PCPhilippines Update #59

The Life and Time of Winnie TP Fournet (circa. 15 Nov 11 - 15 Jan 12)

Winnie About 3 Weeks Old

She couldn't have been more than a few weeks old when she came to us.  I believe she would have died a few days later had Alana not brought her home.  She could barely stand and it looked like it took an amazing amount of effort for her to cross a room.  Her mother had abandoned her and she was just roaming around LCP, not able to feed herself.

A boy from the LCP shelter, who helped Alana get her from under the building, named her.  Inside of 48 hours, with a little food and water, she started to perk up.  Her personality started coming out quickly as she played and snuggled with us.  She was a snuggle bunny and loved to be wherever we were . . . sleeping.    She was sleeping just like a baby child, about 16 hours a day.

Comfy?  Can I Get You Anything Else Princess?

Snuggling Wth Alana

She was housetrained early.  As soon as we got her we often put her out in a small corner of our back yard to do her thing.  She got the idea and took to poopin' and peein' in the dirt.  I brought sand from the beach to make it nicer for her and she liked that.  The few times she didn't make it outside, she would go to the bathroom on the downstairs shower drain.  Made for easy cleanup . . . thanx Winnie :-)

That Bowl Is Too Big For A Kitty!

It was cute to throw her into her beach area and after she would do her thing she would come to the door and whinny to come in, get it, whinny/winnie?  We would open the screen door to let her in and she could fit under the 1.5 inch gap to get into the apartment.  Pretty quickly it got harder to scoot under the gap.  She would lay down and let us move the screen door over her body then jump up to get into the house.  Eventually she had to learn to walk around the screen door :-)

Winnie and Her Visiting Sister

It didn't take long before she would play and play and play with us.  She loved to attack!!!  Even though she had sharp little teeth and claws, she rarely broke skin and was always careful to just operate in play mode.  We had her sister over for 4-5 days, got some food in her so she wouldn't die, and finally found a home for her with the pastor from LCP.  Winnie had fun reconnecting and having a playmate for a while.

Play Time Could Be Brutal

We Called Her Sister "The Little One"

Winnie and Her Ball Of Yarn

Ooooo . . . This Is Fun!

No Doubt About Attack Mode!

Winnie could make a toy out of anything and play with it for hours: plastic wrappers, a writing pen, a ball of paper.  A few times we would enter the downstairs bathroom and find the toilet paper roll completely spooled out across the floor and was camping in it.  One of her favorite toys early on was a ball of yarn.

Snugglin' While Jaco Works

At night, it wasn't nap time, it was sleep time, and she knew to sleep in her clothes padded box.  She would hang with us on the bed while we watched a movie (she would sit and watch the screen like she was watching the movie sometimes), played backgammon (she liked to try and swat the dice when we weren't paying attention), or just watch us work and eventually she would put herself to bed by crawling in her box.  She was usually willing to sleep as long as we were or willing to get up and start the day if we got going because we knew she was sleeping when we were away . . . little booger.

Sleeping In Alana's Lap

"Life is Good When Someone Loves Ya"

The Bear!

I used to love watching her run across the floor and in the middle of her stride she would pop up (POW!) like she got hit by a stream of air from below.  Then Alana got this little bear from a party at work.  She brought it home and Winnie adopted that bear.  She would tackle it and wrestle with it for hours.  Great entertainment for us to watch and it kept her from play attacking us for a while.  We would hold Winnie on one side of the room, set up the bear on the other, and let Winnie go.  She would run across the room, tackle that bear like a tight end for the New Orleans Saints, slide 2-3 feet across the tiled floor, and wrestle the bear until it cried "Uncle!"  Cutest thing I ever saw.

Getting Ready For A Bear Attack!

As she got older and bigger she started to spend more time outside, which was good.  We wanted her to be able to take care of herself outside and to be able to explore and learn about her Filipino world.  We would leave her in the back when we were home and she would play in the grass with the leaves and just run around playing imaginary kitty games.  She also liked taking breaks and napping on our bike seats.

"I Bet I Can Figure Out How To Get Up There."

Winnie continued to grow in her playfulness and mischievousness.  When we would cook, she would be all under our feet in the kitchen.  When we would open the refrigerator, she would hurry up to it and look inside like she was wondering what all that food was about.  We would close the door and if her head was in there she would get a little knock.  There were times when she crawled into the frig and we just shut the door on her for a few minutes.  She seemed happy to get out and that only happened a few times.

The day soon came when we decided to leave her out for the morning when we both went to work.  We were very anxious to get back for lunch and discovered her in the grass playing away.  Eventually, it became a ritual that she would hear us coming home and jump into the grass to play attack us and our job was to find her and defend ourselves before being destroyed :-)

It's A Skill

Most of both our lives, Alana and I have had pets we believed needed jobs.  Nothing was different with Winnie.  Her job was to unconditionally love the LCP students.  When Alana or Alana and I would go to spend time with the students, watching movies, playing basketball, or even a class or study hall, Winnie often came with us.  She got really good at riding on the bike with us in a bag or on top of my backpack.

Winnie Riding The Pack!

It got to where she could tell we were gathering our things to leave and she would follow us outside as we were getting our bikes ready to travel.  One of us would have her travel bag and we would let her decide if she wanted to come with us.  We would put the bag on the ground and open it and say, "You want to come with us?" and 95% of the time she would run up and crawl into the bag, knowing full well it meant she was going to travel.

She would usually ride most of the way just curled up in her travel bag.  Often she would pop her head and one arm out to watch the world go by as we moved along.  Many times she would start to crawl out and I would grab her and put her on my shoulders where she would just ride and observe.  She seemed to get really good at it and always caught the attention of Filipino onlookers.

Sweet Girl

Once at the shelters, she would play with students, curl up with them to watch movies, and run around being entertaining to watch.  We never had any problem finding her and getting her back home when it was time to return even when she would roam and play away from where we were working.

We went away for a week at one point and Winnie stayed at our friend Akesa's home.  Once we dropped her there she was very content to play in the front yard and garden and come back into the house when Akesa called her.  She didn't roam too far, wasn't a problem at all for Akesa, and seemed glad to head back home in her bike travel bag when we returned.

Judy Ming & Winnie At Sleep Time

What A Good Mentor

During the Christmas break we stayed for 5 nights at the Consuelo Shelter with the boys that didn't go home.  Winnie came and was an older sister mentor to little Judy Ming, who was picked up on the road by one of the boys.  Winnie would play with Judy Ming, snuggle with her and nap, and roam around looking at things with her during the day then Judy Ming would sleep with us at night and Winnie would share her snuggle time with us.  It was fun to watch her as a big sister.

Winnie In The Window

As she got older she started jumping up into the windowsill and playing with the curtains.  She loved the windowsill because it was a different angle to attack us from :-) We figured this was a good time to teach her to use the window to get in and out the apartment so she wouldn't need us to open the door for her.  She wouldn't naturally jump in and out of the window at first so I would put her up on the window ledge and push her off so she could experience that the window lead to the outside, just like the door.

The first few times she attempted to jump back into the window she couldn't get high enough to grab onto anything and fell to the ground.  Nice effort Winnie!  About a week later though she was getting up and back into the apartment with ease.

Winnie's Abandoned Jeep Playground

Pretty soon she learned there was a side yard and eventually she would run out to the front of the apartment when we were leaving and disappear underneath the abandoned jeep out front.  It was good to see her exploring her surroundings.  Not too long after that she was running out into the side street and down the road after us when we would be leaving without her.

Winnie In Her Teen Phase

Winnie was eating well, was in a rhythm with our work and play schedule, and getting big.  We saw her mother and sisters at LCP, still wild street cats that no one could get near, and Winnie was 2/3rds the size of her mother already and twice as big as her sisters.  I guess that's what happens when animals get fed on a regular basis.  We were most excited though about how sweet, cooperative, adventurous, and fun she was becoming.

Looking Adult-Like

Eventually I found her roaming the top of the cement fence that wraps around our apartment complex.  Not sure at all how she got up and it was obvious that the fence was seemingly too high for her to get down since she kept whinnying for us to help her.  I helped her . . . I grabbed her and through her into a nice soft bush next to the fence where she grabbed onto the leaves and scooted her way down.  After that she didn't have any trouble getting up on or down from the cement fence again.

Winnie On Her Fence Perch

She really liked that fence.  From a perch on it she could see a lot of the neighborhood.  She liked observing the other animals moving around . . . especially other cats.  She was spending hours up there and was happy to stay when I would try to call her to come inside at night.  When she would see another cat, off she would go to see what they were up to and how they did things.

Man With Cat On Head

Jaco With Winnie On Head

My friend Shea sent me a picture of a really trained cat sitting on her owner's head and wanted to know if I could train Winnie to do the same.  Of course I can!  Winnie and I had many training sessions that went very well and in the end she always felt the need to take long naps to recover from our grueling training schedule.

Head Sitting Training Can Be Draining

Before we knew it, Winnie was gone for the whole night.  Did this about 3-4 times in a two week period and would always come home looking like she just had a meal.  We figured she had either befriended another Filipino household and was being fed there also (not likely) or she was out at night hunting (more likely).  She started catching small gekos in our apartment and back yard and would gobble them up.  One time she stayed away from us for two nights and that kinda made us nervous.

Hanging With Our Picture

Our Beautiful Girl

Steve, our friend from Fort Collins came to visit us for a few weeks and instantly seemed to fall in love with Winnie.  She played with him and decided to sleep with him at night, curled up around his head.  That's about the same time she started a new ritual.  When she would hear us coming down the stairs she crouch down in attack mode behind the bottom step and jump up on us when we reached the bottom.

Rabbit Legs, Good For Catching Gekos

We headed to another island with Steve around mid-January.  We were planning on being gone for 4 nights.  Winnie stayed out the night before we left and we didn't see her in the morning as we headed to the pier.  Evelyn stayed at our place while we were gone.  She said she never saw Winnie the whole time we were away.

When we returned we thought for sure she would show back up yet days and days passed and there was no Winnie.  We think she may have roamed too far from home, got turned around, didn't recognize where she was, and got lost.

Last Pic Taken Of Our Little Winnie . . . Looking Up Toward Heaven

We miss her dearly.  We had some prayer sessions for her, imagining our apartment being covered with silky light and the paths back to us being lit up so she could find her way back home if she wanted.  We walked around the neighborhood a few times thinking maybe she went too far off and got disoriented.  Who knows where she went, why she went, or what happened to her.

Eventually, after three weeks, we had good reason to believe she was not of this earth anymore (at least it was easier to let go of her thinking that).  We also are holding out with the idea that if she is still out there she is safe, happy, and playing in the grass somewhere.

We're Hanging On To Your Bear For You Winnie!

Even as I write this Update though, I have a new little soul sleeping underneath my chin.  Alana texted me last night and said she tripped over an abandoned kitten in a hole in the street on her way to LCP no bigger than her fist.  She asked if we could keep her.  Of course we can, who am I to deny my wife any soul she feels compelled to take in.

Jaco With New Kitty, She's A Cute Snuggler Too

She's with us now.  No name yet. We're trying to get some food into her.  She's already learning to poop and pee in Winnie's beach square in the back yard.  We'll see how she does.

Stinky Feet

I’ve always disliked feet.  Generally, mine are dirty.  And I have little short stubby fat toes attached to my very long feet, so in general, mine are awkward and displeasing.  Aside of the obvious necessity for them, I have little use for feet.

Why am I even talking about this?  Well… let me back up a little.

I’ve been teaching Math and English at LCP each morning to the School On Wheels youth.  School On Wheels is based on the “mobile school” model popular in the Philippines.  In many large cities, teachers will drive around shantytowns in a bus, load up impoverished youth, take them to a safe area (oftentimes a shaded field) where they can share a daily lesson and when possible, a meal.

The great thing about School On Wheels at LCP is that the youth picked up are brought to the LCP campus.  We meet in a small classroom, have access to basic materials, and have the means to provide a daily meal.  Our current students range in age from 5 to 13.  These students do not attend public school for a variety of reasons, mostly because they cannot afford to be there.

The youth have varying experiences with school. Needless to say, this is a group of high needs youth.  Fortunately, there are three of us adults working with the group of 11 youth.  It sure sounds like a lot of teaching-man-power… and anyone who’s taught or tutored struggling students will understand how sometimes anything beyond a 1:1 ratio can feel overwhelming and a little hopeless. 

Our School On Wheels Classroom

After our morning exercise routine and a few songs, Stella (another volunteer from the States) takes the gamay (little ones) while Jesiel (my counterpart) and I keep the daku (big ones).  We have 6 boys with lots of energy and very little English speaking skill.  I typically have the group    of 6 by myself while Jesiel starts the meal.

At first, I worked really hard to keep the group together.  We’d practice reading, writing, and arithmetic… together.  

Yeah right.  To be honest, I spent a lot of time saying things like “come back here” and “sit down”.  I finally realized how much this ‘system’ wasn’t working the morning I had the brilliant idea of teaching the boys how to do addition with stones; I spent that morning dodging the stones as they were thrown at me.

I decided to try something different.  Jacques had brought me a box of notebooks from NORSU (apparently professors collect student notebooks at the end of each semester if the students don’t want to keep them themselves).  I thought it might be exciting if each of the boys got their own notebook. 

I started slow.  I gave each boy their own notebook with basic additions problems inside.  I quickly learned that simple addition was way over the heads of some of the boys, and too basic for others, which lead me to understand the beauty and importance of differentiation.

Before, some of the boys were throwing stones at me out of frustration and others out of boredom.  With individualized math problems, the boys could move along at different paces, their paces.  This allowed me time to give more attention to the boy(s) needing guidance, while the others worked independently on the problems provided for the day at their level. 

The boys really seemed to enjoy finishing their daily assignment.  I would check their answers right in front of them, circle the ones they needed to rework, then put a huge star on the top of their paper when the answers were all correct.  I’m blown away at how hard they’ll work to get their star.

One morning the boys entered our classroom, sat at the  table, and began chanting “Math! Math! Math!”  I’ve tried to stay disconnected from the outcome of “my teaching”.  I’ve tried to remind myself I cannot force them to learn.  I’ve tried to remind myself their learning is theirs to own.  And, I’m not gonna lie, with their little cheer, I was beaming. 

That morning, with an ear-to-ear grin, I passed out their notebooks and let them begin.  Kenard came and sat next to me with his notebook.  He had been doing really well with basic addition so I had increased his difficulty to multiple digit addition.  Kenard is a very bright student and also the most easily frustrated (he was the leader of the throw-stones-at-Alana pack).  He pointed to the new problems with his pencil and with a scowl on his face indicated they were too difficult. 

Well, reveling in the “they-love-math-nothing’s-gonna-get-me-down-teacher-high, I sat with Kenard.  We completed a couple of problems together.  I watched him do some on his own then I sent him off to finish so I could work with another student.  A while later, I looked up to see Kenard hunched over his propped up leg… sitting in his chair, looking at the floor, playing with his feet, not writing in his neat little notebook.

Guess which one is Kenard...

The tough thing about getting all filled up and feeling high and mighty is the deafening pop  when my bubble bursts.  Warm-fuzzy-I-love-teaching feelings whooshed out the door.  In their place came a familiar control-freak voice in my head that almost said out loud “Kenard, get back to work!”

Before the angry words came out of my mouth, Kenard picked up his pencil and jotted down an answer.  Wait!  What?  I continued watching for a bit.  Kenard looked down, seemed to be talking to himself, picked up his pencil, and wrote down another answer.  It took me a while to realize what was going on.

He had not given up and resigned himself to staring at the floor.  Kenard was using all of his known resources to solve the math problems that now included numbers beyond 10.  He could no longer rely on his fingers alone.  He cleverly solved that problem.  Kenard was now using his toes!

So there you have it.  Even stinky feet are good for something.

School On Wheels