VI021 Reunited

Ok, this is about my volunteer memoirs.

Last September, one of my weekends was with the people I have not met for months. It's the first time for our batch to be completed since the RV weekend last year, so it is a bit nostalgic.

Apparently, one of our British counterparts was able to join us, her name is Amy, she came all the way from Scotland to do Development work in Leyte. Her coming is the reason in organizing the group's dinner. Everyone catched-up with each other, threw jokes, laughed, took pictures and a lot more. I actually enjoyed being with everyone again. And as usual, I had to get used to the attitude of some people. Well, now I'm getting used to it.

Another batch

It's been a year. Right after my VSO ICS cycle, 3 batches came forth and here is another one just done prepping up to be deployed to their placement. As, maybe, a few of you would remember (well, if somebody out there has been reading my blog), I was an RV support of the batch that ensued mine. And it was a very good batch that I've supported. They were all happy and full-spirited young people with hunger for development work. And that was last year. 

So now another batch came and I'm already working in Nueva Ecija but I didn’t stop my involvement in ICS since my cycle ended. What’s nice about supporting another new batch of volunteers is the fact that I know better than them what is install for them, and that how valuable my experiences are for them to grasp the details of being an ICS volunteer. Of course there is a plus, and it is reminiscing my feelings when I was  a participant like them. I wonder how I looked like or how I reacted to the activities we had. Hahaha.

And this batch, is a bunch of another full-spirited young people gathered from different backgounds. I've got high hopes for them being the first batch to be deployed in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija which will be focusing on Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM). For this team, I give my best of luck and a successful cycle ahead!

SPW: With the Carood Girls

I wasn't able to do a story about this due to the fact that I don't feel like writing. But I regret that I didn’t write about it right after it was done because the feeling of happiness and accomplishment would have been overflowing so I could've written a story better than this. Well, since it's been weeks now I think I'll just try to remember the things that happened and what we felt about it.

Strategic planning workshop is one of our deliverables. The plan was actually from our VPS which is part of her action project after having visited Nepal for a month as an observer. She was tasked to apply those things that she have learned and so she come up with the strategic planning workshop. She vaguely mentioned to us the purpose of the workshop but I believe that it is for strengthening the Union of Carood Youth Organization (UCYO). The key outputs of the workshop are a crafted Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives (VMGO); Constitutional by Laws; and Action Plan. I'm not gonna mention the process how we come up with those outputs since it can be quite technical. Anyway, it was quite a blow to us having a really bad weather, few participants than expected, and a facilitator who wasn't able to come due to miscommunication. Those were the unexpected things actually but we still went on hoping for it to be successful.

I thought that it could be a very messed up workshop considering the problems that we had. Yet it turned out that our participants were able to appreciate our efforts during the evaluation. I've also known few people in my place which I'm not familiar with. See how anti-social I am that even  people living meters away from our house are unknown to me. Maybe this is an implication of my lack of effort to be an active youth in our place I should've participated in lots of youth activities and organization. The workshop just made me realize that it is a lot of fun being with the people my age.

In the end, we went home really satisfied. I just hope that we should have done activities like this more than once. Well, there could be a next time for them of course but it will be with the another set of volunteers. 

Coastal Clean-up (CAD)

We had a packed schedule last weekend, aside from doing the GCD on Eskaya Tribe we also had a Coastal Clean-up in Guindulman as one of our Community Action Day (CAD). 

We organized a talk about environment and Solid Waste Management to the local people. While adults were listening to the speaker, some of us also facilitated fun and games involving small kids. I enjoyed being with the kids and playing with them. Bet they enjoyed the whole activity too. :D