After 1 year in the Philippines, with 6 amazing months in Tapulanga Foundation and St. Francis of Assisi School, it's time for us to go home.

We have been able to discover this beautiful country and its people.

During this time, we had lots of great experiences. We were able to celebrate the sports fest at school, we saw how the grade 10 students had their graduation and how the new school year started.

Because of this, we want to thank Tapulanga, the staff and of course Ms. Micmic for all the opportunities they gave to us and the hours we laughed together.

We want to thank the St. Francis of Assisi School, the teachers and students, for the love they gave to us during the hours we spent together and great conversations we had.

And we want to thank everyone else who helped us to make this year so great!

It was such a great honor for us to meet everyone!

No "goodbyes" just "see you soon!"

Love,

Annelie and Franzi

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL!

The new school year just began on July 1st. While everybody was quite busy during the first week to arrange everything this second week of school, the daily school life is already implemented.

When I first came back to school I saw that some things changed while others still stayed the same. But I will start at the beginning and just tell something about my first day back at the school.

Before I arrived Ms. Micmic and Ms. Leda informed me that I will be able to assist in grade 6 which is the same class as the one I had last year. So in the morning I was happy to join the students in English, Math and Science. During my lunch break, I already recognized the first major change. The school started now to be a plastic free school! So while everyone got their lunch, they had to use some plates and cups which are reusable. When I bought a snack, I didn't receive it in a plastic bag, instead they covered it with a banana leaf.

After my snack, I went to kindergarten where I did the story telling and played with the kids.

And this was the time I saw the second change. All the class rooms got repainted and some of them got re-organized as well. And not only the classrooms got a new look, but also the library where they started to donate some of those hundreds of books and they opened a reading area.

 In this area, the children now have the chance to have some time off of the stressful school day so they can just take their time and read some books.

Last but not least, they also started to build some new classrooms for the students.

All in all, it was a really nice start back to school.

Until next time,

Annelie & Franzi