a full day

Friday (March 14) was my first full day since arriving in the Philippines. Though we didn’t leave the house until after lunch, it was a long day. First off, we went to the Tatalon Elementary School in Quezon City. I am currently participating in the American Library Association’s Emerging Leaders Program , and my group project involves interviewing library leaders about leadership lessons. I had decided to interview one or two librarians while I’m here. I chose to interview Troy Lacsamana, Multimedia & Internet and Outreach Services Librarian at Quezon City Public Library (QCPL). I was more interested in him, though, in his role as Executive Director of Edukasyon para sa Kinabukasan Incorporated (Education for the Future), or Eduk, Inc., an NGO that aims to establish children’s libraries in various communities with the aid of volunteers and donations. He asked us to meet him at Tatalon Elementary School, as the QCPL was having a program there.


It turns out that the QCPL had turned Public Reading Day into Public Reading Week. Their theme for this week was “Basa Tayo, ‘Tay, ‘Nay: 20 Minuto Bawat Araw, Mahalaga!” That means “Let’s Read, Dad, Mom: 20 Minutes Each Day Is Important!” During this week, they had programs at a few elementary schools in the city, where they invited children and parents to come to library for storytelling by celebrities. When we got there, the first reader, a national newscaster, was just leaving. We were there for the reading by the second celebrity, a Quezon City councillor, who read a book that was written by the first storyteller. It was called Basura Monster (Garbage Monster), which tells kids not to litter, to reduce waste, and to recycle.


I actually didn’t end up interviewing Troy that day. His wife had just given birth to their first child a couple of days earlier (Welcome to the world, Angela Moira Aleili!), so he wanted to return to the hospital. So we rescheduled it for the following week. While we were waiting for transportation, we saw that the Santo Domingo Church was across the street from where we were standing. So we decided to go look at it.

Then, we had to go back to go meet some other friends for the evening, but of course, we were stuck in Manila’s infamous traffic (though the traffic was exacerbated by a youth rally demanding that President Arroyo step down from office). We went to the SM Mall of Asia , a 60-hectare complex that is said to be the biggest mall in Asia and the third largest in the world. I actually didn’t see much of the wall. We watched some fireworks, ate dinner at Pupung & Friends, had dessert at Razon, went bowling, and watched a movie. By the time we left the mall, it was about midnight. A full day.