Jeff was on the floor. Prone and alert under the dining table with a Blastercorn nerf gun propped between his eyes, ready to shoot foam darts at Raven who was crying and hiding behind an opened refrigerator door she used as her shield. Her own Blastercorn hanging limply on her side as she didn’t quite grasp its mechanism of action just yet and had had already been riddled with Jeff’s pink bullets as he chased her around the house. She ended up in the kitchen where I was making my second attempt at chai masala in a cezve, asking me to make him stop as she said they hurt. He started shooting at me instead.

The two Blastercorns were prizes she picked from her school’s fun run. Those, an axolotl plushie, a colour-changing squishie, and a growing axolotl that’s still sitting in water as we speak as she said it takes eight days for it to reach its full size.

She raised a fair bit of donations for the fun run.

And by she, I meant me. I was the one who hustled it big time; messaging friends and family about the event and shamelessly asking if they were happy to donate and if they were, here’s the link…

Huge shoutout to Yen2x, Girlie, Ruth, May-Ann, Cristina, Trina, Met2x, El2x, and Krisfaye for their generosity. Together, we all raised $410 in total. Raven placed 8th on the Leaderboard.

This was Raven’s solicitation to family and friends two years ago. Her school’s first fun run since COVID. The aim was to raise two grand to renovate their playground. They raised fourteen. It was a monumental success and I was so happy for them because it’s a great school. The teachers and the staff are wonderful.

For such a small primary school, it’s amazing how much support they get from the families and the community. Which is why, shy as I am, I go out of my way to ask for donations for the fun run too. In that year, Raven raised $600+ and placed 4th in the Leaderboard. Again, thanks to the family and friends who are always happy to circulate their wealth.

On the day of the fun run, Jeff took the day off. I already had that Wednesday off so that came in handy. As much as we can, we try to be there for Raven’s school events. These are the little things that mean a lot to her, we believe. One day, she will look back and remember us being there.

While Jeff volunteered his bubble machine and operated it at the finish line, I volunteered my two arms at the starting point to squirt coloured cornstarch on the kids. The large ketchup bottles had such narrow holes it was quite an effort squeezing them on and off for an hour. It was all fun and games while the adrenaline was still rushing but not so much later when the soreness kicked in.

I didn’t intend to have any colour sprayed on me. It was Jeff and his boyish tendency to play games and play them a little too roughly, too. I had cornstarch on my face, hair, and even some in my eye!

Which is why I totally understood why Raven reacted the way she did when he was shooting her with the Blastercorn. He’s competitive as.

I swear, if there ever will be a zombie apocalypse, I’d be glad to have Jeff’s strength and smarts on my team. Unless he got bitten by a zombie first because with his curious and friendly nature, chances are high he’d be the first one to come up to the crazed newly-infected creature and ask, “You alright, bro?”

Then I’ll be damned.

It was nice to have my mom there too. It coincided with her trip here and I wanted to show her around Raven’s school and what it’s like. How different Australia’s education system is compared to the Philippines’, blah, blah, blah…

She was more interested in that Corymbia tree, to be honest.

*Raven at 8 years old