International friendship day!

It's TOMO NO HI today in Dai-ni Shimada Elementary School. It's a friendship day with foreigners. The school has been doing this event every year and the Phil NAKAMA group were among those yearly invited foreigner guest. This year... for the 4th times, Liza and I represented the Phil NAKAMA group.

This cute Grade 1 kid escorted me at the gymnasium wherein we had the program introductions, greetings and stage performances for all.

Every year, some foreigners presents some stage performance on stage. As in last year, we performed Philippine tradional dance, the bamboo dance while this year, Indonesian students represents their traditional dance. Every year... the school presents this TAIKO performance of students. They're always great!

The students singing "Small World" in Japanese versionInteraction time! I held the Grade 5 students. We had some lectures about Philippine cultures, we enjoyed the questions and answer portions but most of all the kids enjoyed the games I introduced them like the relay with CADANG↓

Ready...get set... go!!!Here's the winner group... ↓ I gave them some chippy snacks as their winning prize!In fairness... I also gave the loser group some chippy...

I also introduced to them the Jack's Stone game We did had fun for one hour but unfortunately, we were not able to continue our other activities due to lack of time. The last part of our program was lunch time!

Here's our lunch menu for today!

Some souvenir pose with the kids while having lunch! The girl in white besides me is also a daughter of a Filipina. She just came to Japan with her younger sister last April... so they still adjusting to their schooling and the culture of Japan... GANBATTE! ... and here's the younger sis↓The friendly foreigners who joined the event

Incharge teachers of the eventLiz & I with Shimada sensei I did had a great time! Looking forward to joining this event again next year...

ねぇ...リサ！

Meron lang pala akong gustong i-share na touching words from a Filipina kid I happened to talk to. Sabi n'ya... She really pity her mom kasi she works very hard for the sake daw ng family nila sa Pinas. Minsan nga dahil yata sa stress sa walang patid na pagtulong sa Pinas... napapaiyak na lang c mom n'ya kasi para daw wala ng katapusan ang pagsustento doon ng mom n'ya. Lahat daw puro asa na lang sa mom n'ya. Then the kid ask me... tita, bakit umaasa lang sila sa mom ko... BAKIT DI SILA MAGTRABAHO?!

What a question!? ... paano nga ba cnasagot ang tanong na 'yon... but infairness, I told the kid na meron namang taong gustong magwork talaga... ang problem sa Pinas is that walang trabaho talaga. Kung meron man... kulang pa ang suweldo sa sarili nila!

Come to think of it... oo nga naman... bata pa ang nagtatanong... para sa ating mga nakakatanda... lalo na doon sa mga tatamad-tamad... hindi nga ba kaya nakakahiya na mismong bata... napapansin ang katamaran ninyo! Paano nga naman natin tuturuan ang batang sumunod sa mga matatanda kung ang matatanda mismo ang nagpapakita ng bad sample! Paano pa sila maniniwala sa mga nakakatanda!?

Tsaka isipin din sana ng family sa Pinas na hindi biro ang magwork sa ibang bansa para lang isustento sa Pinas lalo na kung may sariling family na ang nagsusustento sa kanila. Sana yung mga nasusustentuhan sa Pinas... please kindly think in return ang condition ng mga anak o kapatid ninyo na walang patid na hinihingan ninyo ng sustento... please lang... dahil may mga kids katulad ng nakausap ko na nagkukulang tuloy ang oras ng ina na maalagaan sila dahil kailangan nilang mag-work para may maisustento d'yan sa inyo sa Pinas.