Manito's Time Manila Tour 2015

At the National Museum, with my mother who taught me the value of educational trips when she was still teaching

• My wife and I started a tri-lingual community newspaper with student writer-reporters.  We hope to help our poor town develop through quality and responsible information that ordinary people can understand.  We also hope to develop critical thinking and belief that young people can take an active role in the development of our community.  Visit and like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ManitosTime or read blog posts about Manito's Time.

Part of our goal and prayer is to help educate our student writers through trainings and exposures such as educational tours.  Most of them haven't traveled beyond our town or province.  We hope that experiences like these will help them realize there are so many things to learn from the outside world -- that our poor community needs a lot of changes and that young people like them can start working for these changes.

Below is a poem from one of our students narrating last year's tour of Manila.  Our deepest thanks once again, for all of you who supported us financially and in prayers!

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by:  Richard Mark Mabelin*

On the first day of our trip

We didn’t fall asleep

We went to Intramuros,

The home of mighty heroes

Fort Santiago in Intramuros

That time I was amazed

Never imagined I’ll reach that place,

A place in our country

With a big contribution to our history

We went to San Agustin and Manila Cathedral

The oldest of them all

With many sculptures

From the Christian culture

Manila Cathedral

We also visited Casa Manila

Where we met Ate Crystal

She introduced herself to us

And shared the Word of God

Casa Manila is now a museum

Heritage house of an elite person

It was mostly made of wood

But the condition is still good

with ate Crystal at the Casa Manila

We visited Luneta at dawn

And saw Rizal’s statue and tomb

We also captured the dancing fountain

With it’s water like pouring rain

Luneta Park

On the second day of our trip

We woke up early at six

We were to visit UP Diliman

That is famous for their Oblation run

UP Diliman

It was noon when we arrived

And met Kuya Jeff and Kuya Lester

They also introduced themselves

And told us about their past experiences

Around the campus we roamed

And captured the Oblation statue

Some went to Vargas Museum

While some chose to walk around

Next stop is Ayala Museum

Where we attended Ambeth Ocampo’s lesson

I listened to him the whole lecture

And realized he’s a good speaker

Ayala Museum

He taught about history

Most interesting was “The Three Little Pigs” story

He presented a video

And said that a story has many points of view

With author/Historian Ambeth Ocampo after his lecture at the Ayala Museum

Next stop is Trinoma mall

There we had a walk

It was so huge

And it amazed me

I and my friends went to Timezone

We played games all along

The girls stayed outside

And stayed there until midnight

On the third day of our trip

There I felt so sleepy

But I still had to wake up

To arrange my things and pack

Before we went outside

Sir Aboy prepared a session

Wherein we played “Pinoy Henyo”

And we shared everything we learned

Sharing lessons learned from the Manila Tour

We went to the mall

And watched the movie “Heneral Luna”

It is the story of Gen. Antonio Luna

And the war against America

He is a boastful person

Yet a skillful general

Because of his personality

He was betrayed and killed brutally

Before we went to the bus terminal

We ate first at Mang Inasal

My eyes almost dropped

Coz of the unli rice they offered

There we met Kuya Jason

The bass guitarist of Silent Sanctuary

He gave us copies of their latest album

And we took photos with him

Foreground left:  Silent Sanctuary bass guitarist, Jason Rondero

As I sat inside the bus

There was one thing I realized

Yes, I am amazed at this place

But I still miss the municipality of Manito

Proud to be a Bicolano

Proud to be a Maniteno

Richard Mark Mabelin and the Bicol diorama at the Ayala Museum

*Richard Mark Mabelin is one of Manito's Time community newspaper's student-writers.  He will finish his BS Education degree from our community college this 2017.