Sorry for the late posting. Had a problem with the internet connection. Also, since I’ve given my very last copy of the revision 1 to a student last Saturday, I wasn’t able to make corrections for the 1st revision paper. Here are the corrections for the last 3 however.

By the way, this is where I’ll be uploading the files from now on. You can view the corrections online or download them by clicking on the links in each post. Check the site every once in a while for update. I’ll try to get a copy of revision 1 and upload the corrections as soon as possible. Good luck with your revising.

Stress can come from different sources – work, family, money, heck even time (or the lack of it to be more accurate). And it can also manifest itself in a lot of ways – increased blood pressure, hair fall, sickness, but the most common probably is the faster formation of more wrinkles.

I don’t know exactly what’s been causing the stress in me, (probably a combination of all the factors I’ve mentioned) but I do know that it’s been showing based on the number of wrinkles on my forehead. I’m almost amazed at how many I see forming every week.

However, I’m afraid that if it doesn’t slow down, I’ll probably have to start using nanotokin or other wrinkle remover to remedy the aging. Heck, I don’t want to look like a granddad before I really have to.

Since we’ve basically decided on homeschooling mateo till next year, andrea and I have agreed to enroll him in as many activities as we can – swimming, sports, team games, and even arts and crafts.

I know it will probably be expensive since outfits and other materials cost a lot – from softball socks to gloves and mittens to coloring pens – but it’s the best way to compensate for the social interaction that he’ll be missing out.

Never mind for now. Kuya is at a very crucial learning age so we have to do everything we can to help him out.

Whenever I am forced to wake up during the unholiest of hours or when I have to stay awake till morning, I can’t help but remember my mom’s advice about pimples.

According to her, the best way to get rid of pimples is to sleep. She used to say that sleep allows your body to recuperate and enable it to fight off those nasty acne. And sure enough it did. It worked for me especially back in the oily years.

It’s a good thing though that I’m way above the oily periods already because I have so many things to care of nowadays that keeps me up until the unholy hours – my daughter, my son, and my work.

Now, if only sleep can solve my work problems too…. hehehe!

Just when I thought I could finally get some sleep, I realize there is no getting it anymore. With anika’s erratic sleeping habits, the tons of books that i need to check, and the sickies that my body are trying to fight, I would be really lucky to get around 4 hours of shuteye.

This is the reason why I’m trying my best to come up with ways to fight the drowsiness especially when I’m in school. And so far, the most successful is a combination of strong coffee and some dance music in the background. Unfortunately, this entails bringing my laptop to school daily, which is not exactly the wisest thing to do.

You see, I don’t have a car so I walk to school armed only with an umbrella against rain or intense sun. If i bring my computer to school, my laptop would be at the mercy of the elements plus the wear and tear of travel. That’s the reason why I’m currently considering getting a Lecteurs MP3 player to replace my laptop’s music library. It’s lighter, less expensive, and tougher against travel and beatings of the elements. The next problem though is, how do I convince andrea. hehehe!

When I first came to Brunei, a lot of fellow expatriates (not just those from the same country where I came from) always warn me about clashing with the locals. Apparently, as with every country I suppose, authorities are inclined to believe the statements of their own countrymen over those of others. Never, they’d say, no matter how good or logical you are at arguing, will you win against them.

I just had a first taste of that last week when a parent of mine came to school and gave me an earful of nothing more than nonsensical rants.  His arguments ranged from racial discrepancies to just plain lack of brains. And to top it off, he goes off and tells a co-teacher of mine that he considers me lucky to be in school. Otherwise, he would have hit me if we were outside. Yeah, right! (Oh, did I mention that this is a local and a fellow educator too).

That’s how some of them justify their actions, with baseless arguments, threats of violence, and a very proud “This is Brunei”. I guess it would be of no use even if I was a Texas truck accident lawyer, for as long as have no purple Identification Card. Oh well, good luck with that!

Being a teacher and a person of logic as well as of sarcasm, I believe in the use of rationality and reasoning to win arguments. Since arguments, I believe, are nothing more than intellectual battles of opinions (especially when you strip them down of all pretenses), they should be resolved with nothing more than logic and wit. At least, that’s what I thought.

Apparently, here in Brunei, arguments are a bit different. As I unfortunately learned the hard way through an argument with a parent, race surprisingly is a factor. Sadly, despite insisting my concern for his child and the goal of instilling a sense of responsibility in her, the parent forces his side with arguments like “This is not the Philippines. This is Brunei.” and “That’s nonsense. These are kids (referring to his own daughter who happened to be a year away from graduating from the primary or elementary level). You shouldn’t give them options.” And as if he made a sound enough argument with his retorts, he even abruptly leaves our conversion by walking away and shouting in front of the other parents, teachers and students, “Use your brains. Use your brains”.

Hhmmm. I guess victory goes to him for having the last words in our argument. But then again, I wonder…

A school is a very complicated institution, the workings of which are intertwined closely between its many and varied components such as its personnel, staff, faculty, parents and obviously, students. It is the harmonious relationships between these parts that make a school grow and prosper.

However, like any complicated organism, the school too is bound to experience a lot of problems, glitches, and occasional hiccups. So what can we do about it?

Unfortunately, unlike other businesses that can be solved by automated systems such as the inetsoft business intelligence software, schools don’t have a single solution to its hugely diversified challenges. In my limited years of teaching, the only ingredients that seem to work are patience, open communication, and optimism. I guess it’s just a matter of finding the right combination of the three for a particular problem.

Is the move to Brunei a permanent one? Honestly, I cannot say. Before coming here, I thought to myself, we’ll be doing this because of a dream of putting up our own school. I’m not ready to leave the country where I was born permanently. Aside from the fact that most of my relatives and friends are in the Philippines, the culture we grew up in is also the same kind of culture I want our kids to imbibe – culture of hospitality, culture of close family ties, culture of high regard for learning, and a culture of respect and courtesy.

However, the more I think about it, the more reasons I see to start building on a different dream. For one, the country I came from is now nursing and forming a culture quite different from the one we know. The effect of globalization is quite pronounced in the Philippines as well as in other countries, so the culture we’re dreaming of immersing mateo and anika in is merely a faint shadow of a global culture of the present.

Second, since Brunei is not that far away from the Philippines as the other countries are, the people we love and value are just literally 2 hours away (plane ride of course), so visiting is not a problem. If we can’t visit, then maybe they can.

Third, although not as competitive as other Asian countries, Brunei supports its people adequately. In fact, there’s no need for you to invest in a Medicare part D plan, especially if you’re a citizen. Medical benefits are provided by the government for free.

However, as far as our dream of having our own school goes, I think this is something we seriously need to consider. It’s the only thing that staying here for good does not have an answer to.

Andrea, despite being a stay-at-home mom, is actually a busy worker. Everyday she earns almost the same amount as I do by writing articles and blogging. But, that’s only because she has has plenty of time on her hand to work. Now, it’s a different story.

When anika came and I was still without work, we would split the two. I would take care of mateo. She would be in charge of the baby. However, when I went here to Brunei, she was left in charge of handling the two on her own. And there are times (plenty in fact) when they just wouldn’t cooperate.

Before, she finds time to write when mateo’s in school. Now that anika’s here, andrea would be left with no other time but during bedtime, when they are both asleep already. And getting the two to sleep is not an easy task either. Sometimes, our little one would be awake until 1 or 2 in the morning. And andrea would only start work by then.

I told her jokingly to look for sleeping pills that work on children. She answered me with a frown. Hehehe!