"Life is no straight and every corridor along
which we travel free and unhampered,
but a maze of passages,
through which we must seek our way,
lost and confused, now and again
checked in a blind alley.
But always, if we have faith,
God will open a door for us,
Not perhaps one that we ourselves
would ever have thought of,
But one that will ultimately
prove good for us."
--- A. J. Cronin
I can still vividly remember Fr. Dan McNamara’s reaction when I told him I have decided to accept the offer to stay in Africa…first words out of his mouth was “why would you want to do that?!” I had my reasons to tell him : that I think this is a great opportunity for me to learn more about my work, the world and myself; that I feel this is a gift which simply landed on my feet oh so effortlessly; that I feel strongly about experiencing life in Africa while I still can; and that this is something I want to cross off my list of 100 Things to do Before I Die.
Those reasons still remain valid until today but Fr. Dan’s question still rings in my mind every now and then. Especially now that I am IN Africa already – sitting in my living room oblivious of the black guy watching music video across me and working on my laptop with the feel of the scorching summer heat of Soroti, Uganda outside.
“Why would you want to do that?”
The question becomes more significant when the bouts of homesickness and loneliness kick in. When I feel the need to retreat to the comforts of city life in Manila after seeing the way of life for people here in Africa. When love ones call up to share some difficulties and all you want is to rush back home and give them some great big hug.
It might not feel like it right now, but this is the place I will be calling home for the next 10 months. At least I hope I last that long J
I made my tearful goodbye to my fiancée, family and friends last April in Manila because I was offered a project being supported by the Norway government. I have officially become an “Overseas Filipino Worker” with the Fredskorpset (Fk) under a project “Peace Communicators Communicating for Peace” and my host organization is Conflict Resolution by Youth (CRY) in Uganda, Africa.
I started the first few hours of year 2007 traveling by myself to north of Luzon. After spending new year’s eve with my family in Manila, my dad brought me to the bus terminal at 4am on the 1st of January so I can also get to spend the first day of the new year with Marco’s family in Baguio. I have no qualms about traveling alone – I do not exactly prefer it but I don’t mind doing it either.
But nearly all my solitary travels have been very challenging this year. The reason? Delayed flights.
Problem #1: I need to change my dollar to Japanese yen and banks might already be closed when we arrive at some ungodly hour in Japan;
Problem # 2: I will definitely miss my bus schedule to Rokko Island in Kobe;
Problem #3: I do not have any way to contact Marco who is already there in Rokko Island waiting for me.
Hence, a very stressful negotiation with Japanese airport employees in Kansai followed as soon as I arrived. I wasn’t gonna let them get away without taking responsibility for my way to Kobe from the airport since I missed the last bus going to Rokko Island and I don’t know any other bus routes to take. Bottomline, I wanted them to pay for my taxi fare (and taxis in Japan cost a fortune, really!). They finally agreed saying they will just reimburse it on my way back. I had to request Marco to pay for it first (I didn’t have any Japanese yen with me!), which cost us about US$220. Whew! PAL did reimburse the taxi expense and upgraded me to Business Class for the flight back to Manila. I guess emailing customer service does pay off after all.
In April, I was off to Bangkok. Flight was delayed again but it suited me on the account that I had to unload some of my stuff from my luggage to minimize the cost of my excess baggage. But man was it stressful!
This May was the biggest challenge so far. I had to stay for 10 hours of sleepless night inside the Suvarnabhumi Airport because my flight going to Ethiopia was, again, delayed. They only decided to bring us to the airport hotel so we can be more comfortable at 8am in the morning. My flight was delayed for almost 24 hours before we finally took off. It was such a relief that I brought one set of clothes in my carry-on luggage!
I still had to wait for another 7 hours inside the Bole International Airport in Ethiopia for my connecting flight to Entebbe, Uganda. It took me about 33 hours to reach Uganda from Bangkok. 33 hours! On the last 2-hour flight from Ethiopia to Uganda, I was already throwing up. Maybe due to the lack of sleep, difference in time zones, airport food, that distinct smell of Africa and pure exhaustion combined. Or, probably also because of the malaria prophylaxis I was taking. Or maybe because Addis Ababa is the third highest capital in the world. Whatever it was, I felt weak and never felt sooo…alone during this last stretch of the journey. But I have to admit it was one hell of an adventure too. Even if I had to share it with strangers, mostly Africans who are also passengers of the stranded trip and some Filipinos (yes, there were two Pinoys on the Bangkok-Ethiopia flight – we really are everywhere! =).
I’m just glad to be in solid ground at this moment, safe and sound. I will recharge and recover and will definitely look forward to be off to my next destination again!
One of the perks for being in-between jobs, like how I am at the moment, is the chance to spend more time with important people in life. Like today, I actually had the time to accompany my 'not-so-little-anymore' sister Maan to go shopping for her graduation dress. Aww...college grad na ang kapatid ko. She'll be on her way to being a doctor for the next 4-5 years. Darn, i feel so old.
Maan's graduation will actually be the second in the family for this year. Myself having graduated with a masteral degree in Environmental Management, through a joint program of the Ateneo de Manila University and University of San Francisco last month as well.
Graduation. Transitions. Lots of those happening with me lately. Not only had i bid adios to Ateneo but also to my very supportive and great boss at the Manila Observatory, Fr. Dan McNamara...
Lots and lots of fond memories in graduate school! Check out the faces of the next Champions of the Earth at my good friend Michelle's blog : http://laundrybasket.blogs
There's a very good reason for me to smile this much while touring around the Gion area of Kyoto. This was taken on the 3rd day I took on a new status after Marco proposed to me. Yeah, we created our own version of the Kyoto Protocol on 10 March 2007. =)
The complete proposal story is coming up in a bigger, better website...soon :D More photos on the proposal here!
I am now here at the Kansai International Airport, waiting for the boarding call for the flight back to the Philippines. The week-long Asia and the Pacific Youth Camp for Sustainable Development in Kyoto has finally ended. I would say that i am looking forward to going home now but i am definitely bringing home fond memories and precious insights from this experience.
Firstly, it amazes me how diverse backgrounds and cultural differences can be set aside when topic for discussion by our group 
(namely Heng Dyna from Cambodia, Jay Shah from India, Kavindra Nand from Fiji Islands, Saba Majeed from Pakistan and Terumi Ishii from Japan) is stirred towards love and relationship. We may be living miles apart from each other, but universal truths gain prominence eventually with sometimes very amusing cultural variation.
Don’t get me wrong. Of course, in fairness to our sponsoring institution, we did spend the week talking mostly about the youth's viewpoints to sustainable development. I have to admit I am more curious about how full-time students view sustainable development and what actions they plan to take to achieve it. Since I know I have an NGO orientation more than that of a student, I try to restrain myself during discussion. But I did learn a lot from this demographic and their views. And I am very very proud of my group’s final output which hopefully will be published together with our winning essays.
Our collective out
put (which by the way was under the theme 'Industry and Infrastructure') was presented by moi (first part) and Saba (second part) during the Forum held in Kyoto University. It was well-attended by Japanese university students, professors and concerned citizens of Kyoto.
Biases aside, I really think our group was the best! And to think that I was originally part of the group that will work on environmental sustainability.
During the forum itself, I preferred to give the full-time students the chance to really express their views but i was able to say some of my experiences in my NGO work for Partnership for Clean Air when the question about social activism was raised. It was a good thing too since the person who asked the question was really interested about my work and, i later found out, he is also doing something similar with a UNEP-supported network. Very appropriate for future collaborations ;-)
One thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth about the whole event was the fact that, in one of our plenary discussions within the whole group to finalize our declaration, our moderator who IS a Filipina professor contradicted me outrightly when I raised a point about the difficulty of sustaining the environmental agenda if the poverty issue is not addressed first. It was just so wrong for her to do that! She said we should stop making excuses. Duh? I was just trying to make the students have a perspective on what the reality is for developing countries so I raised the example of daily wage workers thinking only about how to get their next meal or the irony of teaching a kid living in the Payatas dumpsite about 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.' We were on the topic of individual making choices to benefit the environment so I pointed out that choice for these people would even be a luxury they can't afford so the underlying issue of poverty is definitely part and parcel of our discussion. I just felt that the students need to be in touch with reality and not be too theoretical with tackling the sustainable development issue. Anyway, my point was validated by the ADB representatives as well as by some audiences during the Forum itself on 17 March. It was just so sad that even during international forum, Filipinos would contradict each other. I mean, is this the crab mentality that we Filipinos are so notoriously branded of? =(
I really regret having to experience that. Nothing personal about the professor but it was just disappointing in a way. Everything else was all-good for me though. The weather didn't bother me as much as it did during my first few days in Japan (it was so cold, in some days it was even snowing!). All in all, it was a hectic but very meaningful(!) Kyoto trip for me =)
Check out our group pic:
The (slightly edited) copy of my winning essay was published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer today, 11 March 2007. I am here in Kyoto right now (almost freezing to death because of the cold weather) and have met the other winning essayists from all other 14 countries. Very interesting people. I am having a great time with them here.
By the way, something very exciting happened here in Kyoto yesterday as well but i will leave that to tell for another day...
Posting the newslink here for posterity ;-)
http://opinion.inquirer.net
MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Twenty-five students from 15 ADB member economies have won prizes in a student essay competition on Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific.
The competition was sponsored by ADB and ROAD, a network of Japanese university students concerned about development issues, through ADB's Japan Special Fund, financed by the Government of Japan. It is part of a series of educational events that will precede ADB’s 40th Annual Meeting that is to be held in Kyoto, Japan, 6-7 May.
The winners are:
A three-member independent jury reviewed each of the more than 600 essays submitted in the Asia and Pacific Student Essay Competition. Each essay is the independent work of the student and reflects their personal views.
Jury members included Ashok Khosla, Chairman, Development Alternatives, New Delhi, India; and Erna Witoelar, United Nations Special Ambassador for MDGs in Asia and the Pacific, Jakarta, Indonesia. Tseuneaki Yoshida, Professor, Project Planning and Management, University of Tokyo, chaired the jury.
"This competition has provided the opportunity for hundreds of university students to contribute their views on major public policy issues challenging Asia and the Pacific," says Bindu N. Lohani, Director General of ADB's Regional and Sustainable Development Department.
"The upcoming Youth Forum in Kyoto will provide an exciting opportunity for the winning essayists to deliberate development priorities and ways in which the region's environmental, economic, and social challenges can be effectively addressed with the active involvement of young people."
All 25 winners are being invited to participate in a week-long program culminating in the Youth Forum on Sustainable Development in Kyoto on 17 March. The Forum will provide winning essayists with the opportunity to deliberate on sustainable development issues.
The event will conclude with adoption of “the Voice of the Youth,” a statement written by the students on sustainable development. In addition, the winning essays will be assembled and published in a book.
The essays – written from a country or regional perspective – addressed one of three specific topics: economic growth and environmental conservation; human resource development and institutions; and industry and infrastructure.
They were judged on the basis of originality and creativity of thought, structure and coherence of arguments, awareness of sustainable development within the context of the essayist’s environment and realities, and relevance to the competition’s themes.
Source: http://www.adb.org/Media/Articles/2007/11461-student/
More details at: http://www.adb.org/AnnualMeeting/2007/Essay-Competition/default.asp
