The promise of earning dollars in the land of milk and honey otherwise known as the United States of America is a dream to professionals like me. Fact is, a lot of my friends are already there or in other countries, earning so much more than what I am earning here.

End of the story? Definitely not.

It is NOT an easy process to have in one’s hand a contract and an H1B visa. Having both does not necessarily mean the start of a new life.

Read about these Filipino teachers in new orleans louisiana who got recruited cheated by a Filipino-owned recruitment agency.

What could have been a wonderful opportunity to earn for the family back home and learn new things to better their craft turned into a nightmare. Nightmare does not even begin to describe what they have gone through.

Their very own kababayan,  doing this to them come not as a shock to me. Yes, people can do these things all for money.

Part of the article says:

The teachers allege that the firm’s leader, ________, charged recruits about $15,000 to obtain a job, and then required them to turn over 10 percent of their salary for two years.

That the teachers were excellent did not help them retain their jobs. They were fired after two years “because they weren’t able to handle the tough students/classes they were given”.

For more information on Teacher Migration or International Teacher Recruitment, this is a helpful material especially because it has a special section about the Philippines.

Children (and adults too) love to do jigsaw puzzles. My children are one of those who grew up doing these things. We had a lot of different jigsaw puzzles to keep them occupied, amused, puzzled, challenged and able to do problem solving by exploring, matching making mistakes and even prolong concentration and minding the minute details.

As a matter of fact, my son just asked me this question the other day: “How come jigsaw puzzle pieces are bigger for children and very small for adults? Is  it because the picture is more difficult for puzzles with 500 pieces that if big pieces are used it would be a huge, huge jigsaw puzzle?”

We laughed about it. I even joked, yes, a 500 or 1000 piece with big jigsaw pieces would be very big and would over the entire garage floor!

I have observed that there is a renewed interest in doing  jigsaw puzzles with a thousand pieces (or more) where the details are rather intricate and complicated. Families are doing these, as well as friends. The puzzle sits on a special table or a corner of the house, undisturbed except for time used to work on it.

I think, online activities took away the fun from doing these things. I may have a impose a weekday in this household where no one will turn on the computer and that includes me. Difficult to do but I may have to be firm about this.

I have just written in a chat room/ sort of  SNS  site which I frequent to communicate with RL (real-life)and OL (online) buddies that the neighbors are up and about singing their hearts out using their karaoke machines.

Their singing I can probably accept IF it doesn’t last till the wee hours of the morning. For now, this is a weekend kind of thing  so it is still tolerable. Good thing too that they are not next door to us. This is the one thing that I really cannot accept and understand and ignore no matter what. Gah.

Many a time the kids have asked me if I wanted to live in another place, like doing cross country moving, and I said, “yes” if only it was that easy.

And still, my answer to this question would be: NO.

Bulky Challenger Tube Bump Car from Timezone Amusement Center. I am not sure if that is the correct name, I just made it up though there is a “Challenger” written on the back of these bulky bump cars.

The two younger children love to play arcade games whenever we go to one of the malls near where we live. They tried these bump car rides and loved it

photohunt

Play is what counts most when we want children to be creative, imaginative and be able to learn.

Play does not just entail giving them high-end toys and gadgets. Play entails a lot of self-expression, using things that are there in  new and innovate ways, doing explorations and experimentation, allowing them to think openly on things that are “normal”

If you are the kind of parent who fear for your child’s safety, be there to guide them as they explore their surroundings.

• Let them play with dirt, you can wash it off later.
• Let them create with play-doh, you can wash their hands afterward.
• Let them help in the kitchen, they will learn about a lot of things there. The mess can be dealt with afterward with them helping out.
• Let them lie down on floor tiles and do floor time play with manipulatives like Lego bricks, blocks and toy cars. Let them build their own cities using materials that they made themselves.
• Let them do arts and crafts.
• Let them pick flowers, run after butterflies, catch bugs, dig soil and feel the leaves of the plants.
• Let them jump on rain puddles (not flood).

In other words, let them experience the joys of how it is to be a child. It will be a joy for you too to discover how it is to be a child again

We went to Lolo‘s wake last yesterday. Yes, we traveled again 400+ kilometers in a day. He is going to be interred today but we decided to skip the ceremony.

When we there yesterday, I cornered an aunt and asked her how they were during the Ondoy deluge. She talked about waist-high water in their home which is situated on a high place with ground level at least a meter off the road. My cousin’s car was totally submerged in water and good thing it has auto insurance which covered the damages. Their two other cars had damages too. She even said if was just fortunate one of these cars parked outside their gates didn’t “float and went somewhere else” like their neighbors’.

I know a lot of people went through the same fears like she did, some even worse especially those who lost their love ones and properties. It is good to talk about these fears and recognizing one’s vulnerability to these natural disasters and the preparedness (or lack of it) that we have.

I really hope the new year would usher in new strength and fresh hopes. As the old cliche goes, when we want ourselves (and our conditions) to be better, we start the change with ourselves.