Be And Become

As a young boy, I loved to go to the library and borrow books. Now that I'm older, I go to the bookstore and buy a book. In one of my trips here in Mindanao, I felt so sad to see what sort of books we offer to kids in the rural areas.  Oh yes, the library had books, but most of it were text books that were already old and obsolete. The head teacher told me that these books were up for burning once DepEd has inspected it. (I was wondering why they need to burn it instead of just recycling it). The library didn't have a single story book or those books with pretty pictures for kids to marvel at.  What they had were text books that the students had to share year after year! If these were the books in the library, and these were the same books used by teachers to educate their students, just think of what sort of knowledge we are feeding the minds of our children in the rural areas.  At least the head teacher painted the library and placed all sorts of newspape...

Imagine traveling at sea on a small boat and finding yourself in the middle of a storm ...  I found myself in that situation a few days ago on a weekend trip with my wife and kids. We went on a weekend trip to San Agustin town in Surigao del Sur and discovered this wonderful place called Barangay Britannia.  The barrio had 13 small islands a few kilometers off the coastline.  The islands were like the Hundred Islands of Pangasinan, but so much better than the one up North.  At least four of the islands had Boracay-like sands (Yes, powdery coral white sands!) and a sand bar, they called Naked Island, in the middle of the sea (just like White Island in Camiguin, but that one was nothing compared to this place). What's so amazing about the place was that it was still untouched by commercial tourism.  There were no hotels, no restaurants, no vendors and commercial establishments around. Only trees, rocks, sand, sky and water all around you! And best of all, t...