School Visit : Chris Eboch in Lipa, Batangas

By Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki)

 

Author’s Note: These are my personal impressions about the writing seminar with Chris Eboch, which was sponsored by the Philippine chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) in Manila on July 15 and 16, 2006. Chris is the Regional Advisor for SCBWI New Mexico, and the author several of books including The Well of Sacrifice, a young adult historical fiction set in 9th century Guatemala. – Dominique Garde Torres (Nikki) 

The Nazareth School

2006 July 12, Wednesday

We refused to believe native Lipeno Dennis Marasigan when he told us that it would take only an hour and half to get from Manila to Batangas. And as I told Chris, she was stuck with two people who are both a bit fanatic about time. I take pride in being late very rarely, on those occassions that I am, I turn slightly frantic. Beaulah would rather be two hours early than ten minutes late. So we got to the city about an hour and half early and a full hour in advance of our appointment at the school.  

Having been unable to download the map which I had nagged Nazareth into e-mailing me, we were able to get to Lipa quite easily but had absolutely no idea where the school was. Fortunately, a couple of young people eating at MacDonald’s (where we also had breakfast) knew where it is and ten minutes later, we were at the school.  

The school was a small school – or a big house, depending on how you want to see it. We were met by Jo Ann Reyes, their very amiable school directress. This woman was all eagerness and warmth, and very, very accommodating. Her English, I noticed, was excellent. In consideration of our early arrival, she immediately made sure that the first batch of students were ready 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  

As we went down the hallways of the school, we were barraged with the images of the children’s works pinned all over the walls. We learned from Jo-Ann that instead of relying on English and Filipino textbooks, the teachers use reading lists that they provided to the students. In the classroom, we found that instead of individual chairs with desks, the children sat in tables together. All over the walls of the rooms, more samples of their work were proudly displayed.  

The first session with the grades 3 and 4 students started at 8:30 and ended at 9:00. I hesitate to go into details about how and what Chris taught since I suspect this is copyrighted under her name. Suffice it to say that she started by asking the children what their favorite books were and continued with guidelines or rather guide questions in putting together a story. After a brief talk on the questions, she allowed them a few minutes to write. This was pretty much the system she followed: lecture, discuss, write. Lecture, discuss, write. Finally, to illustrate her point, she discussed her book and showed them illustrations from it. The second session, which was from 9:30 to 10:30, was pretty much the same.  

Chris did allot a certain amount of time for questions and answers. Here the children amused the adults with their wit and with the directness of their queries. One little boy actually asked Chris outright how much money she made. Another wanted to know if she had a boyfriend. There were questions about how much time she took to write the 200 pages of the book. When they learned that it took her six months, there was collective gasp of “Oh No!’ And there were many, many questions on how her story ended. So much so that she ended up donating the book to their library!  

After both sessions, the children very sweetly (and agressively and insistently) asked Chris for her autograph.  

In between sessions we had a really delicious merienda of chocolate-e and bibingka and for lunch we had caldereta, fish and chicken. Delicious, and for Chris a really good introduction to Filipino food. They sent us off with requests for many more activities of this kind as well as gifts of suman and coffee, and for Chris a huge candle.  

It was on a very personal level, a very satisfying experience. Watching the faces of the children, their eagerness to learn made me feel so good that I had a rather goofy smile plastered on my face for most of the time. This was also the first time that the four of us – Beaulah, Nikki, Chris and Ikoy – worked as a team and it was, even if I do say so myself, a pretty good team. Beaulah was the team leader, Ikoy was the photographer/driver, Nikki was the coordinator and Chris was of course, the teacher.

Left: 7 a.m. at McDonald’s Lipa found Chris, Nikki and Beaulah having breakfast before the school visit. (Thanks to Nazareth School Director Jo-Ann Reyes for allowing us to use these photos here. Photos copyright 2006 by Mark Taguiwalo).The Nazareth School