I'm H.O.M.!

Yesterday I attended the orientation to finally become a part of the organization Hands On Manila. I've been meaning and longing to be a volunteer ever since.. if I'm correct, Ondoy days. I can still remember, back then I wanted to become a Red Cross volunteer, so that when there are disasters like that, I can help and contribute to something instead of simply watching the news doing nothing. I've been yearning for some sort of service and I don't know where it came from exactly, but I am not questioning it. I'm simply glad I have this drive to be able to help in one way or another.

For this particular organization, before they actually let volunteers participate, they have to undergo the process of orientation wherein they brief you on what it's all about, what it aims to do and how to go about it. Its like the discussion of the FAQs for their organization which was very helpful. I now have an idea on their various activities and help out in any of them, in whatever way I can and when I am available. Its so convenient since most of their volunteers are yuppies like me, they made sure that it's only fitting since their schedules must be crazy.

I am so excited to actually get deployed, but I know this excitement is a novelty for now. I want to do a lot in my head right now, but I plan to take it one activity at a time. I'm contemplating on the Mentoring activity which will involve 5 consecutive Saturdays, the Breakfast Club wherein you share breakfast with street children or the Saturday Academy, all of which are easily doable and very interesting.

If you wanna know more about this organization, please check www.handsonmanila.org.

All I need : My Very Own Happy Place

The school's team building was held in a fabulous beach house in LAIYA Batangas. Seriously, I thought it had the best beach that's only a road trip away.. based on the reviews I hear about this place. But were we surprised when we got there. It wasn't the BEST beach, but the place we stayed at, was absolute perfection.

It is literally my dream to own a house that's right by the beach front. Seriously. But I know that it's something I can live without. But this place is really impressive, the theme of the house and it follows through to the tiniest detail as the shell lights in the porch area. The image is embedded in my head like a happy place I need to think about whenever I feel bad vibes.

The paintings all around the house, the shells on the wall, the submarine type windows and the list goes on and on. This house for me was perfect. I shot some of these minute but very cute details of the house.








If only I could stay there longer, I would. But the novelty of being in a place like this with only limited time is part of the fun. I just wish when we need to get away yet again, we can crash and lie around on the beach.

A Tiny Step Towards Free Education

For my birthday, I decided to do something. Something concrete and out of the ordinary. Yes there was a time my family threw a party for underprivileged children and many people have done that just the same. This year I want something more than temporary happiness, temporary smiles. I thought since other people are doing their fair share of contributing to temporary happiness, I want now to focus on contributing to long-term growth and development. This may lead to lifelong achievement and contentment, thus happiness.

Thanks to the help of a parent that I've met the past school year. She hooked me up with an organization that I can help. I want my experience not only to be memorable for me, but also for the children who are to benefit in this effort that I am pushing for.

My plan is to donate new story books in a community that can be of help to the children who are not able to go to school because of lack of funds. They should not suffer being uneducated because their life is tough. The government is responsible to educate the children of the nation and since they are doing a suck-y job, I think I can do something to be able to lessen the possibility that they will grow up uneducated.

Through this books, at this early age, they can jump start their literacy.Of course we cannot rely on that alone, but we need to guide them to internalize the stories in the books that they will be reading. And to maximize this, I want to push for literacy-based curriculum. Me and my friend Kim did a report on it last term. Its a kind of curriculum that is centered on story books. In the story, the teacher can infuse concepts such as vocabulary, math, social studies etc. This can help children broaden their horizon, to think in a much larger perspective than when it's done in the traditional classroom. I am really hoping that this way, we can develop children to be inquisitive and broad minded. This is the kind of children we need for the next generation. To be able to help them become what they should be in the future, there is no better time to start than now.

If you want to help me on this project, feel free to post a comment and we'll talk. :)

Babe I Love You

I just watched this movie starring Sam Milby and Anne Curtis.

Yes. I am quite a sucker for Filipino love stories. I don't know why since I am not a fan of local television shows. I just watch cable and news in the local networks. Other than that, you cannot catch me watching T.V., if not for my DVD series addiction.

There's this part where Nico (Milby) was doing his closing speech, where he narrated all his learning from his experiences in the whole movie, it goes:

"Everything has its time, nothing monumental is created in a blink of an eye. Architecture is just like real life, there's a place, reason and time for everything. But in the end, you're the one who puts everything together. You decide what fits. It's all up to you."

It's just so wise. I mean it really talks to you, whatever you may be encountering at this very moment. It can be the same or different from what other people are going through but it can still make sense. I love simple realizations like that. We don't really have to look for something big, but something rather small and often unnoticed can be really valuable sometimes.