Junten Junior High School / Senior High School

On September 30, the students left the hotel in Dagupan and headed to Lingayen in Pangasinan.  

Garbage tracks gather at the garbage collection sites.  The garbage that is not sorted is brought to the site, then children working at the site sort the garbage into burnable, non-burnable or recyclable.  They will find recyclable garbage and sell them to garbage dealers to make living. They use a simple tool made of wires to open garbage bags to check the contents.

As shown in the picture, recyclable garbage is quickly collected.  These people will make 100 to 150 peso (1 peso = 27 yen) a day by selling the garbage to the dealers.  One kilogram of rice is 35 peso, so they can barely meet the food requirement.  

Junten students interviewed people who live next to the public garbage collection center.  A 16 year old young man, J.R., is not in school.  He hopes that when his older brother graduates from high school and starts working, then he can support JR to go to school. J.R. wants to be a sailor in the future.  We asked why, and he answered “… I heard that a sailor makes a good living.”

Ms.C.C. does not know how old she is.  She grew up at garbage collection sites.  Everyone calls her, “grandma.”  She supports her family of two, herself and her son, by selling garbage.

Student I:

I was impressed because children work so efficiently.  I still remember the scene that they would make a hole in a garbage bag to check the inside. There was a strong smell and it was not clean at all, but they were so good.  This is because hey have been working and living in such environment for a long time, but this made me sad.

Student S:

Grandma C.C. said, “I would like the children working at the garbage site to go to school.”  This made me relieved that she recognized the importance of school.

After lunch, students went to one of the Junten partner schools,  La Salette School. La Salette is located in Dagupan and it is a private school.  There are students who are on scholarship, but most of the students are from wealthy families.

Filipino people welcome guest by singing and dancing. The students at La Salette showed a musical show, which was like a show done by professional performers.  Junten students showed Yosakoi Dance, that they danced at the school festival.  

The main reason for this visit was to exchange views and opinions with the young people who are the same ages as the SGH Junten students.  Junten and La Salette students were divided into groups and they had discussions.  One group had three Junten students and five La Salette students.  The first topic was “Why do you go to school?”  Both Junten and La Salette students wrote their comments in papers.

Each student in the groups shared their own thoughts and opinions with the rest of the groups. Students found differences and similarities in the opinions so they further discussed why there are differences and similarities.

In the 2nd and 3rd discussion sessions, the members of the groups were changed and discussed about the topics which Junten SGH students had researched on prior to their departure.  Some students asked for advice on their research projects, some students interviewed the La Salette students to get information they need for their research projects.

After the discussion sessions, students enjoyed merienda (snack) that is necessary in Philippines.  Today students had sweet mocha paste like snack.

Tonight, students will home-stay at the La Salette students’ families.  Host families were decided by drawing lots and students left school to stay with the local families.