Surprise visitors at The Center

From left: Hayward Sagembo, president of the Tembari Children Care (TCC) center, Efren Bulanadi of Hideaway Hotel, Papua New Guinean partner Perpetua and Penny Sagembo, founder of TCC, pose in front of the two oil drum firewood stoves. Efren and Perpetua are cuddling their one-year-old twins, Emilio and Emilia.

The newly-arrived drum stoves sitting next to the cement block stove on which puto was being steamed.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

ON Saturday, The Center had surprise visitors who came with a special donation – two sets of oil drum firewood stove.

Filipino expat Efren Bulanadi visited The Center along with his Papua New Guinean wife Perpetua and their one-year-old twins, Emilio and Emilia.

Efren drove up to The Center in a mini-truck loaded with the two drum stoves and lots of out-cut timber that the center could use for firewood and also as materials for a new classroom.

Efren manages the joinery unit of the Hideaway Hotel which produces classy furniture and fixtures for the hotel and its new apartment complex in Hohola suburb, the Buena Vista Apartments, which has been considered the best land development that ever took place in this depressed suburb of the city.

The scrap timbers came from his joinery which could no longer be accommodated in their storage but would have more use at The Center.

The dirty cooker and timber materials were sent by his employer Hideaway Hotel after its general manager, Don Manaloto, saw that our volunteer mothers were just using rocks and concrete bricks for their cooking stoves.

Don had visited The Center last months to find out what things he could do to improve our services to the Tembari children.

And one of the firs things he noticed was our open dirty kitchen.

“I’ll make you a nice set of stoves,” he told me.

As promised, the much-needed cooking implement was delivered yesterday to the delight of our volunteer mothers assigned to cook the children’s meal everyday.

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