For my birthday this year, I wish that with your help, my dream deferred becomes Yumi's dream fulfilled.

MY STORY

Before the Bucket List movie was released in 2007, I had a dream. Kind of "50 AT 50 BUCKET LIST” to visit 50 States on or before I turned 50. It didn’t happen. At 50, I neither had the money nor the time. I woke up the morning of August 2, 2019, at age 69 retired with some extra money and time, and still short of my 50 States. So my bucket list was revised to “50 at 70” while still able to travel. Then, COVID19 "hijacked" my Dreamtravel. I only need to cross off Arkansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. The dream plan was to fly to Colorado and meet up with five childhood friends (from 5 States). We grew up together in my barrio in the Philippines. We’d rent a van and take turns driving, stay at historic AirBnB while we tour from state to state. I am very disappointed because my birthday is only a month or so away. After a serious introspection, I reconsidered. In these COVID19 times, this Dreamtravel suddenly turned trivial and somewhat self-serving. So I am doing the next best thing: help to fulfill Yumi's dream!

Yumi is a young man of 38, a community organizer, head of the T’boli/Ubo Cluster of the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and a teacher. He dreams about building a children's library for his indigenous T'boli people in Lake Sebu, a mountainous area of southern Philippines. Yumi calls it T’boli Community Library and Culture Hub. The goal is to provide a place for children to learn to appreciate reading and increase literacy. At the same time, encourage them to preserve their vibrant culture that is in danger of being lost in the shuffle of progress and their ancestral land bought out by wealthy investors.

Lake Sebu you see is one of the top TripAdvisor destinations in the area with its magnificent natural beauty, three lakes, and seven waterfalls, and one of the highest zip lines in Asia. I knew many children of Lembisol; two of them are Yumi’s mother and father Cristina and Agustin Yambok. I even heard his grandmother Gumban Sulay play the S’ludoy (bamboo zither). When I was 22, I taught English (Grades 4-6) at a Santa Cruz Catholic Mission school in Lake Sebu. I lived and worked with the T’boli people for two years. I have a great fondness for the place filled with heartwarming memories including getting married to a Peace Corps Volunteer, my husband Al.

Yumi realized the importance of education in lifting the children’s lives out of poverty and widening their worldviews through reading. He organized the Lake Sebu Youth Network and operated a mobile reading project for many years. With his network of volunteers, they walked from mountain to mountain to read to the children. I know the challenges that the project entailed. As a teacher in 1972, we visited our T’boli students in their remote homes. Once a month, we’d walk the mountainside footpaths so we could begin to understand and appreciate their home-life situation. Many of them had to walk hours to school to get an education. Two of my students grew up and became Mayors of their town.

In 1972, I helped produce Santa Cruz Mission’s fund-raising brochure describing the dire situation of the T’boli people during that time…”98% of minorities were illiterate…the average T’boli eats only one meal a day, less than five pounds of meat a year, and works twelve hours a day.” The major problems that beset the indigenous people in 1972 were poverty, illiteracy, disease, and the pressure of disrupting outside influences. Today, while poverty, literacy, and health issues are not as dire, the T’boli culture itself is in danger! (Regarding the vibrant T’boli culture please see 2018 Miss Universe Catriona Grey’s video, click HERE.

When Yumi pitched his dream to me, I was impressed but thought the total cost was beyond my reach to help make his dream come true. But Yumi simplified it by invoking the word Bayanihan! Pronounced “buy-uh-nee-hun”, it is a Filipino core value that refers to a spirit of communal unity and cooperation. Derived from the word “bayan” meaning town or nation or community in general. A common iconic symbol of Bayanihan is a photo of a Bahay Kubo (nipa house) being transferred from one location to another, carried on the shoulders of men, and cheered on by women and children.

Yumi enlisted his community to invest in this Build a Library & Culture Hub project: a) Yumi donated a part of his land inherited from his parents. Value: priceless b) Cost of labor from the community = P37K+. c). Maintenance from Young T’boli Professionals: water and electricity d) Lake Sebu Youth Network to help manage the Center, to read to children pre-school to 15 (who lag in reading comprehension).

Yumi's dream fulfilled is my dream come true as well. This Bayanihan is more significant and holds more meaning than my "50 at 70 Bucket List". It will have far-reaching and long-lasting benefits to a village full of children.

As to “50 at 70”, there’s always “50 at 80 or 50 at 90!” Thank you!

Items Materials Cost: Based on today's peso to US dollar exchange rate.

50 pcs Afus (large bamboo) P10K ($200.74) 

100 pcs Lasak (small bamboo) P7.5 ($150) 

135 pcs lumber of varying sizes P25K ($501) 

30 bags cement P7K ($142) 600 pcs hollowblocks P10K ($200) 

75 pcs kabilya (steel cable) P9K = ($180) 

35 pcs alumnimum corrugated sheets (roof) P10K ($204) 

Assorted nails P3K ($60) Total in pesos: P84,000.00 

Approximate in dollars $1,600