on work and vocation

one of the beauties of our local language is how descriptive and deep it can be. take the tagalog translation for "work" for instance.

"work" can be translated into "trabaho" which connotes its being menial and burdensome.

then there is "hanapbuhay" (ha-nap-boo-high) which could literally be translated as "looking (hanap) for life (buhay)." in this translation, "work" is more sustaining... it gives you life, not the means to live, but LIFE. otherwise, it should have been termed as "hanap-pera" (looking for money).

and there lies all the difference in why people work. some do it as a means to put food on the table, pay the bills and sustain a lifestyle. then there are those who answer God's call to work as He as mapped it out in the Book of Life that He Himself authored. these people who work with the passion to serve not only get the food on the table and pay the bills, they gain the peace in knowing that they are doing what the Lord put them on this earth to do. the pay may not be great (it may not even exist - ask the homemakers), but these are the people who both LIVE life and GIVE life.

so, nagta-trabaho ka lang ba o naghahanapbuhay? (which work do you do?)

because it's there

pinoys on top of the world, literally!

i'm so proud.

ninang: "look, miguel! that's the philippine flag on mt. everest, the tallest mountain in the world!"

miguel: "yey! the philippines owns mt. everest!"

well, for a few moments, yes. :)

gone

it's official. summer's over... for me, at least.

i went back to work last may 4 straight from precamp in cavite. it took me about 3 days to get used to the 7 am wake-up routine, and an additional 2 more to make sense of why i was back in school in may. the school is very, well... blue. they've repainted the walls a lighter shade of baby blue, and what seems to be every door, a darker shade. at least it isn't pink!
i know summer's over because now i can't attend 4 pm meetings in makati anymore, or even 2 pm meetings for that matter.

i know summer's over because i couldn't make the roadtrip last wednesday or do a "far-away-quick" to baguio with ree last weekend.

i know summer's over because my flip-flops are making less and less of an appearance in my wardrobe

sad thing is, i still don't have my UP clearance, i haven't read a book, i haven't cooked (period), didn't get to play with mama aly or mae, and i only swam twice this whole summer. but i did get spend summer with kids and i'm quite fulfilled with the camps, plus the rain's here... and that's a good thing.

i need more spontaneity!

should I worry? oh no! i'm scaring myself! hahaha!

You Are 30% Weird

Not enough to scare other people... But sometimes you scare yourself.

How Weird Are You?

cisv curio

ever try using a colombian's laptop? well, i did this summer (i also used a japanese and indonesian's).

it took a while to get used to the shortcut keys. in colombia, bold is NEGRITA and italics is CURSIVA, thus CTRL N and CTRL K, respectively. it couldn't be CTRL C because that was for COPIAR (copy).

mangoes in japan are $3 a piece. goodness gracious! needless to say, they were in mango heaven for the duration of their stay here.

an indonesian (actually, she's a filiipina who married an indonesian) also brought a pack of coffee candy, with milk in the middle. it's name was "copi susu." hahaha! while we're at it, i also found out that the word "sulit" in inodonesian means "difficult." hmmm... i can easily live up to my name in indonesia!

bgy. kapatid

our precamp photo.

nine delegations to nine different villages around the world

(ten if you include our own camp in Manila).

have a GREAT village, everyone! carry the Pinoy pride!

mabuhay ang barangay!

thanks to tita tessa for the great photo!

entrapment!

i consider joining cisv as one of the better decisions i've made. because of cisv, i now have friends all over the world and there is hope for world peace. yes, we're striving to make "world peace" more than a beauty pageant answer.

so, when the opportunity to staff the local village came, i jumped right on it! i was so set on staffing that i even declined a much-coveted offer to lead an outgoing delegation to brazil. being offered the position of assistant camp director was a nice touch, too! aaaah! but there was a catch...

on the day we in the advanced party drove to the campsite, the camp director tells me that her company won the bid they've been working so hard for... which meant that she had to report to work asap... which meant that she could not take a leave for the next six months... which meant that i was the new camp director... not just for the precamp but for the international village in july as well?!?! NOOOOOOOO! is it too late to be the leader for brazil?

fine! leave me with newbie leaders that needed training... leave me with a handicapped staff (one was down with a measles-like virus)... leave me with a bus-load of kids for 4 days, why don't you? and she did. *sigh*

well, precamp's all done and i survived the 5 days (one day was just for leaders). i can't say i'm unscathed though... neither were the kids (one kid burned her skirt in the open day presentation, but she's okay). some leaders thanked me for giving them a slice of village life and for teaching them so much. the kids said that they learned a lot and had lots of fun; a couple even cried at the thought that it was all over. awwww... so i guess i did a pretty good job... for now. i guess i'm back to weekly planning meetings for july's village. but i'll start that all next week. right now, i'm just glad to see my bed and not live out of a duffle bag finally.

to tita cel, you were heaven-sent! thanks for the 3 am post-shower conversations! in a weird way, i'm going to miss them.