Holy Week = Culture Shock!!

It's Easter today but this past week was Holy Week here in the Philippines and it was a total culture shock for both Leon and Leanna. Here in the Philippines they conduct what they call Mandarame and that is where you see guys on almost every street corner parading around and striking their backs with a whip like thing. The noise alone is very loud and you can hear it from our apartment and when you hear this sound that means shortly after you will see a bunch of guys striking their backs.

The gross part about it is that this whip really hurts their back and you can see that they are actually bleeding. You will also notice the crowd walking beside them and if you walk too close you make get some blood splattered on you too. You will also see some people carrying the cross just as Jesus did.

The whole point of doing all this is for these so called sinners to repent what they have done and they do this as a sacrifice. They parade around so that people can witness them repenting but they cover up their faces so people will not see who these sinners are as they are embarrassed. They also actually televise people that volunteer to hang themselves on the cross with real nails that actually pierce through their skin just like what really happened to Jesus. There were 6 people that chose to do it this year but we did not attend as I did not want to witness something that gruesome and thought it would be a little too much for the kids.

Both Leon and Leanna were scared at first and it was actually Leanna that was a lot more scared then Leon. She was so scared to the point that every time she saw or even heard the people coming she would cling on to me like a little baby and cry. To help her get over her fear Mammang Lou suggested that we take care to see the Mandarame in person so that she would see firsthand that it was nothing really and also explain to her why they did that. You will see in the pictures we all were watching on the street as the parade of guys came and after awhile watching Leanna was not afraid anymore. It's still hard for both of them to understand though why this is done but at least they are not so scared.

The Mandarame lasts the whole week with a lot of them doing it mainly on Thursday and Friday. I'm glad it's over though as it is still gruesome to watch even for me. I guess it's because of all that blood and even the smell!! If you can take seeing more pictures then click on the link but if not then don't!

Mandarame Pictures

Leon's Moving-Up Ceremony

 My young scholar

Leon had his moving-up ceremony this past Tuesday and we celebrated with a dinner afterwards. Here in the Philippines they do it a little bit different and they only recognize the children that achieved honors in the ceremony that they hold at the end of the year. To qualify for honors you have to have a grade of 80% or above in all of your subjects. Also, because Leon was considered a "transferee" he got a special citation award as he had missed the first quarter of the year. Leanna was so close to making honors but unfortunately she did not get it as she missed it by 2 points. Next year though she had said she was going to get it and that is something that I will definitely help her in achieving.

If you don't get honors they really do not recognize you but you still pass and can move on to the next grade. Leon was only two people in his whole third grade class that was recognized so it was a real honor. There were a total of only 8 kids in the whole grade school department, from grade 1 to grade 4 that had gotten recognized. The children from the preschool department all got recognized though and those are the ones you will see in the picture that are wearing the white gowns.

The venue where they had it was a bit small and they had a lot of parents standing up but they later managed to get more chairs so they could sit. The kids performed a number singing "Go The Distance". They also had the children present roses to their parents which really touched me and I had started crying when Leon was coming up to me with the rose. I was thinking of all the times I had pushed him and that it really paid off in the end and I am so proud of him.

After the ceremony we went home to prepare the dinner that we had that night at Mammang's house. We had salad, spaghetti, barbecue and fried rice. We also got to sing karaoke and dance so we all had lots of fun. Leanna discovered a new song that she liked to sing so she sang that song about 10 times, no joke!! Everyone was tired of hearing it but we let her keep singing anyway. For dessert we had made Leon's all time favorite fruit salad and Mammang had ice cream cones for us too. As you can see from the pictures we had a lot of fun dancing and even taught the girls who didn't know how to dance to do the "achy breaky"!! Fun times:)

I am proud of both Leon and Leanna as they both have come a long way. I see a major improvement in Leanna and am very confident that next year she will definitely make honors along with Leon. Leanna had drastically improved in Math especially. Her third quarter grade was a 77 and for the fourth quarter she had gotten a 93 so I am very happy about that. Also, I forgot to mention that Leon had gotten a special academic award for being the "best in mathematics" so we are so proud of him for that too!! Although they had learned a lot from Brighter Kids and even met a lot of friends we have made a decision to move them to a different school that is a better fit for them. It is an international school for one and the facilities are bigger and their curriculum is better as well. Their new school is called Living Stone International School and they will be taking their assessment next week. The next school year starts in June so two months with them at home, what fun!! Leon will be taking up guitar lessons and Leanna singing lessons so we'll see how that goes. Will keep you guys updated!
Enjoy the pictures!!

                                                                                            

Moving-Up Ceremony Pictures

Badminton Tournament

I held this tournament two weeks ago and I know, I'm really late in posting them, but better late than never right? It was a lot of fun and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

The thought came about to have the badminton tournament because there are so many kids here in the neighborhood and I thought this would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. We had posted a  poster to let the kids know about our tournament and the different age divisions that we were going to have. To make it fair I wanted the kids to play with other kids in their age group so we had three age groups. Age 7-9, 10-13 & 14-17. We did charge the kids an entrance fee to play which was only Php 20, only $0.43. The fees I collected from all of the kids did not even come close to the amount of money that I spent on everything but that didn't matter as this was all about the kids and as long as they had fun I was happy.

For each age division I gave out three prizes, the first prize was Php 500 which is about $10.86, not bad after they only had to pay Php 20 to enter. The second prize was a little gift for the top boy player worth Php 100 and the third prize was a little gift for the top girl player worth Php 100. All participants that played though did get a bag of candy just for participating. In addition we also fed the kids a full meal which included pancit (noodles), hot dog and rice. For dessert we served fruit salad in little cups. So like I said I did end up spending more than I collected but it was satisfying to see all the kids having fun and just being happy.

I don't speak the language well yet and can only understand a few words here and there. It has been a real challenge for me but I manage. A parent had came up to me and let me know that what I had done was "beautiful" and that no one had done that before and they really appreciated it. They were speaking this in Filipino so I understood only parts of it but when he said that to me I felt really happy that someone acknowledged what I did. I also know that this is something that the kids won't forget either and as long as I am able to make an impact someway and somehow in a small way that is all that matters.

Because this tournament was such a success a lot of the adults have been coming up to me asking when the tournament for the adults is going to happen. I let them know that we will plan it sometime soon. I was also thinking to myself to cut down on my budget as well before I go broke (ha ha joking only)!! Enjoy the pictures.

Badminton Tournament Pictures

Tony Sanders Products

If you've ever been on MySpace or Facebook lately than you will notice ads all over the place promoting the popular games such as Fish Ville, Farm Ville & Mafia Wars. Tony Sanders otherwise known as T Dub Sanders is a popular author who has written a handful of ebooks on these popular games as everyone wants to be the top and win.

There has been a craze all over these social websites and these games have been played by millions of people. If you are looking to dominate these games than these guides are just what you need.

The following are the products that Tony Sanders has:

• Beta Gaming Testers
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There are a lot I know but that just goes to show you how popular these games really are and believe it or not they will continue to grow with more fans who are eager to play these games each and every day. If you or someone you knows want more secrets and tips to these popular games than visit Tony Sanders Products where you can get more information.

Cheesesoft Products

I am now promoting Cheesesoft Products which are software solutions for your computer. If you have experienced any PC problems then this company has the solution for you. They offer great customer service and they strive to increase productivity and protect sensitive information with their products. Cheesesoft also offers downloads with free trials so you can test the product to see if it suites your needs. The products that they offer is as follows:

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Updates

I've neglected this blog I know but with good reason. As I mentioned in my previous blog I have been looking for ways to make money online. With so many options out there, it's hard to sort through what is real and going to make me the money versus just useless information and believe me there is a lot of useless information out there!

I've been focusing on this internet marketing thing for a little over 3 weeks and I have found myself in information overload at this point. I still am keeping positive though and know that there is money to be made out there is cyberspace, I just need to keep at it and stay focused.

With that being said right now I am focusing my efforts on affiliate marketing as I have read that for newbies that is the best way to go. It's easy and you don't have your own products and you don't even have to have your own website. The costs are minimal if you choose to get your traffic the free way but if you want to pay for traffic running campaigns you can do that too. There is a little bit more flexibility in being an affiliate too. Right now I am testing a bunch of different techniques to drive traffic as of course that is what is needed to drive sales!

I will be posting my affiliate links here periodically as getting backlinks is another method to SEO marketing. I would like to start off with one that I hold near and dear to my heart and that is the Truth About Six Pack Abs Program. As many of you know I have used this program to lose my unwanted belly fat and am totally thankful for finding this program as it has really opened my eyes to the dangers in the foods that I was eating and also taught me the right foods to eat that I now have incorporated into my daily eating habits. Here are the following sites that I have dedicated for this program:

The Program Itself:
www.blastbulgingbelly.com

The Blog I created:
www.blastbulgingbelly.blogspot.com

The Videos to Exercises listed in manual
Ab Videos

The videos are new and what a lot of people have been looking for as it is much easier to apply and on top of that there is a feature in which you can download them right to your iPod so you'll be able to access them in the gym or even at home easier.

So far for this particular product I have ran some campaigns on Facebook and Google and have made 2 sales and they both happened within a day of me running the ads. I did however stop running the ads as I was running other product campaigns and they weren't making me any money and I didn't want to go in the hole before I even started so I decided to just stop all my campaigns until I researched more and found out what the best way was to advertise. I was really excited though about those two sales because again they happened within a short period of time and although it may not seem like a lot it proved to me that I could do it, I just need to focus my efforts on what will work. They have a saying in the online marketing world and it's "show me you can make a dollar online first" once you do that you just have to tweak and perfect what you have done to make that dollar and more will come rolling in. I hope for me that's soon:)

There are a lot of other affiliate products that I have decided to promote but as stated earlier I will dedicate a blog post to them separately. I will also do my best to update my progress as writing it all out will give me a perspective on what I am doing and will also give me a chance to think through the things I am doing.

Trip to Baguio City Philippines

Me and my husband went to visit Baguio City Philippines a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and my memories were very fond of the place. I remember it being cooler there as Baguio is located in the mountains. I also remember taking trips there with family and us packing the car and taking a long road trip. I'm not sure how long it took us before to get there but I would imagine that it had to be longer than the 6 hour bus trip that we had taken to get there a couple of weeks ago. Since then the roads have improved and even though there's not really a highway so speak that you take to get there the bus was going at a constant speed.

I was really surprised though at how those bus drivers are able to maneuver through the winding roads as we were literally going up these tall mountains and the roads were narrow and only with one lanes. We had made quite a few stops though on our journey because apparently there are a lot of people that go to Baguio, so as the bus driver saw someone waving him down then he stopped to pick them up. We stopped at two rest stops to stretch our legs and get snacks to eat. The majority of the time going there me and my husband listened to music on our iPod's. The time coming back was spent sleeping as we were tired and it was a very long day.

It was just a day trip for us as we did not plan on staying there for awhile. My husband just wanted to see the place and get a feel for it as he had heard a lot of nice things about it. He absolutely loved Baguio!! He enjoyed the weather first of all and he also liked the people there, they were very friendly and nice. I was not used to the cold weather though and although I was wearing my jacket I was still cold!! I had even started sniffling and sneezed here and there. It must have been around 70 degrees and if anyone knows me that is too cold for me!

We left around 8 in the morning and arrived in Baguio around 2 p.m. We walked around the park that was there as well as went to SM Baguio City which is the Super Mall over there. We had something to eat at the mall and took some pictures on the second floor overlooking the city. We only had a couple of hours there which was enough as like I said before this trip wasn't really planned. Besides we didn't have any other form of transportation besides us walking and with walking we could only go so far especially since I was cold. We didn't take too many pictures so it's really not worth posting a link to Kodak Gallery for them like I usually do with my other photos but I will post a few here.

My husband really liked it there and actually went back another time before he left with one of his friends as he had a music contact out there that he had to meet with. We talked about having a getaway place there to come to relax when we needed a cool place to stay. Next time when we visit we will definitely check out some places:)