Brotherly helped by a brother

I have always wanted to show this photo. I mounted the camera with 300mm zoom lens on a tripod just outside the dining hall. I waited for the boys to go out. It was time for their dismissal.

And this photo is quite different. I took this shot in Monday morning when all the student should come in their formal attire. No brotherly affection, just simple rat race to get assignments done before classes begin.


And once the rush is over they peacefully walk to the classrooms. This shot was done using the 300mm zoom lens also.

First Holy Communion

Every year there is always the first holy communion for those students who have not done so. This year there were close to twenty of them, many of whom are freshmen. Almost half of them were actually my advisees. It was a good time for everyone. Aft

er the church ceremony there were plenty of picture-taking sessions with family members.

Boys' essays

To shoot this photo I used the 300mm lens Garrie got for me which Zeny brought to Nigeria. This photo was taken during the film showing (a cartoon film) on St Josemaria. I asked the boys to write an essay after the film. The things they wrote are very interesting. Some of them would write not about the film but on some latent knowledge they already had. For example one of them wrote (this is the transcription):

"When Josemaria was a small boy, he used to (be) a bad boy because when his parents sometimes tell him to do something he will refuse to do it for example like when they tell him to eat he refuse and when their grandparents come he refuse to greet them he will hide inside the bed. So when he grew up he went for confession and he promise that he would not do any bad things again. And he told his father hta he wanted to become a priest and his father was very happy with him and he also told his mother. He always go to the church and pray"

As you can see there is no place in the film wher it was shown that Josemaria went to confession. This boy however included that, probably because of his training at home - his parents are both
supernumeraries. I imagine he always attach repentance to confession!

So you see what I enjoy.

"Doing his thing"

Once on our way to Ibadan with students of the school I decided to take photos of the expressway at Ibadan to catch some local colour. There is one thing that is common in Nigerian roads these days: the people seem to have found it useful as the garbage dump.

The photo above shows how people have dumped all the unwanted things right in the middle of the expressway. Commuters have found it useful to take their bus and some of them use it to answer the call of nature. It was unexpected but I somehow captured a fellow "doing his thing" in the midst of the crowd.

Film Watching

Do you know that I have been teaching CRK, ie Chirstian Religious Knowledge?

Sometime before Easter I decided to give as a class activity the film
watching of a cartoon film about St Josemaria. The topic of the
lesson was actually on faithfulness, tied to the stories of Abraham
and other personages of the Bible. Before the film we had several
lessons on the topic dealing on the people of the Bible. By the time
we had the film the boys were actually more conversant with the topic.
I asked them to watch very carefully and then write an essay on the
message of the film.

It is very interesting to read the essays they wrote. I learned a
number of things reading their work. Actually I kept the papers in a
folder so that I could be reading them from time to time and enjoy
what they have written. Sometimes I find them very useful to show
parents when they come to ask about their son. The evidence is so
real they just couldn't argue against what I say about their son.

Ninang Cely Quitangon

It took more than 35 years for me to meet once again Ninang Cely. It was a meeting that took months to prepare. She was living in the US. I got to know she was going to Manila for Christmas vacation. I tried to coincide my trip and we met finally with Manang, Dad and Tenpy around at UA&P. This photo was taken during that meeting in January 2007.

I am posting this photo just now, maybe too late for her to appreciate. I did send a copy of this to her through Luz, her eldest daughter. That was a month after I arrived back to Nigeria. Two weeks ago I tried to phone her using Luz's number to give her my birthday greetings - it was her birthday. The person in the other line was a young boy who said that I got a wrong number. I tried the land line of Luz. The man who answered identified me as a Pinoy and we started talking. I got to learn from him that Ninang actually passed away last May. To add to the shock he told me that Luz also died two months earlier. He identified himself as the husband of Fe, the younger daughter of Ninang. Fe apparently was out to take the children to a basketball game.

It took me time to accept the news and I decided that I should just call later so as not to burn more phone credits.

I phoned the next day and manged to talk to Fe herself. She confiirmed to me the story. Luz died March 18th and Ninang died two months later, May 18th. I serached for that email I received from Luz very early the next day. I got it from my Yahoo account. It's true, she actually told me in a mail of 20 February that she is very sick with cancer and could hardly walk. Thinking back, I remember now that I actually read that mail and kept her in mind. It was my fault not to have given much attention to writing again for an update.

May their gentle souls rest in perfect peace! Amen.

Two photos

This is a very common sight when you pass through the streets of old Lagos. Public transport comes from "tokumbo" vehicles - those that have served their lifeltime in Europe and find their usefulness after retirement (see the yellow bus) and even death (see the white bus at the right) in Nigeria.

If you have to haul materials there is the option to call the "truck men" - not the lorries (at the right) but those with muscles. No wonder Nigeria has so much potential for sports.