Mhai-mhai

I fear death. But I think she does too, that's why she's given that quick accident to not feel that much pain.

I'm afraid of funerals, I don't usually go to one because it makes me feel depressed and think of my own death. But that day was my first time to be told that someone I knew and close to me died. I can't completely understand my feelings - I was confused of whether to cry, feel shock  and stay calm. That was my first time to feel that.

It was all so sudden.

Mhai, you surprised me. I completely don't know what to say. My mind speaks a lot about it but I just couldn't grieve too much. Because a part of me says of letting go. And, all of us have to let you go.

Philippine TV has a lot of things to say, but for us - you are that simple and sweet Mhai-mhai that will always be remembered. Rest well my friend, your long travel has just started.

What's on my desktop

Yeah I miss them! So to always remember their faces I put them on my desktop. :D VSO-ICS team VI021 definitely made an impact in my life- and I'm glad it did. For if I wasn't a part of it, I might still be closing all the doors of opportunities that come knocking on my way. :D

Relief Goods collection with VSO-ICS Team VI082

I've said that I have been helping out with relief operations starting in Ubay. So when I was invited to help out with the current team's Mini-CAD which is a house-to-house collection of relief goods, I didn't hesitate to say yes. This time I helped out as a Returned Volunteer (RV).

I was with Fidel, an RV from the cycle before us. The team never made us feel awkward towards them that we were able to fit in well. Some of them were curious about certain things so some of them asked me of how my volunteering went. While waiting for the dumptruck, we also played the "Indian War Sign", a game where you need to create your own sign and pass it on to another by doing their sign. That was a bit hilarious since some volunteers did funny signs that I was no way of considering doing. Because of this, I didn't win. (Sorry RVs I turned you down) hahaha

I hopped on the front seat as soon as the truck came, and after the bumpy ride we were later dropped off in Brgy. San Isidro, Pilar. Per groups, we were assigned in certain areas by the CAD committee. We started off collecting right away and in our first stop-- we were given half sack of rice.  We went on each houses, gathering different types of donations-- money, rice, canned goods, noodles, and clothes. I saw how generous my fellow Boholanos are, even the place has been affected by the earthquake too, they still have a heart and kindness to share what they have to people largely affected.

We assembled before one o' clock putting everything we have collected. And as the rain poured down while eating our lunch, it didn't bother us as we were more delighted with what we have gathered.

After our relief collection, we did the packing at Pilar, LGU. Everyone helped out that we finished earlier. (With all our hands put together, relief goods were too little for us for packing, like in a snap! Its done!).

Photo taken from Twiggy Gatuteo' Facebook Account

I'm soo happy to be with everyone and looking forward to participating in more activities this team will organize. :D Ajja!

Goodbye to youth groups!

 (Late Post)

Had our last meeting with the youth groups today. I enjoyed working with them. Seeing their very enthusiastic faces makes me feel happy inside. But I don't know if my workmates appreciate their company. So sad we've never been of much use to them when they are so active in everything and just needed guidance to walk them through it.

Goodbye pose.. 

Our last habal-habal ride.. :D

We could've done more, you know. I could see a lot of opportunities in my mind which entails a lot of work of course but a satisfying outcome in the end. But I don't think my work mates see the same way I do. Cause every time suggestion for activities are made it is turned down. For me, maybe it is not a matter of questioning what we need to do when we can do something more like going the extra mile. Which we can do actually cause we've got ample time to do activities. But once a person gives no interest and the other person agrees to it, I can't do it on my own without someone's support.

Attitudes (Reflection)

(Late Post )

New people, new challenges. I consider these as the main theme of my volunteering. Though I'm towards the end of the cycle I'm still puzzled about how my co-volunteers think of things so differently. They are way beyond what other people like me might think, do and deliver.

It amazes me when they sometimes comment about certain things like being advised about things they do which is not good for the team. It's good that they practice voicing out their thoughts and criticisms but in my own point of view, those kinds of advice are understandable and not need to be taken offense of. Maybe the issue is about how you assess yourself or maybe highly accomplished people are harder to humble themselves down.

I just realized that I'm an average person and I am happy with that. At least, I'm able to balance things and deal with people in good ways.

Team Sharing

(Late Post- Volunteering Experience)

Monday was team meeting day. Sometimes I hate the sharing part for normally I would prefer not to speak and just listen to what everyone's gonna say. But didn't I say I want to gain confidence to speak in my personal goal? Which means pushing my self more to appreciate team sharing.

I've never been good at opening up to people I've never been for a very long time (I mean for years) so  I tend to keep the grudge and problems to myself. But the best thing about this programme is being able to identify your own weaknesses and being able to face it. So let all the fears set aside and voice out everything worth saying. And I did it. Getting a long with British people is getting better than I thought. :D

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. 

A day with the VPS

I'm a very thrifty person so highclass and expensive restaurants are not my type unless someone who is generous enough will take me to eat in those kind of places.

When we were in Tagbilaran to buy stuff for the strategic planning, me and our VPS stopped by a restaurant in ICM mall to eat. I was really hesitant at first and kept on saying I wouldn't eat on my own in this kind of place. But she paid my lunch which was so much relieving.

We went to this Bee Farm Restaurant were all foods are served with honey in it. They use honey as an ingredient to everything. They also have this cookies with honey (which I wasn't able to try unfortunately). I had the chicken-honey glazed which was really delicious (wasn't able to take a picure of it :( ). And for dessert I ordered "Halo-halo" in durian ice cream flavor. That was a really large bowl of Halo-halo that eating it all was really hard for me so I ended up with left-overs. There were a lot of ice cream flavors you can choose from but the unique ones for me were durian and ginger. Probably, I'll try the ginger flavor when I get back.

This was a free food courtesy of the restaurant.. the cream on the side was really good.. :D

Well then, eating in expensive restaurants is nice sometimes. I might consider eating to some places I've never been. :D

GCD on Eskaya

We did a Global Citizenship Day for the Eskaya Tribe last week. This was organized by Pilar volunteers fitting it to the celebration of World Indigenous Day for the month of August.

We head off to Pilar early in the morning and had a bumpy dump truck ride to Lundag where the Eskaya tribe resides. They were not an uncivilized tribe wearing their cultural dresses which you might first think they are but a tribe already influenced by modernization and acquire the same privileges from our government.

The GCD gave us a chance to know their culture, history and language. And at the same time for them to know the UK culture. There was a long exchange of thoughts regarding the practice of divorce in the UK, the process of courtship in the Eskaya tribe and religious beliefs. The exchange of cultural information has lead them to understand each others differences.

I'm glad enough to be given a chance to be the translator. It wasn't really an easy task but I hope I delivered the message in the same context to people and to my co-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

CAD Success!

Community Action Day (CAD) is one of the highlights of the VSO ICS programme. For the past weeks, we have been planning our CAD, been busy giving the letters, meeting youth groups, scouting for participants for Carood Got Talent, and making sessions for the workshop. When the day before the event came, everyone has been occupied with printing sessions, schedules and posters; making backdrops; preparing the venue; finalizing contestants, and making last minute calls to youth groups and transportation. You can't see anyone not doing anything since all have been working onto something and been going back and forth from here to there.

 

This was us making ourselves busy the day before the CAD

I'm happy enough to be given tasks that I can handle. Especially riding shotgun on a dump truck despite the heavy rain. Nevertheless, have I been expecting that youth groups will still feel ecstatic with the bad weather. But they kept the fire burning for me and as one of the organizer that means a lot. My session together with a British volunteer might not sound that interesting but we were happy enough to see their happy faces. I also found that evaluation forms are the most entertaining thing to read when you are tired. (funny comments are a must read!)

Participants of our session- doing an activity!

I faciliated a session during the CAD too which is the "Recruitment and Retention of Members". Which is an added point for myself----- still have a long way to go for self development. :D

Our Youths from Mabini- posing before going home :D

So beside entertaining everyone with our Gentleman Dance, ( yeah, completely making fool out of ourselves which was really fun BTW) we ended the CAD well. We have made a day for everyone to remember.

We did a great job

It was weeks of preparation and making sure that everything is in place. That was my MPR committee experience. I have been to planning and organizing events before but this one was probably the most systematic and smooth event that I have ever organized due to the fact that little changes have been made.

At first I honestly felt that I have chosen a wrong committee for myself but it turned out that it gave me a lot of things to learn and improve-from haggling to being really keen in terms of services and needs. Personality wise, my thriftiness have contributed much to achieve everything within our budget. So much credit for my negotiation skills by doing a lot of haggling to people just so to have cheaper costs. :D For being keen to detail, Maybe I'm the person who accepts whatever offer people have for me. That's the downside of being kind and nice to people I guess since I can no longer distinguish when will things go wrong. Or maybe I just hate complaints. But being with people who are really OC with every detail, I have seen that the things I thought would be fine aren't that perfect at all. They have shown me that there are far more things I need to consider which I failed to do so.

MPR Committee

The end of the MPR was the time I realized that my contribution have made a great impact to our committee's success. Although it is not completely perfect, positive feedback from our co-volunteers gave us more reason to acknowledge our effort in making things organized and fun for them.  

My Co-volunteer's Birthday

This is my first time celebrating a birthday cross-culturally and it was not largely different than what we Filipinos are used to. Well, different or not I had fun anyway. :D

I was just glad that everybody was really into Karaoke. We actually had a chance to listen to our Brits volunteer's voices. Though most of them were not used to it, they'd actually participated actively to get along with us.

I had been to thinking that what a typical foreign teenager do is far different from what we Filipino do. But now that I have experienced living and working with them regardless of industrialization and innovation, in some ways  we do, think, act, laugh, and sing in common. That was the better part of it, beyond differences there is unison in each one of us. :D 

Volunteers on the Beach Yeah!

Did I say that I hate beach? Well I might not have said it but I'm not totally a beach- hater it is just that I'm not a beach buddy that you can hang out with. I am a bit boring when it comes to that so I woudn't probably sell out myself to people who are craving for the beach.

BTW, We've been to Anda beach resort weeks ago and I had fun with everyone. 

Photo Credit: vsobohol2013.tumblr.com

Well, this is everyone of us including the Supervisors posing before going home. :D

Volunteer journey: The start of it

The opportunity of being a part of a volunteering programme came as a surprise. The moment I sent my application, I never expected to get an immediate reply from them. Deep in my heart, I have always wanted to be part of the program not just to practice what I have learned from my degree but also to deal with the things I'm scared of within my self.

So the assessment came and I'm grateful that I got selected. I processed the requirements and days went by for the In-Country Orientation. British counterparts came, and we got to meet them. But one thing that I was really greatful about is meeting co-batchmates in college whom I can talk to most of the time. Unfortunately, they need to leave after serving as Returned Volunteers (RVs). Their journey just ended and I am just about to start with mine. 

And now, I'm currently working with my new friends. I have been adjusting and acquiring a lot of new knowledge from them. :D More stories about my volunteering will be posted soon. (Well, I have posted already about the MPR so..it goes on and on)

This is where we stayed for one week training and orientation. Had a great time and fun together with the other volunteers as we are still on the stage of getting to-know-each-other.

Originally, this was the room where girls are supposed to stay. I was the first one to arrive in Crab House and happened to stay for a while in this room before being transferred to the Dorm type. (Strictly no bed-sharing policy)

The pathway that goes to the room I mentioned above. Used to stay here on the couch (which is not shown in the picture) to access the wifi. :D 

Just taking a picture upon arrival. This is when all the Returned Volunteers were out of the room. Lucky enough not to be caught by them. hahahahaha

So, this was the dorm type I was talking about. Got transferred here after all Filipino Volunteers arrived. Thankful enough that it was so cozy. 

Our picture while eating. Managed to take a picture together with co-volunteers through a waiter's kindness. :D

MPR on site visit

As part of the MPR committee, I visited the venues that I canvassed in Panglao. I wasn't alone I had the whole committee with me that was Aprille and James together with Piso, our supervisor.

It was considered as an official business which means we had no time to visit some beautiful sites, buy some stuff and have fun. That was what I thought at least for the first few hours. :D

We are suppose to commute, which I had decided actually since it is cheaper, however due to time constraints we ended up hiring a taxi anyway. It was a bit of fuss though when the driver made as pay for the fare when we hadn't even gone to the place we are suppose to go.  Just to settle everything we paid the fare , which is 8.00 Php for each one of us by the way.

First stop. Bohol Coco Farm, Libaong Panglao Bohol. This was the cheapest bargain that I had due to the help of a friend of mine. He helped me a lot in negotiating. It was even lowered down after they happen to see the rest of the canvass I did ( which I'm not meant showing). But it served us a good deal. Rooms were not really extravagant but appropriate enough for two nights stay. All food are organic and we were even accommodated with a lemon grass juice to quench our thirst. It was a bit of a "nah" cause we have expected to see more of the place but everything was provided though, and it was a good place for MPR considering all other matters excluding the room.

We managed to take a look into their coconut-made menu. Kinda creative.

Bohol Coco Farm Menu

 So this is where we gonna have the MPR sessions. Really spacious and comfortable provided with a sound system.

 Coconut made products for display. Basicallly the farm promotes the use of coconut. And this one, is just one of the examples of it.

Coconut Decor. They have a specialized coconut puncher to make those holes.

The viewdeck. This is my favorite area of the farm.  Probably, because eating will be here. :D

View deck

Tried the coco sky walk. Which was really fun.

The bridge was shaking but the owner said it was safe and can hold at least 10 people. Glad I tried

 it!

 Second stop. Chiisai Natsu Resort, Brgy. Tawala, Panglao, Bohol. This was a really nice resort to begin with after having seen its pictures online.  It is a Japanese inspired resort which I really liked. A swimming pool is surrounded by the rooms. But the downside of it is- not ideal for our MPR. Vegetarian food option is not available and the activity area won't accommodate us all. Hmmmpf, next time maybe!

Nice CR.

Swimming pool in the middle is really enticing!!!

Better check the rules before plunging in.

Single Beds.

We came by for lunch at Oasis Resort at Alona Beach. Food was really expensive and I was lucky enough to get a free lunch. Who said that we are only on official business?? We actually had a really nice lunch, a good chit-chat and a walk on the sand. All of these with pictures of course. Cannot leave my camera in times like this. Better prepared than not. All things were caught in action. :D

This is what I ate. It was kind of a chicken-burger, but honestly there was a lot of adjective on it that I only remembered those two words. :D I don't know the names of the rest of the food except for Greek Salad. :D

My company ordered the greek salad and tried the olives (green and black ones) for the first time. That was the weirdest taste I've ever had. But I'm glad that I tried it, at least I'm no longer ignorant with it. :D

Greek Salad

Well back to business. After our "really" heavy lunch we made our last stop for our on site visit at Villa del Pueblo. This was the same with Chiisai Natsu only that it is bigger and spacious to conduct our activity in. But basic things were not provided for the activity area plus no catering for lunch, dinner and snacks. This resort was crossed.

I never expected a whole day of risk assessing the venues. We are too exhausted to get off the car in front of ICM. But for the sum up, it was a fun official business with our supervisor, being not fully official. :D

Emma did a braid on me

After work, is the most relieving part. We hadn't done anything productive for the day so I went straight home.

Emma has been practicing her weaving skills in making bracelets which is really fascinating. She made me choose some colors the other night so she can make one for me.  (But I guess I need to wait before it is done, since it takes time to make one). Well, for the meantime she tried to do a braid with my hair using yarn. I had misunderstood what she meant by braid though. She has done like a strand of hair covered with yarn. We don't actually do it here, but Emma said that they usually do it during holidays.

This is how it looked like.
 Still had it the morning after. :D

Braid in the Philippines is actually the criss-cross kind of hair weaving. But in UK this kind of hair weaving is called French Plait. That's a good knowledge, at least now, I know the difference. :D

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PS.

One thing I have known. Smiling always in UK will make them think you are crazy. It is funny though cause we Filipinos tend to smile to strangers without meaning to. It's a kind of acknowledging your presence and being friendly to other people. Or in some cases, a sign of greeting instead of saying something.