1109 Ate Sharline Celebrates with Bahay Aruga

Written by: Ate Charmain Tan, Vice President – Internal
It’s the start of 2018 as we welcome everyone back from the holidays. It was my first event of the year as I visited Bahay Aruga and its adorable children. Located in San Marcelino Manila, it provides a home for the children undergoing chemo treatment. As there are not much facilities in the province that provides treatment, the children have to travel all the way to Manila during their scheduled treatment. It takes a toll on the children and their parents as expenses could also build up. They get their treatment from Philippine General Hospital (PGH). The doctors from PGH refers these children to Bahay Aruga. The home can house up to 30 patients at a time and since opening the home in 2014, there has been an increasing survival rate for these kids. Bahay Aruga is headed by Miss Mayet who constantly provides support for the children.
The event was a thanksgiving and birthday celebration of Sharline and her family. The family lives in Anaheim, California and hasn’t been back in the Philippines for years. They were all looking forward to spending their New Year in the country. The three sisters Ates Sharline, Sharmie, and Shar were very evergetic as they introduced themselves to the children. The rest of the family also shared what they did during the holiday season. Some of the children and their parents are still in the province visiting their families while a couple of them had to be brought to the hospital for treatments.
To start off the day we grouped the children and their mothers into two. We then asked Ate Sharline’s family to split into the two groups. They got to know the kids and the parents in their groups. They also came up with their group names and group cheer. Since 2018 is the year of the dog, we asked them to come up with dog related group names. The first group was Team Corgi of Ate Sharline and the second group is Team Chow of Ate Sharmie. Ate Sharline did a cheerleading performance as the group spelled Team Corgi. After getting to know one another it was time for the fun to start. The kids were surprisingly very active today as compared to our previous visits. The first game we played was Pass the Charades. Teams formed a straight line. Each round, we gave an animal to the first person of each team and as in the game of charades the first person had to pass on the animal to the next player by action. The last person had to run to the front once he gets the correct answer. The animals we gave were penguin, rooster, giraffe, rabbit, and others. It was funny watching them act out rabbit as the kids were jumping up and down. Acting out giraffe was also funny as one of the teams thought it was elephant. Both team were tied at 2 points before the final round. In the end Team Chow won the game.
The second activity we played was Ball Relay. Teams formed straight lines and one ball was given to the first person of each team. Team members were to pass the balls “over and under.” They had to pass them alternately over their heads and in between their legs. The mothers were also very competitive as they were excited to win. Team Corgi was really fast and they won the game this time.
After all the fun we got to watch a magic show by Kuya Maverick from The Salamangkero group. He did popular tricks like umbrellas popping out and colorful scarves kept coming out from pouches. There were also doves that flew around and one of them ended up on the roof. He called our kid volunteer JJ to assist him in his tricks. He asked JJ to hold the wand but every time he let go the wand would magically break. The kids laughed as JJ tried to keep the wand straight. He also called one of the volunteers, Kuya Jeff to tie him up with a rope which he was able to untie. For his final act he made a table fly up and above the children.
We then got to enjoy our fish and carbonara dinner that was topped off with brownies for desert. In addition we also got to enjoy ice cream by Mr Sorbetero. The moms and kids had lots of servings of ice cream. I personally had 3 servings of cookies and cream, cheese, and mango flavored ice cream. Ate Sharline gave out gifts which they brought all the way from the US. Each kid got to pick from a range of cute stuffed toys and the boys got to pick from sets of action figures. Everyone also got a gift bag filled with blankets, toothbrush, towels, notebook, and other things all brought from the US. The family also gave out some cash donations to each of the mothers at Bahay Aruga. We sang a Happy Birthday song for Ate Sharline and her niece Ate Shar’s daughter, Clarisse, who will be celebrating their birthdays next month. Ate Sharline was teary eyed as she hoped the children to get better. An emotional Miss Mayet also got to talk about Bahay Aruga as Ate Shar told her what a great job she is doing. The Kong family plans to do this yearly and we look forward to seeing them again on their next visit to the Philippines.

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