Weekend Stuff

Despite the political happenings these past three days, I still managed a great weekend. It’s probably because I decided to show my love for my country in a different way while still being able to move on with my life…..

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It’s one of those days when you actually hate the rallies going on in Makati because it falls on a Friday night. The result – your gimmicks get cancelled just to be on the safe side. Since most of my chapter mates were asked to go home early because of the declaration of ’state of emergency’, we just attended this ‘Drink and Dance for a cause’ spearheaded by our parish. Initially, I just liked the ‘drink’ part because the dancing apparently involved DIs (Dance Instructors). I’m definitely not the ballroom type of guy.

But you know what, at the end of the day, we actually enjoyed attending. It was probably the first time I’ve seen female DIs since most people who get into ballroom are ultra-old women. So us guys had a interestingly entertaining time. The female DIs are probably the same age as ours so it wasn’t really that eeky. The unlimited drinks also helped a lot. In the end, the night was amusing. This just proves to me more that the company we keep is more important than the places we go to in terms of enjoyment. Also, that “life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

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The thing about being in the GK News Bureau is that you become a Sector property and your service cannot be exclusively for your chapter. I was only supposed to stay in the GK site assigned to my chapter for the GK 1MB celebration but the better part of me took over. I wanted to visit every GK site in our sector and so I did. All of them had activities lined up as the work of nation-building was once again prevalent. More of these in the articles we are creating for the 1MB celebration (I’m sure it will be quite long so I am deferring it.) After the site visits, I went to Ryan’s place to be with my chapter (at last!) for lunch. We took a nap and then went to Quezon City circle for the national celebration.

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The good thing about friendship is that you can have as many as you can handle. I’ve added a couple of great comrades in my circle.

Midway through Cueshe’s performance in the 1MB celebration my buddies, PA, JM and I took off and didn’t even wait for Bamboo’s performance. We bought all the things we need for the overnight session at my place. We were able to grab all the things we needed except for ice. Good thing Ryan is also coming with us but was still left at QC Circle. I asked him to buy some for us so that when he arrived, the good times rolled! We talked about a lot things and I mean a lot without leaving any reservations behind. It’s true what they say – great minds think alike! ;p

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The following day, I attended the birthday of another buddy, JB. It was not just your ordinary birthday since he decided to celebrate it in the company of the SAGIP and SIBOL kids of their chapter’s Gawad Kalinga site in San Andres. It was very heartening since I plan to do that as well. Too bad his birthday came first so mine would just look like an imitation of what he did. Hehe. I don’t care. As long as the other kids (because my chapter is assigned to another GK site) can benefit from it, then I’m fine. His celebration is inspiring because what he did proved to me that it can be done. (I think this deserves another article. I hope I get the time.) Sometimes, we just need to know that something hard can be done for us to actually do it.

Humble Follower

EastA1B just had their first GMT last night. The talk was simple but meaningful. I was asked to provide copies of this song as ‘props’ for the topic. Sure, I’ve seen this many times. But while printing copies, something in me yesterday looked at the lyrics line by line. I was a bit inspired so I looked for an mp3 copy of this song. After the GMT, I found more meaning in what it is trying to say. Here are the lyrics:

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Leader of the Band
- Dan Fogelberg -

An only child alone and wild
A cabinet maker’s son
His hands were meant for different work
And his heart was known to none
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a giftI know I never can repay

A quiet man of music
Denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once
But his music wouldn’t wait
He earned his love thru’ discipline
A thundering velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand

The leader of the band
Is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs thru’ my instrument
And his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I’m just a living legacy
To the leader of the band

My brother’s lives were different
For they heard another call
One went to Chicago and the other to St. Paul
And I’m in Colorado
When I’m not in some hotel
Living out this life
I’ve choseAnd come to know so well

I thank you for the music
And your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom
When it came my time to go
I thank you for the kindness
And the times when you got tough
And papa I don’t think I said
“I love you” near enough

The leader of the band
Is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs thru’ my instrument
And his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I’m just a living legacy
To the leader of the band
I am the living legacy
To the leader of the band
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Yep, my life has been a poor attempt to imitate THE MAN. I’m just a living legacy to the leader of the band…..

Boozed-up

I arrived at the office at 9am with a slight headache. Sure, I didn’t get enough sleep but that was not something abnormal in my routine. Besides, lack of sleep does not really cause headaches for me. So I thought, “What could have been the reason of this headache?” Then I got it – I was boozed-up!

It was a ‘por-da-boys’ weekend for me. I have been drinking for the past 3 days and although I do not consider myself as being OLD, I also acknowledge that I am not as young as I use to be (*tear*tear*). Hence, the headache. Hehe. Here’s the rundown along with some side stories:

Friday:
My good friend and brother in service, JM, and I had a 1-on-1 at Sidebar Cafe in El Pueblo (or is it St. Francis square? I always get that confused). Part of SFC culture is this thing called 1-on-1. It is when we are given an opportunity to talk about anything and everything under the sun, including personal matters. This usually happens between heads and their members. The point is just to check how the member is doing or if there are some things that he/she wants to communicate outside the confides of the household group. There are also instances, like in ours, that we just want to talk and bond. And bond you will. These 1-on-1 meetings have that confidentiality clause, much like in a household group, that whatever is shared and discussed by the people involved will not be divulged to anybody else. See how that bonds people? Hehe.

Anyway, our 1-on1 was a blast! JM and I mostly talk about SFC service when we meet in community gatherings so this is a good time to talk about the ‘other things’ (Sorry, that’s the only thing I can share). Oh and did I mention that after a long drought, I was able to drink Super Dry again! Wohooo!!!! Super Dry is my brand and it’s harder to find them now since everybody has gone Light or Strong Ice. Sorry, but I still like my Super Dry more than any other newer brands.

Saturday:
After the meeting in GK San Andres for the 1MB super event, JM (again) and I went to Rica’s birthday bash. The drinks here were on the finer side of the spectrum. We drank red and white wine up to the last drop. It was another bonding experience for the chapter as I introduce JM to all his potential GGs from my chapter. Hehe.

Sunday:
After the speakers training, PA, Gian, JM (again) and I went out to eat dinner and had laughter-filled conversations. These guys are hilarious on their own and all us combined is lethal and harmful. Haha! As we finish our dinner, my confidant, Jonas , invited me to celebrate his mom’s birthday. So after my dinner, Nat and I went to this small place with a relaxed atmosphere called M-Vic and had some very interesting discussions. I had to contend with the Light and Strong Ice brands this time since they don’t have my Super Dry.

So in the end, I have a headache as a result of all my conversations (yeah right!) Plus, I got sick and tired of JM’s face since I was with him for almost whole days for the past 3 days (Haha! Just kidding bro!) You are one cool dude! It was actually great forming good friendships with these two-letter-nickname-guys. We are becoming closer friends and better brothers in this community (issues and all! Haha!)

(Is it just me or do I sound drunk writing this post?! ;p )

Do I look like Rainier Castillo?

Our team had a hilarious and delightful Valentines Day celebration! All the portals (this is the collective name of our big team under one senior manager) boys and all the portals girls ganged up together to pull out a surprise for each other. Usually, I would not know about this because it was supposed to be a surprise. But I am part of the team building organizers so I knew.

For the guys, we bought this nice looking small cake with some red, pink and white icing and a tiny heart-shaped card. Every girl in the team gets a cake with this dedication:

To (Girl’s name)

HVD 143!

From the boys of Portals

Nice right?! It was sweet and simple. But given that girls are generally more creative, their surprise was better (sorry guys). Actually, it was hilarious! They prepared a video presentation showing who resembled whom. It can be anyone as long as he is known. And they did it for all of us! I can only imaging the effort given that I think there are 40 guys in the team. The comparisons were so entertaining! There was the look alike of Happy Potter, Shrek, Oprah Winfrey, Rico Yan, Bojo Molina, Manny Pacquiao, Dennis Padilla, Vaness Wu (Hehe, Ronald!), Ogie Alcasid (Carlooos!), Franzen of PBB (Kakosang Sean!), Onemig Bondoc, Magic Johnson, Tweety Bird etc etc. The list goes on and on. As for me, they said I look like Rainier Castillo, and then they showed a picture of me during my longer hair days last December side-by-side with Rainier’s photo. I don’t really see the resemblance, but hey, that was fun!

After the presentation, the girls brought out these red balloons and explained that each balloon had a message inside it. We needed to pop them to know what it was. Then balloons started popping simultaneously. It was quite exciting to see what’s inside.

Inside was a personalized description or message of the recipient of the balloon from the girls. Here’s what they had for me:

TA [my surname]

“God’s Gift”

He is sweet and charming and you can count on him to answer any “Search” questions. He makes insightful blog entries. He used to be the “Other half” of Carlos but now he’s looking for his GG. Well, we can think that this will be soon because we are sure that any girl would be lucky to have TA as her GG as well.

The event ended with Pizza Hut and Pepsi for all the February birthday celebrants in our team. It was an amusing event and all of us ended up being unproductive at work for about two hours. Nice one, you girls!

ILC

How do you start writing a post about a three-day experience where every moment is bombarded with stories and details?! You can’t! This is nosebleed for me. Writing a detailed, coherent and presentable post about my experience in the Singles for Christ International Leaders Conference is impossible! So anyway, I’ll just type away and try to generalize the whole thing without looking back. Hopefully I’ll make sense.

1. I was asleep the whole trip going there because I decided not to sleep the night before. I had to finish up a lot of things in the office because I was on leave the following day. I came home at 12:30AM and decided not to sleep anymore since I haven’t packed my things yet and that we were meeting at 3am anyway.
2. It was the biggest SFC ILC ever with over 6,200 people in delegation.
3. We were there in the athletic bowl auditorium on an 8 degrees Celsius temperature.
4. There were 16 of us in the chapter who went to Baguio.
5. We had a great bonding experience. I felt that the conference really solidified the relationship that we have as a group.
6. Contributor to this is our decision to arrange our own transportation and accommodation instead of taking the chartered bus and teacher’s camp reservations. We brought a van and an FX going there and the house we stayed in was great.
7. We took tons and tons of pictures!
8. Friday night was an affirmation night. It was very reassuring to see everyone thank everyone else for all their service to the community.
9. The Saturday morning session was a ‘light bulb’ experience for me.
10. Confession was very healing.
11. The Saturday night session was ultra-inspiring. The talk-giver gave me so many insights that I didn’t know where to put it in my head. Hehe.
12. The Saturday night party was fun. At last, we were able to warm up those cold muscles.
13. Rica’s birthday was sweet. She decided to spend it away from her family to be in the conference. On Sunday midnight, all of us guys went out of our room carrying this Mister Donut cake-like product with a burning stick of bond paper that served as candle then sang an out-of-tune Happy Birthday song. It was stupid but sweet.
14. The Sunday morning session was reassuring. We were tasked to start a ‘Revolution’ and before that we needed to help those that needed healing. It was quite an emotional Sunday morning.
15. We took more and more pictures in the other spots in Baguio.
16. There were so many funny bloopers in the trip and in the house. I could not even start to enumerate them.
17. We had very interesting discussion on the way home with all the ‘energy’ people in the van. Mostly, the discussions were about love – everybody’s favorite topic.
18. It was a spiritual journey for me more than anything else.
19. I’m more OK now than I was before experiencing the whole conference.
20. The best things in life happen to those who wait. God is not through with me because he is still perfecting and purifying me. Wow, what a revelation!

Water Rapids

Last Saturday was the first time I felt wet, from the waist down, for a very long time. Before you get any nasty ideas, I am talking about our team building in Enchanted Kingdom. It was the first major out-of-town trip of our new team since we were formed last month. There’s nothing much to tell really because almost all of us have been to EK. The experiences are more or less the same for most people. Given that, I didn’t have much expectations going there. I knew it will neither be super fun nor extra boring.

But that changed. I’ve ridden the Rio Grande Rapids ride before and naturally my clothes absorbed water here and there. A little patch of water in the shirt and another in the pants. No harm. That was what I expected again from this ride. We got in line, waited for 1.5 hours (there were lots of field trip that day so all lines were long), then got in to that round floating object with seats. I was moderately excited that after a long wait, it was our turn. Then the ride started. On the first water slope, all hell broke loose on me! There was this big surge of water that came from behind. I can see it coming my way but could not do a single thing because the seat belts were securely fastened. I felt trapped! I could not move! I didn’t know what hit me after that. All I felt was this cold tingling sensation all over my legs. I thought, ‘What the f**k!’ That is too much! I know they wrote in the entrance, ‘Expect to get wet in this ride’ but did it have to be that W-E-T?! Actually I was not wet, I was soaked! There is not a single thread in my pants and shoes that didn’t absorb water. During the ride, I thought, “Oh well, I’m just gonna enjoy the rest of the ride.’ And I did. But it was only after the ride that I felt the effects of the experience. I brought an extra shirt just in case I’d perspire (it’s a whole day thing) but obviously I didn’t bring extra pants just in case I would get soaked! That would be too much preparation (now I know there’s no such thing. Hehe.)

And so there I was. Strolling around Enchanted Kingdom on a breezy night – warm above, cold below. That was definitely a weird feeling. Something I never experienced before. Minute, yes. But nonetheless new. I was suppose to ride the go-cart after Rio Grande but didn’t proceed because I didn’t want the jeans touching my skin (more so sit on it). It was only 6:30PM then and we were scheduled to go home at past 9 (obviously, I wouldn’t want to force everybody to go home because of me). I thought, ‘either this thing is gonna ruin the rest of my day or I would need to be OK with it. I chose to be fine and laugh at the fact that I was uncomfortably wet. I allowed myself to enjoy even if the circumstances are not optimal for it.

I guess my experience in EK is a microcosm of what I am currently experiencing in my life. As the cliché goes, ‘Things happen when we least expect it.’ We need to decide whether we are allowing these unexpected experiences to ruin us or improve us. I decided in favor of the latter choice. So rock on!

Field Trip

Last Saturday, I joined the SAGIP kids in our Gawad Kalinga site for their annual field trip. This is the second time I am doing this so I was better prepared for the event. Last year, I came from a date that ended at 2am and got home at 3am and still had to wake up at 530am to go to the meeting place of the field trip. You could only imagine how sleepy I was at lunch time. I also didn’t know what to expect so I was not able to bring extra shirt. So there I was under the scorching heat of the sun with a shirt so wet that it could no longer absorb my sweat. Yikes!

Anyway, this year I was more rested and well prepared. Aside from me, the guys who volunteered in our chapter were Ryan, Chin, Hazel and my sister Ryzel. I was assigned to accompany the younger kids to visit Villamor Air Base (while the older kids went to Ayala Museum) in the morning. We had lunch somewhere in Quirino Grandstand and rested there for a while. We then proceeded to the Intramuros area where we had a learning session in a fire station there. We entered Fort Santiago afterwards to continue with our tour. We ended the trip with lots of playing in the field inside the Fort Santiago premises.

Honestly, the SAGIP field trip is one SFC service that I really love participating in simply because it involves children. Unlike my sister, I am unable to facilitate on SAGIP sessions every Saturday morning so this becomes the perfect time for me to serve the GK program that is close to my heart. I realized that through this simple event, we are allowing the kids to freely be what they are – kids. There’s this phrase that I picked up somewhere: “Minsan lang sila maging bata.” It’s quite challenging for these kids to be just kids given their backgrounds. Before the works of Gawad Kalinga, these children live in families where there is poverty, violence, child labor, no proper health care and no morality. They are forced to grow up early by their surroundings. Activities like this put them back to just being normal, fun-loving, playful kids. It was such a delight to see them run around and climb up and down a covered tree after our lunch break. Same goes when they started playing ‘agawan base’ or ‘luksong baka’ in the open field of Fort Santiago. Or when the young boys started giggling after they saw a naked sculpture of a woman inside the Rizal museum. Or when a young girl asked her SFC ‘ate’ to stay in the jeep with her because they’ve already become close even just after a short time. These are the often-forgotten, seemingly-regular, priceless moments that we all had as kids that I saw them experience as well. I remember one of the kids that were assigned to me in last year’s field trip in Manila zoo. He was excited to go to the zoo but during the day he became sickly and was not able to fully participate in the tours and games. Just about a month after, he died due to severe heart problems….. I tell you, just to be an instrument of those moments where these children are just allowed to be children is more than a blessing for me.

These are the moments I thank God that I’m alive…..