Nakakita na ba kayo ng usa?

For the Buwan ng Wika celebrations at Don Bosco, Gabriel was chosen as their section representative for a fable reading contest. All contestants were to tell the same story and the contest piece was the fable of the stag who prized the beauty of his antlers. Since there was a single character in the fable, I rewrote it in the first person for Gabriel. For his "costume" Gab wore khaki pants and a light cream shirt. Nai sewed on a tail made of white flannel and made a bib of the same material for his chest. We modified those Christmas deer headbands to make them more stately. Fortunately, classes were suspended some days of August allowing Gab to spend more time memorizing his piece. All our efforts however were rewarded by his winning first prize with a perfect score of 100% from the judges.

Nakakita na ba kayo ng usa? Ako 'yooon.
Hindi ba't ang ganda ng aking mga sungay?
Hindi ba't napakakisig ng aking hitsura dahil sa aking mga sungay?
Kaya lang tingnan ninyo ang aking mga paa at binti.
Ang pangit. Maliit. Payat pa.

Pero alam ninyo, minsan, ako'y nagulat sa gubat.
Nakarinig ako ng kaluskos at nakaamoy ng tao.
Mangangaso!
Dali-dali akong lumundag.
At halos lumipad sa bilis ng takbo.
Takbo dito! Lundag doon! Takbo pang ulit!
Oops! Sumabit ang aking mga sungay sa sanga ng puno.
Nandiyan na ang mangangasa. Naririnig ko siya.
Pinilit kong ulit batakin ang aking sungay.
Aray! Masakit!
Pero salamat, nakawala ako.
Nagpatuloy ako sa pagtakbo.
Hinihingal na ako. Hah, hah, hah.
Sa wakas, ligtas na ako sa gubat.
Hindi na ako matutunton ng mangangaso.

Nang uminom ako sa batis, nakita ko ulit ang sarili ko 
sa mala-salaming ibabaw ng tubig.
Hmmph! 
Muntik na akong ipahamak ng maganda kong sungay.
Mabuti pa ang pangit kong binti na siyang nagligtas sa akin sa panganib.

Kaya mga kaibigan,
Pahalagahan at pangalagaan ang bawat bahagi ng katawan.

Maraming salamat at magandang araw po.

Congratulations!

We're so proud of Miguel's Rank 5 finish and
Juventus leadership award.

I keep telling Miguel and Gabriel that they are so
many times better than their dad. So thankful
to God, happy and proud.

The boys with Ma'am Raia, their English teacher and
English Club adviser. Ma'am Raia's been instrumental
to the boy's emceeing assignments at school programs.

 After ranking second in his class for the last two quarters of the school year, Miguel graduated ranked seventh in their batch. The commencement rites were held Saturday, March 23. It started off with anticipated mass for Palm Sunday at 4 pm during which Miguel read the part of the crowd in the gospel reading of the Passion of Christ. There was a break before the candidates marched in again for the graduation ceremonies. By the time we finished it was already 9 at night. Dinner was courtesy of Jay who celebrated fellow Bosconian Best friend Ige's graduation with a buffet meal at their home.

The boys with DBA Pampanga Rector Fr. Ditto S. Gueco.
Fr. Rector congratulated us and complimented Miguel's
part in the gospel reading.