there is still a contradiction, St. John Bosco’s vocation was to serve the very poorest and let the rich look after themselves, as indeed was the vocation of Jesus in his time. Hence I can’t help feeling that whenever Christians, in any country, choose to work for the rich they haven’t really understood clearly enough the vocation God is calling them too.

Speaking these challenging truths must of course start at home; otherwise I am not really challenging anything but rather scapegoating my own inadequacies onto others. I am acutely aware of Steph and mines failings in this regard having just spent two years in Paris working with those far richer than any of the pupils in the Salesian school here in Cebu. Perhaps it is in seeing the enormous inequality which exists here that I am able to acknowledge and regret where I have been an accomplice to its perpetuation. 

Founder's Day Part 1

The Salesian Congregation was founded by St. John Bosco in Italy during the 19^th Century to work with the young, especially the many poor and abandoned children which the industrialisation of the period was producing. Salesians, all over the world, see their work as a continuation of the work started by St. John Bosco. 

The feast of St. John Bosco, 31^st January, is a big event!

Here at DBTC lessons came to an end at lunchtime on Wednesday 25^th January.

On Thursday the whole community gathered at the nearby Lourdes parish church for a procession back to the school in honour of St. John Bosco. The procession was followed by Mass in the Gym. After mass there began three days (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) of games, sports and festival.

On   Sunday all of the students, along with their parents, gathered for mass again. This time we were outside on the playground. Mass was celebrated by the Provincial (read: Regional Leader) of the Salesians in the Southern half of the Philippines. The rest of the day was given over to a party. The parents of each form group organised their own food together, for some a simple shared meal, however in many cases a highly organised feast with table clothes, decorations, caterers brought in the provide the food and waiters employed to serve.  Around this eating there were ice-cream stalls, doughnut stalls, a bouncy castle, an acrobatics show, a climbing wall and even a zip wire from the schools roof.

The last part of the celebrations came on Monday with a trip to a nearby beach for the whole staff of the school. We had a chance to relax, to play silly team games and to swim in the sea.

this first video shows the procession and opening mass which took place on Thursday 26th January.