Blogging with Rox: The Elements

Dear Friends,

Today, I’m going to share with you a compelling story of 80 amazing students, teachers and staff of Claret School of Isabela Basilan. They came to Claret School last February 14 , 2006 for a 3 day performance for a musical play entitled “The Elements”. The elements is the story of Basilan presented in a unique way. Combining dance, music, myth, actual events, dazzling costumes, and modern technology all rolled into one. It caught everybody by surprise. Who would ever expect that a group of students from the remotest and perceived to be the most troubled spot in the Philippines could come up with such a world class play, and to think that the students were all amateurs is just so inspiring. Basilan was a battlefield for more than 30 years between Christians and Muslims and here you are, a musical play with both Christians and Muslims in the cast, not only that, the students speak in several native dialects such as Chavacano, Visayan, Yakan and Tausog and yet they were able to unite and come up with a superb performance. Isn’t that a lesson for us adults? My web team came up with this website in three weeks time to show our appreciation for the cast of “The Elements” and also as an entry to a web contest. We actually finished a different entry for the contest and my students have worked on it for 8 months. I asked the boys if they are willing to drop it in favor of “The Elements” since the people involved were more closer to our hearts. They will also have to make a lot of sacrifices since we have to start all over again and finish it in 3 weeks. When I heard all of them saying a resounding YES!, I knew we were on "something different, something special” just like what Megan, the "goddess of water" said in her closing speech in the play. We were no longer after winning any contests, we were after something bigger. We want to tell the world, the story of Basilan. We hope that this website will change even just a little bit about the people’s perception of Basilan. We want people to invest in Basilan and provide job opportunities and not mere dole outs.
If you are going to view the site, I suggest bring your snacks and drinks, it’s just like watching a movie, well, it’s not that long. Please start from the beginning. you won’t understand the whole thing if you start in the middle. Go over the links one by one starting from the top. And when you are finished, please say something nice to the students of Basilan, inspire them to follow their dreams in spite of the hardships that they have to overcome. They will be reading every peace of information coming from you. The future of Basilan belongs to these kids. I don’t cry easily but when I started receiving text messages (they do have cell phones and internet too) from the cast who are now back in Basilan saying “SUPER THANK YOU FOR THE WEBSITE” tears just flowed in my eyes. I knew then that this site will make a difference in their lives too.
So here it is: http://elements07.125mb.com/