May 31st is Mam Angie's birthday and is almost a company holiday - there are tarpaulins on the 2nd and 4th floors with birthday wishes - and the 4th floor is festooned with balloons all over the walls and doors. When I arrived that morning, I had to retreat to the 3rd floor conference room to work - my desk was covered with flowers and cakes - there must have been 6 cakes in the office where I sit with the executive committee. Later I returned, had some cake, and was shown what I hadn't seen before - hundreds of flowers in her office - a 6 foot bench was piled high with pink roses in many arrangements, as well as single stems. I had missed the early morning when most of the employees and area managers came in one by one with a rose to her office and wished her happy birthday.
But that wasn't what made her day so special to her or me - late that day, she and her husband welcomed the 30 scholars that they funded to attend Palawan State University this school year. They established the scholarship in 1998 and have funded over 130 scholars, 28 of whom currently work for the company.
Yesterday, I was surprised to see the group of students again in the office - school begins on Monday, so I figured it was a send off - this time I was invited to join them. Mam Angie and Sir Bobby (Mam and Sir are terms of respect, which is a requisite here - basically the equivalent of Mr. and Mrs.) had applications in front of them and asked each student to talk about their situation - the school from which they hailed, their intended plan of study and why they had applied for the scholarship. I could only get some of the details (and resolved to study my Tagalog), but these children (you enter college here at 16 years old now - it will change to mold with the rest of the world, but the Philippines just instituted 'middle school') were incredibly composed and poised (except for the custom of not looking in the eyes of the audience) as each told their story. As they spoke, Mam Angie scribbled notes on their applications.
Most of their fathers were tricycle or multicab drivers who earned little - most had no electricity in their homes. One small girl had tears trickling down her face most of the time I was there - she had come to Puerto from Brooke's Point (about 6 hours south), but had not gotten a scholarship and when she called her parents to tell them, they told her to return home - that they just didn't have the money to send her to school. She was supposed to return today, but the miracle from Mam Angie came on Friday that they were awarding additional scholarships and that she had been accepted - finally someone got her tissues and her eyes leaked the entire time.
There were about 16 students with studies ranging from Accounting to Business to Mechanical and Petroleum Engineering. Another girl choked out her gratitude, saying that this was the first time she had ever been out of her town of Roxas, about 2 hours north of Puerto - her parents had to borrow money for her transportation to the scholarship meeting. Her father worked as a multicab driver and she had 6 brothers and sisters. One of the boys' fathers had his own furniture shop - but he said that there were no customers; others said that their families had no work, and hadn't for a long time.
Near the end, Sir Bobby asked if I wanted to say something. I smiled (for no one knew my beginnings) and told them that I had grown up in a poor household - that my father worked in a grocery store and stocked shelves at night - that my father did not graduate from high school. I told them that I too had gotten a scholarship - and that it changed my life. Of course, Sir Bobby, the wise-cracker said, "Huh! I thought you were one of those rich ones like on tv." Everyone here thinks that all Americans are rich - so I am helping dispel that myth.
I found that Mam Angie had convinced Sir Bobby to add more scholarships, and all these students were in addition to the former group. She said it was too hard of a decision for her and she hopes to convince him to add a few more - this year, instead of the 33 intended scholarships, she thinks 48 is a good number. She said that they had a good year in the company and she wants to pass it on. This is remarkable here for the lack of fanfare and lack of "utang na loob," the idea that you forever will owe me - this family wants nothing in return.
All that Sir Bobby and Angie asked of them was to "be good" and to "pass." The students solemnly agreed to do so and filed out of the room with big grins on their faces, leaving a few of us with tears on ours.
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| The first batch of 30 at Baywalk in Puerto |
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