Thursday, September 2

We didn’t get to bed until after midnight but still woke early. It’s hot and humid and the rainy season has kicked in with a vengeance. Like Townsville and Cairns, the humidity builds up during the morning and it rains every afternoon. So, it was raining when we arrived at Manila airport and again today.

We met Rex today and he amazes us with his personality and obvious intelligence. He goes to a Montessori school for a couple of hours in the morning and he is really switched on to learning. His current interest is learning the Philippines national anthem. Rex’s mother, Rachel is a 3rd year medical student in Manila, so Rex lives with his grandmother, Kit and is looked after by a nanny. There are also two other young women employed in her household so he is a pretty spoiled young man.

His aunt, Rhoda, has downloaded a U-tube video of the national anthem on to an iPad and Rex, only 3 years old, replays it over and over to help him learn the words. There is a constant debate in the Philippines about which language should be the most important in schools. At the moment, all schools teach in English with Tagalog being taught alongside. In the long-term, this is probably the most beneficial but it does cause hardship in rural schools where English is not spoken very much.

Kids from rural areas often struggle in high school when they come across a much more intense English-language environment and too many students drop out too early. Children like Rex will thrive because he encounters both Tagalog and English at home but lower socio-economic environments don’t provide the same support.

We went shopping this afternoon and Marilyn bought Rex a Philippines flag and an Australian one as well. Rex was delighted and has played constantly with one or the other. We knew he recognized the Philippines flag because he had been drawing it, but thought he would not know the Australian one. Marilyn asked him if he knew what it was and he answered immediately. None of the family could tell us how he knew but he went and brought back a book about the world and showed us the Australian flag among a string of other flags on the cover.

He devours information and knows the names of all the planets and can explain why Neptune seems to have some rings around it (satellites, he says). When asked, ‘What did you learn in school today?’ he says, ‘the continents’ and reels them off easily. He knows which is the biggest and which is the coldest.

We didn’t get home from the shops until after dark but that wasn’t a problem as our dinner was waiting for us. Kit employs young women from the fishing village we are supporting and helps them train in useful occupations. At the moment she has a cook, a maid and a nanny and she also employs a driver and overnight guard. Their wages are low but they are all pleased to have a job.

The busy-ness of the last few days is catching up with us so it is an early bed for us.