Friday, Oct 17 - Visit to Das Marinas Regional High School

Friday, Oct 17 - Visit to Das Marinas Regional High School

Ben had to teach some classes the Friday morning, so in the morning we walked the half mile to his school. Here is the view outside his apartment:



Philippines does not have a middle school so high school is grades 7 - 10. There are 9000 kids on this campus, which is spread out over several acres. Buildings are arranged around courtyards, with windows wide open to the common areas. The day we were there was a little looser than normal; classes were not really in session all of the time.

I got to meet Ben's co-teachers and supervisor, and got some pictures of some of them. Here he is with some of his co-teachers.

I think he said the English Department has 29 teachers. Curiously, there is a kind of work-to-rule mindset. By mid-afternoon several teachers were back in their prep area, having long naps on benches. Only a few had classes, and they had to get their 8 hours in for the day. Odd.

My presence gave Ben an acceptable reason to skip out early, so after he met with a couple of classes and his Book Lover's Club we took a bus up to Tiegatay (I may not have the right spelling) which is on the edge of a crater lake in an old volcano.





Later in the evening, Ben's supervisor took us out for dinner with her family to a nice restaurant. She was a gracious host.


We returned to find Ben's neighbor asking us over for a beer. I managed to keep my eyes open for a little longer and we had a chance to meet the family. These people just had a baby and asked Ben to be a god father.