Team building

Our office trip to Bantayan Island (see yesterday's post) wasn't only for rest and recreation. The more important objective was team building. In our case, it was quite literal.
  Gawad Kalinga (GK), which means "to give care," is a poverty-alleviation and nation-building movement which builds houses and creates communities all over the Philippines for the poorest Filipinos. GK communities are known for their colorful houses, which is but the first step in the long process of poverty-alleviation. There is a young GK Village in Bantayan Island—named the Pope Francis GK Village—and we spent our first afternoon there.
  GK is completely funded by donations and powered by volunteers. The land for the Pope Francis GK Village was donated by the municipality, which increased the donation after Typhoon Haiyan destroyed many of the coastal villages in Bantayan Island. The houses are largely funded by Xavier School and the ERDA Group, both Jesuit institutions based in Manila.
   The simplest way of volunteering is by helping build houses, which is what we did. The boys did the heavy work of mixing the sand, cement and water. (I tried, but my arm strength is absolutely pathetic.) That's our big boss dude in the Hawaiian shirt.
  We passed buckets of the cement mixture for the floor of one of the units. Aside from volunteers, GK houses are built by their recipients, who have to log in 300 hours of labor and attendance in values formation workshops before they can move in. GK calls it "sweat equity." And the formation continues long after the beneficiaries receive their houses—necessary if one wants to build real communities and not just houses.  
  Before we left, some of the children of Pope Francis GK Village performed a dance for us, a dance that they had been practicing for a big GK event.

To learn more about Gawad Kalinga, and maybe even donate or volunteer, please visit their website.

Gestation

"There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man
than the way in which they can build
and yet leave a landscape as it was before."

~Robert Lynd (1879–1949), Irish writer

A new building will be constructed in the Loyola Heights Campus of Ateneo de Manila University and, it being a Catholic university, a ground blessing was held last week. For the occasion, young sculptor and furniture maker Niccolo Jose created "Blue Eagle's Nest" using the soil and wood found on the site. The nest with its two eggs will remain on the site until the groundbreaking or until the next season's rains wash them away, whichever comes first.

Half the sky

In 1973, the previously all-male Ateneo de Manila University accepted its first women students. 127 enrolled as freshmen, and 35 transferees were accepted in the upper years. It was a tough road to get to that point, with both the student council and the administration against it as late as 1968. The year-long commemoration of coeducation in the university is titled "40 Years, Half the Sky," after the Chinese proverb which says that "Women hold up half the sky." The young female students of Ateneo now take their presence in the university for granted; many of them don't even know what "coeducation" means. I hope that the commemoration helps them understand the issues back then, and how many women and girls all over the world continue to struggle with disempowerment, oppression and violence.

Father and Son

This statue of St. Joseph with the child Jesus stands in front of the Jesuit Residence inside the Loyola Heights campus of the Ateneo de Manila University. The inscription on the base is in Latin and declares, "Behold a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord setteth over his family." The statue was one of the few things left standing when the school's Padre Faura campus was razed to the ground during World War II. The inscription further states that the statue was donated by Don Rafael Perez in 1916 and was transferred to its current location in 1955.
 

Running blue

The new track oval of the Ateneo de Manila University is blue, the school's color. It goes around the Moro Lorenzo Football Field (football as in soccer, not American football) and can be used only by varsity team athletes. It's the first time I've ever seen a blue track oval—very striking.

School history

As I promised, here is the Heritage Room of the Ateneo de Manila Grade School where yesterday's mural is located. The room displays mementos from the school's 150-year history, and statues of the Immaculate Conception, the school's patroness, and St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order which runs the school. Another room off to the right, which I wasn't able to take a photo of, features portraits of all past headmasters of the Ateneo Grade School, who have all been Jesuit so far. If I'm not mistaken, the Heritage Room was built soon after the school celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2009.

History in blue

The mural inside the Heritage Room of the Ateneo de Manila Grade School shows images from the 150-year history of the school. Based on this, the school has had four seals since it was first established as the Escuela Municipal de Manila in 1859. It also has had two special, double seals. One was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the school, and the other its 150th—its sesquicentennial, which filled this blog back in 2009.

I didn't go up to the mural to check what it was made of, but I doubt very much if it was handpainted. Tomorrow, I'll show you the room where I saw the mural.

See murals from around the world in Monday Mural.

The soldier

Today is the Feast Day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Before his spiritual conversion at the age of 30, Ignatius was a soldier, hence the common depiction of him wearing a coat of mail and breastplate, and carrying a sword. This statue is in the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila Grade School in Quezon City.

My guardian dear

There is an old story by Ateneo de Manila Grade School teacher Mr. Juan Javier which explains how the Holy Guardian Angels became the patrons of the Grade School and the special guardians of young Ateneans. The story takes place at Padre Faura, during the term of Fr. Henry Lee Irwin SJ as Headmaster.

Mr. Javier narrates how, on the evening of September 28, 1933, a group of Ateneo boarders were seated outdoors after having dinner. Nearby was a shrine of the Immaculate Conception. As they were singing and laughing, an earthquake shook the ground and a wall collapsed on them, but to the amazement of everyone, the students were not hurt. At the school assembly the following Monday, the Headmaster, Fr. Henry Lee Irwin SJ, declared that October 2 would, from then on, be the school feast day. This was because the community believed that it was the Holy Guardian Angels that saved the students from harm during the earthquake. The feast of the Holy Guardian Angels falls on October 2. Every year since then, the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels was celebrated at the Grade School with a procession, a school-wide Mass, and salu-salo (get-together). When Ateneo de Manila Grade School transferred to Loyola Heights in 1954, the chapel was dedicated to the Holy Guardian Angels. Images of the Guardian Angels were also commissioned for the chapel and the garden.

Every human being has been blessed by God with a guardian angel. They are messengers of God's love—our personal protector and guide. They lead us to God, helping us live a life of faith, excellence, and loving service. As patrons of Ateneo de Manila Grade School, they are forever our companions and friends in the Lord. May we be guardian angels to others—especially to those in need.

Angel of God, my guardian dear, 

to whom God's love commits me here, 

ever this day, be at my side, 

to light and guard, 

 to rule and guide. Amen. 

It is with deep gratitude to the Lord that this Holy Guardian Angels Park is blessed and dedicated on the 20th day of October 2010.

~From the plaque in the Holy Guardian Angels Park of the Ateneo de Manila Grade School

But of course!

Because of the presence of the President of the Philippines during the Ignatian Festival (see yesterday's post), all participants (and the working staff too, for that matter) had to go through bag and body checks by the Presidential Security Group (PSG). There was even a special check for cameras. I just had to prove that my camera really is a camera—by taking a photo of something.
 
So I took a photo of the PSG guy checking cameras. The poor man lightly protested, saying it might end up being posted somewhere. Guess what my reply was.

Man in blue

My husband and I attended the Ateneo de Manila University's Ignatian Festival last Saturday, which was keynoted by the president of the Philippines, Benigno S. Aquino III, an alumnus of the university.
 The only other person on the stage during the opening talks was the university president, Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin SJ. It is widely known that President Aquino is not a morning person, so I guess it shouldn't have irritated us that he was 40 minutes late.

Guardians

The chapel of the Ateneo de Manila Grade School is called the Chapel of the Holy Guardian Angels. Very fitting patrons for a school full of young boys.

Quonset hut

CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY: FACADE • When the Jesuits decided to move the main campus of the Ateneo de Manila from Padre Faura in the City of Manila to the no-man's-land that was Loyola Heights in Quezon City in the 1950s, the first structure they had built was the gymnasium. It served as the storehouse of construction materials for the other buildings. Now called the Blue Eagle Gym, after the university's mascot, it continues to be the most visible landmark of the Ateneo de Manila—if only because it is currently the only building that can completely be seen from the road. And, yes, the design of the Blue Eagle Gym really is based on the lowly quonset hut. That inexpensive, prefabricated shelter served the Jesuits and the school well after World War II.

Colossus

The Rizal Library at sunset. I like how the tree's shadow on the wall makes it seem more than five stories tall.

Inspiration

Every three years, the Ateneo de Manila University awards alumni who excelled in sports during their school days. They are inducted into the Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame, which has a room named after it in the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center. Some awardees donated their sports memorabilia—medals, trophies, jackets and jerseys—which are displayed in cases with their photo and a write-up of their sports accomplishments. Aside from recognizing the men and women who played for the school, the award, the room, and the displays also aim to inspire current student-athletes who train at the center to excel in their own sports.

Exchange deal

Two of the Philippines' most popular mobile phone service providers have cell sites inside the Quezon City campus of Ateneo de Manila University, located on a field near the Manila Observatory. Part of the deal is, the observatory gets to place some of their weather and atmospheric instruments on the towers. The spindly tower on the right, as well as the white and brick building beside it, belongs to the observatory.

The ram, ruled by Mars

The roof deck of the cylindrical Manila Observatory has a metal rail running around it with all the signs of the Zodiac, which I thought really cool. Of course, I had to take a photo of my sign, Aries. The building in the background is the rear of the former residence of the Jesuit scientists assigned to the observatory, and the taller, farther one on the left is one of the residential condominium buildings along Katipunan Avenue.

Three-story artifact

 
The cylindrical building of the Manila Observatory was constructed to house one instrument, a spectroheliograph. Developed by George Hale in 1890 for his senior thesis in MIT, the spectroheliograph is an instrument used in astronomy and astrophysics to take photographic images of the sun.
 
This 1960s spectroheliograph is three stories high. Modern ones no longer need an entire building to house them.
 
The Manila Observatory no longer uses this spectroheliograph, but ideas to convert or repurpose it all proved to be too expensive.
   
A museum offered to buy it from the observatory, but the board of directors decided to say no. It is an important part of the history of the Manila Observatory and the Jesuits in the Philippines, after all.

Sunspots

The decorative facade of the Manila Observatory (see yesterday's post) composed of patterned cement blocks is so mid-century modern, I just had to take a photo of it. The JHS or IHS underneath it is a Christogram and marks it as a Catholic institution. The red and yellow circular symbol right over the doorway represents Sol, our sun, and I will show you why it is there tomorrow, which will also explain why the building is cylindrical.

Quite fitting for this photo too, since all my images end up with red or pink sunspots every time I shoot into the sun—which was straight up in this case, since it was noon when we visited the observatory.

Not astronomy

This is the building in the Manila Observatory complex (see yesterday's post) where most of the research programs are located. These cover the earth, air, climate, and ionosphere (important for radio communications), and the observatory also has departments dedicated to geomatics (mapping), and instrumentation and technology development.