chamitos angel acosta made a speech

after almost two weeks of not checking my emails i was astonished by the large number of reminders from various sites that i have been to, including the friendster and wordpress, and how almost non existent were my personal messages… but i do receive one… from my eldest sibling, chamitos angel acosta… 

she sent me her resume…at first i was very much perplexed but then i remember… yes, this was her resume that the elementary school that we graduated from was asking…

no, they were not planning to hire her… they asked her if she can be their speaker for the 2006 commencement exercise…

we really cant believe when we heard that she was being asked by our previous teachers to be the guest speaker… for one thing she is not that old yet… and another thing, she just graduated last 2004…sure, she did graduate with honor in UP-dil. and she was among the top 20 in licensure exam but i guess that wasn't good enough… especially now that she doesn't work as an elementary school teacher (she's an educ grad)…

but anyhow… she agreed…so last wednesday, as bunso was garnering her medals for her subjects… just across the street, my sister was giving her valuable speech (my sister's high school is in front of our previous elem school).

after the long speech done by the mayor, which was almost all about the importance and benefit of charter change (i bet he was thinking of an extended term, huh… hellooo… your audience were elementary graduates…), and the principal’s enthusiastic news about the school's award for being the country's "most effective school for 2005"… and her being the "most effective principal" of the whole wide Philippines.. (both were for public school division)…

finally, it was my sister's turn…the snoozing of the graduates ceased… when the teacher who was hosting the ceremony read her erm… erm… achievements and the sorority and orgs that she's been a member…

her voice was hoarse and gurgly… she sounded like a badly trained parrot as she delivered her precious speech… (so that's why she urged me to buy some strepsils… hmm…)

she started her speech by greeting the graduates… her croaky voice boomed through the speakers… i was quite embarrassed, i admit, but the embarrassment was transformed into pride as she started to say her piece…

as her introduction, she talked about her experiences in that school, about the teachers that she's been with, and of course her classmates… which were really funny and enlightening.

i was particularly amused by the story of camote (sweet potato)… according to her, when she was in grade 5, as a requirement for EPP class, they have to plant this abominable plant (i got my own nasty experience on this stuff)… she said that when the grading of their garden came, they realized that the other group's supposedly empty camote beds suddenly bloomed with healthy green produce and their flourishing garden was desolated and barren… "nagkaroon ng nakawan" (stealing occured)…

she then later on used this funny story to talk about the philippines' condition…she said,"bakit ba nagkakaroon ng bilihan ng boto? hindi ba nila nalalaman na pagnanakaw yun? hindi ba nila natutunan nung elementary sila na ang pagnanakaw, kamote man o boto ay masama?" (why do the selling of vote exist? don’t they know that it is stealing? didn't they learn in elementary that stealing, whether of sweet potatoes or votes, is bad?)… I glanced at the mayor… he was smirking…

by the end of the day… literally of that day (it ended at exactly 12)…  I can say that my sister’s speech was a success…