HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Featuring the N.A. Scholars Choir of Cebu

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS! For this holiday season, I searched for something personally meaningful to share with all of you. I found it in a beautiful Christmas song, "Simbang Gabi," aka Christmas Eve's Mass. This song is performed by the N.A. Scholars Choir, a group of about 80 children who have been "adopted" by a visionary and professional electrical engineer, Nestor D. Archival of Talamban, Cebu, Philippines. When this video was taken, the kids had just learned this particular song the day before.

According to Jenny Franco, President and CEO of Travelvision Cebu, who had taken me on November 27, 2011 to visit Archival's Eco-House or the "House Close To Nature," an environment that has an Eco-House dedicated to environmental up-cycling, recycling, and innovative ecological lifestyle advancements at the local level, these children were gathered from the economically-challenged neighborhoods in Talamban. They were typical "gatherers" of anything they could find in the streets --- from scrap metal, recyclable plastics to their neighbors' laundry, pots and pans, and the like. This was the survival life they knew and understood before Engineer Archival offered them an enticing proposition: "Would you like to have fun while learning under my mentorship?"

The scholars committed to attending weekend/overnight bootcamps at "House Close To Nature." Nestor was blessed to find a retired music teacher to train the children. Aside from trips to a local mall with Nestor, the weekend classes are helping mold Cebu's (and beyond) future "green economy" leaders.

According to the House Close To Nature's website introduction, "The Eco-House is all about nature. This man-made edifice is largely built upon the energy and material flow of the larger eco-system where it belongs. It aimed to enhance the environment by conserving valuable resources such as energy, water and other materials as well as in showcasing how less production of wastes could be achieved."

I fell in love with Cebu all over again. This is what I came home for.

For tours, please contact Jenny Franco at jfranco318@gmail.com or call her at Travelvision Cebu, +63 32 234-1463. Check out http://HouseCloseToNature.com. You can also ask Jenny how groups can avail of the N.A. Scholars Choir's singing talent in their events.

The videos at Archival's Eco-House were taken with permission from Engineer Nestor Archival. Thank you, Nestor! RadiantView@gmail.com (Lorna Dietz), www.RadiantView.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Archival's Eco-House
• Engr. Nestor D. Archival
• House Close To Nature
• children's choir
• environment
• advocacy
• N.A. Scholars Choir
• Talamban
• Cebu
• Philippines
• energy
• recycling
• up-cycling
• Jenny Franco
• Travelvision Cebu
• eco tours
• green economy
• eco-house