The Jingdou Language Centre in Macau

Macau --- I am very grateful for the opportunity to see nearby Macau, almost a year ago, to get to know more about the Jingdou Language Centre. Managed by the Far Eastern Education Association (FEEA), the language center caters mainly to Macau locals who wish to improve their English proficiency. They are also offering Mandarin and Cantonese classes, programs aimed at expatriates and foreign nationals residing in Macau. Thanks to SKILLS, the technical-vocational school of Primary Structures Educational Foundation, Inc., I was given the chance to benchmark the English as a Second Language (ESL) Course being offered at Jingdou, in the light of the upcoming ESL Program to be launched in SKILLS sometime this year.   

Macau is about three hours away by plane from Manila. It is an autonomous region on the south coast of China, across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong. A Portuguese territory until 1999, it reflects a mix of cultural influences. 

I left Manila at 7:30 AM and arrived in Macau a little before 12:00 NN. I was met at the airport by May Chan, one of Jingdou's coordinators. She was so kind enough to bring me to Wahn Tihng Study Center where I stayed while I was there. We met Mary Anne of the Administration, and Iris, the director of the center. I was so happy to be there!

This is how the houses along the sidewalks in Macau look like.

After settling down and doing a bit of unpacking, May said we'll just walk going to a nearby Chinese restaurant where we'll have lunch. So we did. It was a pleasant walk, and I didn't mind the humid air while going through the streets of Macau. Doing so reminded me a bit of an area in Binondo, Manila where many Chinese nationals are residing, living in buildings where they operate their own businesses. What I find so nice are the quaint houses, vertical condominiums, government buildings still breathing the beauty of Portuguese architecture. As you may know, Macau was a colony of Portugal for more than a hundred years or so. The way the street signs are put up, plus the lamp posts and the flowers in each of them, make the streets of Macau a pretty sight to behold.

In the Chinese restaurant, we waited a bit for Joan Wallace to arrive. Joan is a British national living in Macau for quite some time now, and is handling drama classes for young students at Jingdou. The impression I got while having lunch was that the Chinese are really a healthy race, because of the abundance of green leafy vegetables in the menu selections. Plus the bottomless hot green tea served in all the meals. We enjoyed a hearty lunch. I was grateful to May and Joan for making me feel welcome in their country.

After lunch, we then headed for Jingdou, again, walking! May explained to me that since most of the areas here are walkable, it is more convenient to do so than taking the bus. I really didn't mind because by just looking at their buildings, I was already enjoying myself, holding in awe what a rich culture Macau has.

With May (left) and Marilou (center) at Jingdou

Finally, when we reached a certain intersection, May pointed out to me the building where Jingdou is located. We crossed the street and entered a not-so-new building, and just took the stairs up the second floor where we rang the doorbell. A smiling lady greeted us, and talked to May in Mandarin. I had a warm welcome from Jingdou's professors. I was really moved. She introduced me to Marilou Ygoa who used to live here in our study center in Cebu. And then to the rest of the team composed of Americans and British expats. Joan brought me around and let me observe in her drama class. She has 6 young students, who really look so cute with their chinky eyes. I was hoping I could have a photo opportunity with them, but it seems that it is not encouraged among the visitors. After the drama class, I was brought to the high school English conversation class of Kenneth. It was fun because he made me part of the discussion. He had about 8 boys and 8 girls in his class. I must say that most of the students could already speak in English satisfactorily. They could describe what happened to them in clear English, and they also got to use complex verbs and adjectives. After this class, May brought me back to their office where she gave me a sample course curriculum of the ESL program they run. She explained to me that the way they do it is really heavy on demonstration, promoting activity-based learning. Not so much relying just on books and pure lecture. I thanked her for being very accommodating, and for sharing with me details of their language program offerings.

At Coloane with May, Adalina and Veronica 

I was so glad to have met the other ones from Wahn Tihng: Emily and Peggy. And I also got to meet Monica from Hong Kong, who was in Macau at that time for business reasons.  May also brought me around: we saw the beautiful parks in the city where we rode the cable car, visiting The Ruins of St. Paul's, and the trip to the quaint town of Coloane, where we had excursion together with Adalina, a Portuguese, and Veronica, a Macanese. We ate in a Portuguese restaurant there, took the famous egg tart dessert at Lord Stow's Bakery, and visited the conference center in Hac Sa. It was Monica who invited us to see Hac Sa Conference Center where a seminar which she was assisting was going on. I never thought I'd see Our Lady of Macau up close. I am ever grateful for that gift.

Going up Penha Hill during the May 13 procession 

The highlight of this trip, I must say, was the opportunity to see Macau's Our Lady of Fatima at the Se Cathedral, around 2 kilometers from Wahn Tihng. It was really a memorable experience for me to attend the solemn mass at the cathedral, join the May 13 procession and go up Penha Hill, till we reached the Chapel of Our Lady of Penha where you have a beautiful view of the whole Macau. We were celebrating 100 years of the Fatima apparitions while I was there. I actually didn't know that the weekend I decided to be there coincided with the centennial celebration of the Fatima apparitions! It was nearing 12 midnight when May and I separated. I went home with Emily who was also in the procession with a friend. We walked all the way home, passing by a mini-grocery where Emily picked up some purchased goods for her Administration.

I am very grateful to Iris, Peggy, Emily, Marilou, Joan, Adalina, Veronica, Monica, and to May especially, and to everyone who made my quick stay in Macau so pleasant and enjoyable. God willing, I can go back there again.

Dumaguete Day Trip

We found one fine Sunday in March to explore nearby Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, a neighboring province here in the Visayas! We had to hear anticipated Mass to set out early the following day. 

We left Cebu City at around 5:30 AM when it was still a bit dark, and drove down South towards Santander where Liloan port is. We were to take the barge bringing the van with us! There were eight of us, 6 from our study center and 2 from the training center. Gigi R., one of our ladies residing in Dumaguete, was expecting us in their house, to meet her mom and also to visit the house of her sister, Len-Len, where we are scheduled to do the summer Rural Service Project come May. It was an exciting trip, and we all enjoyed the scenic coastal area of Southern Cebu. From Cebu City, we passed by Talisay City, Minglanilla, the City of Naga, San Fernando, Carcar, Sibonga, Argao, Dalaguete, Alcoy, Boljoon and Oslob, before reaching the municipality of Santander, Cebu. We arrived a little past 9:00 AM. We waited to board the RORO (roll-in and roll-out ship) and when were finally inside, we went up the passenger and viewing deck to bid Cebu goodbye. It was really fun!

The big boat ride from Cebu took less than 30 minutes, since the port of Sibulan, Negros Oriental was just right across the port of Santander. This reminded me of a somewhat similar boat ride I took with my cousins when we went to Guimaras Island from Iloilo City in the island of Panay. You can see the mountains of your neighboring province!

When we disembarked, we were so happy to see how clean and green Dumaguete City is, a far-cry from the usual sight of Cebu City's streets which, unfortunately, are not really quite clean. The only 'trash' we saw were dried leaves on the sidewalk! Can you beat that? 

We first headed to Gigi's house which was not that far from the port. They have a big machine shop outside their beautiful home, which amused us because of their mini-playground. We had time to play in the seesaw, the monkey bars, the slide, and the swing. We were enjoying ourselves so much! 

We met Gigi's mom and sisters, and had a quick photo op in their house. We then set out to have our Dumaguete City tour, with a visit to Silliman University campus as main feature. We were lucky to have a very learned tour guide who calls himself a campus ambassador. His communication skills were very brilliant, and we can say he really knows his university inside and out. Later on, we learned that this tour guide had been a Silliman scholar and was one of those who topped his batch. 

Silliman is such a huge campus, reminding us of how the University of the Philippines Diliman campus looks like. They have so many colleges and hopping from one building to the next, we really had to ride the van because they are situated very far from one another! What we liked among the places we visited was the amphitheater where their university commencement exercises are held. We were treated to see ancient acacia trees in the university property that provide much shade and oxygen to the whole campus. We also took a nice photo with the bust of Silliman's founder, Dr. Horace B. Silliman, a retired businessman of the town of Cohoes in New York state, USA. As we may know, it was the Presbyterian Board of foreign missions who was behind the putting up of the university, which explains its Protestant roots. 

After the tour of Silliman, we went to see the house of Len-Len, Gigi's sister from the United States, who allowed us to use their house for our summer outreach project. That was where we took our lunch. It was a cozy house which could fit a maximum of 18-20 girls. It has a nice veranda where you could do stargazing, and a garden big enough to place a barbecue set-up for dinner. 

In the afternoon, we went to see the famous bamboo organ of the Church of Bacong, Negros Oriental! It's actually the Church of St. Augustine of Hippo, which also houses the tallest belfry in this side of Negros Island. Most of us went up the belfry to have a 360 degree view of Dumaguete City, braving the dark winding stairs going up and taking in the humid air and the smell of bat droppings. Well, that was such an accomplishment!

For merienda, we headed for the baywalk and parked near Sans Rival pastry shop. Topping the day was taking sweet silvanas, an all-time hit in Dumaguete and around the country!

We were back at the port of Sibulan by 4:30 PM to take the RORO back to Santander. It was such a short but sweet trip to this City of Gentle People. We arrived home in Cebu City a little before 9:00 PM, full of picturesque memories of today's excursion to enchanting Dumaguete.