Frisky Kids The Balete schoolchildren walk to the school every
Freelance photographer Jeff Florendo was assigned to Balete for the
school’s Christmas party. He left at dawn in the second week of December 2010 with Chris Sioson and two clown actors on a Mitsubishi Strada 2008 pickup. In
day, walking and running
the back of the pickup were goodies for the children and their teachers, including
up the steep hill with the
two lechon and packs and packs of pancit bihon. The same old reliable 4x4 pickup
greatest of ease.
took them to the old site of Balete primary school, high up the jagged mountain range, reached by a hanging bridge crossing the river, and then a half-kilometer footpath. The new site of the school, bigger and with more rooms, is lower down the hill and may be reached from the Santa Fe main road by a motorized steelcable tramline, with a capacity of some 300 kilos, stretching a kilometer across a panorama of river, fields and hills. The tramline was built by the local government for farmers to transport their produce to the market in Santa Fe.
The Christmas party was held at the barangay hall (where Grades 3 and
4 temporarily held their classes while the classrooms were being constructed),
The Tan Yan Kee Foundation, Inc. at 25
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