I should have known.

That Blog-a-Day idea was a failure in the making. But really, in my defense (and I am going to be defensive), school was piling up¹, and I was away for the weekend.

My friend, Eira, and I went on a self-organized² “immersion” trip as part of our requirements for a Theology class. Essentially, you go to an area that is considered to be “less fortunate” or “underprivileged,” for a weekend, so that you can “immerse” yourself in what they go through and come out, hopefully, with a better understanding of how they live. I think that it’s also supposed to ignite some desire in your heart to reach out to the poor and make the world a little bearable for them.

We went to an orphanage over at BF in Muntinlupa. It’s called “My Father’s House,” and it’s run by Christian missionaries (Benny Hinn group) from the States. Compared to several other orphanages here in the Philippines, this was actually one of the best, I would say. They split us up (tear!) so I ended up with the girls (aged 3-13) and Eira ended up with the “toddlers,” which were the younger boys (3 to around 10, I think).

Their stories were so sad to hear. One was left in a Jollibee by the dad, after he bought the kid a meal. Another was left in the mall after her mother bought her shoes. The children were around 3 or 4 when this happened. Lots more horror stories that I don’t have the heart to tell.

What’s great about “My Father’s House” is that they teach the children to be responsible for themselves. They’re assigned chores and some of them have a “buddy system,” where they look out for each other. It’s not in the least nightmare-ish like in Annie. A lot of the children have been adopted by foreigners (from the USA, Italy, Sweden) and it’s nice to see that, unlike Filipinos in general, who tend to adopt baby-age kids, some foreigners choose to open their homes to older children.

This is Ella. She’s three years old, and she’s got a home
in Sweden now, I think. :)

My Father’s House seems like it has a considerable amount of funding, but what they really need are volunteers. As much as I would like to return frequently, I live up north (reaaaally far from the area) and it’s hard to find time to go there in between school, church and life in general.

In case anybody out there who is reading this wants to help out, My Father’s House is located at 135 Ramona Tirona Street corner Sison Street BF Homes, Parañaque City, Philippines.

In other news, I bought some books today:

• Erich Fromm’s “You Shall Be as Gods”
• Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”
• Sir Thomas Browne’s “Urne-Burial”
• I.E. Mozenson’s “Behind Beavis and Butt-head”
• Larry Sloman’s “On the Road with Bob Dylan”
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “When the World Screamed”

On yet another note, I took down the Dumbledore’s Army Sign-Up Sheets, and I have to say that the other sheet (the one I put up on the way to the library) has more promising members. Will post them later, then you can be the judge.

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¹ Last week, I had to worry about my non-moving thesis, a Theology long test on the same day as my notorious Philosophy long test plus a few other things, so really. I was pretty stressed out.

² A small rant: It is my personal opinion that if a “branch” of the school cannot dole out enough areas for immersion for all the Theology classes, it should not be a requirement. We had to look for our own areas (Eira found us ours) because OSCI ran out of areas. I know a couple of people who still do not have areas. Just a thought.

So, today I cut my thesis class to work on my actual thesis. I actually haven’t done much tangible work (I’ve been more of researching and speculating), so I really needed to step up my game, so to speak. I’ve borrowed books from the library, returned the ones I didn’t need and now we are left with this stack right here:

I actually probably have to go back to the library and return some of these or check out some of the other books. I was going to reference “Chuck Klosterman IV” also, but when I looked for it, it wasn’t on my bookshelf. Therefore, I must have lent it out again, and forgot to whom again. This is why I shouldn’t lend out books to people ever again, ever. Ever. But that is another story.

My friend, Raymond, was nice enough to lend me this book of his, which I am excited to flip through because a) it looks like it would be useful, and b) it’s so pretty:

He also lent me his copy of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, I guess, for my education. (I have not seen a single Godard film, and yes, I am ashamed of myself.)

On another note, my friend Patty/Petra gave me, out of nowhere, this little owl:

It’s a beanbaggy type of kreacher, and it inspired (?) me to show you, random reader, the rest of my OWLERY. You see, owls are one of the things that I do collect. My other friend, Barby, actually collects owls also, and is more overt in her collecting ways. But anyway, here is the rest of the owl-related paraphernalia I have acquired over the years:

FIGUREENZ. Three of them were inherited from my lola (my mommy’s mommy) and
the girliest one — the one with eyelashes, looking over her shoulder — was given to me
by my mom when she went to Australia.

A purse-thing I got from China! Is it not the cutest thing ever? It is!

Some clothes: pajama bottoms, a shirt and some underwear.

Pendant! I actually gave one of these to my friend (Barby! Who likes owls!), so we have matching necklaces. :)

I do not have a stuffed Hedwig (wibble, wibble) because when the toys came out, I wasn’t allowed to read Harry Potter. I do not have anything of Owl from Winnie the Pooh, because he kind of pissed me off. I do appreciate his knowledge, though, now that I am older. Also, I find that I have turned out more like him than any of the other characters in the Hundred Acre Wood. I don’t know if I like this realization, or if I just decided to live with it.