July 5th: Korina Sanchez

We're on day 5 of our crazy three week trip! And "crazy" means packed with activities from morning 'til night. (You will definitely see this theme throughout this trip ^.^)

First was a 5:45 AM wake up call to get ready for the day. With make up on our faces and hair pulled back neatly, we were ready for our interview at 10 AM. Wait, 5:45 AM wake up call for an interview in the same city that starts at 10 AM? Traffic here is completely different from back in the States. Bumper to bumper. Sides so close together that if I put my arm out the window, half of it would be inside the vehicle next to us. There are also practically no stoplights or stop signs around, which makes every turn a merge. To account for this, we left 3 hours early. 

We arrived at the teleradio station of the famous Korina Sanchez. This was a completely new experience for me because I've never heard of a radio station that was also filmed as a TV show. Korina Sanchez talked into a microphone while simultaneously pressing buttons that called up applause, jingles and advertisements and using sliders to control the volume. The rondalla sat around a circle table with microphones. There was a small swiveling camera to record all of us while we performed.    

<------- That's what I'm talkin' about.

 First, Luz, Tita Bebs, (IP's executive director) and Tita Girlie (our media promoter in the Philippines) all had a chance to talk about the school and the rondalla. Then we played "Kay Ganda ang Ating Musika" and ended the show by playing "Maria Cristina." 

More importantly, Korina has an initiative to collect donations of one million pairs of tsinelas, or slippers, in a year for the shoeless children of the Philippines. As part of our service on our trip, we donated two pairs of tsinelas from each member of the rondalla. (For information about the project, please click here)

Karina Dube

We've been spotted on Korina Sanchez's Instagram!