In my previous post I briefly mentioned sponsoring two of my nieces’ camp fee. Well, these are those two. Chicki and Shanti. They were born a few days apart, with Shanti coming out in August 30, and Chicki on September 2nd. But this is a scanned photo from many many moons ago. I’m pretty sure I took this photo, it was back when we lived inside the Seminary compound and I spent a lot of time with both of them.
I hope they’re having a grand time at camp, and that they’re able to vent out their pent up emotions about their families. Looking at their smiles here, don’t you just see all that they can become and all that they can achieve? They’re in highschool now, already at an age where the decisions they make can determine the course of the rest of their lives.
I hope that they remember how loved they are, and that they still feel that love, and be guided in their future decisions.
Anyway… I don’t believe I displayed my current desktop here yet. The photos in the template by Heather Ann Designs are of my nephew Esban and my Dad, taken during his birthday celebration, March 31st, which was also his sister’s grade school graduation (she’s the one at the bottom picture):
My four nieces, ages 10 to 14, went away to camp this morning. I sponsored two of them, Chiki and Shanti, although I originally only said yes to one. I attended camps throughout my teen years and I know that this is something they can really learn from. I hope it at least broadens their world view. Now, about the sponsorship, what’s in it for me? I asked the three older girls to maintain a journal of their stay and write down their learnings and maybe even feelings for the day’s activities. One entry for each, per day. Now, I doubt they will actually do this, but let’s see. They’ll be back on Friday.
So this camp that the girls are attending is more of a spiritual/religious one. I was at a different kind of camp the previous weekend. It was Asia ACTs’ Youth Camp for Children of Migrant Workers. It’s the first of it’s kind that Asia ACTs, together with ILO and Save the Children-UK, sponsored. The youth that attended camp had parents or significant adults who left home to work abroad. The aim of the camp was to see how these children are faring, what their situation is, and mostly, how they’re coping.
The camp was held at Forest Camp, located in Barangay Puypuy, Bay, Laguna.
The first thing that caught my attention (aside from the trees) as soon as I set foot in Forest Club, were these flowers:
They have a lot of these in different flower combinations, I’ll try to show more later.
It was a fun three-day weekend. I had terrible headaches every morning (was it because I had lots of sleep?), but they eventually went away and I sure wouldn’t let them rob me of that weekend. I had to take a two-day leave from work just so I could join the camp as one of three documentors, I wouldn’t let headaches take it away from me. Besides, I was there to work, not to relax (no matter how beautiful our room was).
The weekend was a bit emotional for some of the children, but it was mostly fun for them. They got to build new friendships, learned about their inherent rights, and also gained a new perspective of their situation. They also got to be a little adventurous with the canopy walk, two-rope bridge, log crossing, and the famous (and stinky) mud crawl! I took pictures of the adventure of course, but I used Frankie because it was outdoors and a good opportunity to take her out. There are some photos on my Kodak, snapped by Ate Reg, I’ll probably put those up. I actually have lots of photos from throughout the weekend but I’m wary of posting them here because, well, just because.
So how does it feel joining a workshop after almost four years in a different world? It’s all the same. Everything’s still goes the way I remember them. Not much has changed. Part of me wishes I could just go back and do it all over again. But there’s the part that doesn’t want the added baggage that sometimes comes along with it. The biggest pull factor is just being with young people and seeing them blossom.
It wasn’t too long ago when I was just like them. Discovering myself, and learning about others. What’s most important though, is seeing them realize that they can do something to change a situation that they don’t like, be it their’s or someone else’s. The best part is when you see one or two or three of them be empowered to take control of their situation. That’s what I miss being a part of.
Anyway, I’m not sure this post turned out the way I had thought it would, but what the heck.
I knew I must have had a post that mentioned the marathon, at least once. And I found it on my truffles post last year and in this post too. I’m surprised there aren’t any from previous years. Hmm…
Every year at Lent (for how long I don’t remember anymore), Studio 23 runs a 7th Heaven marathon at daytime. And we always watch. Always. I love this series, I wish they’d release a DVD set of all the seasons. I think it’s the only one I have yet to find. I’m not losing hope though, we did find the complete set of The ’70s Show didn’t we?
What year did Studio 23 start showing 7th Heaven? I don’t remember. But I know that for years, we’d always tune in no matter what night it would be shown. And even if I already saw it, I’d still see the marathon. I really just love that family. Ruthie used to be my favorite, but now that she’s so grown up, she can be bratty no? I love Matt! He’s gorgeous isn’t he? Hahaha 🙂
That’s how they looked in the beginning, and they grew up right before our eyes. Man, there’s a lot of kissing in this show haha. Now, more than ever, I want a DVD set of all the seasons! Someone find me one!
One thing I really miss about being in school or working elsewhere is having long holidays, having the week off for Lent. Mom and Dad have been home all week, and though they didn’t get to leave, they were planning to drive somewhere, like what we used to do before. And I haven’t been to church once this season though I probably shouldn’t blame that one on work.
Anyways… I was trying to find great deals on DSLRs, you guys know we’ll soon shop around for one right? I just don’t know where to look for a bargain, a camera shop that goes on a big sale maybe? Hehe. Anyways, when you start looking around for a camera, so many sites featuring other gadgets try to grab your attention too. From jumping from one site to another, I found myself looking at featured deals at Buy.com. It’s a wonderful idea to have comparison sites that help you find the best deals available. If only there’d be something that would feature products that I can actually buy around here.
….OMG. The Glenoak congregation is singing You are my sunshine for the Reverend’s miracle, and I can’t help but feel like crying. Not because i feel happy that the Rev is well. But because it still reminds me so much of my grandma…
This past weekend was the longest I’ve had off work since our Bohol vacation last year. But this wasn’t a vacation; yes I was away from my regular job, but I was working too where I went. I need time to process my thoughts of the weekend. I just hope I don’t completely forget to blog about it like so many other things I’ve left for later then never got around to.
I had a long Thursday night at work – 14 hours straight! The closer shift had logged out at 2PM and I was just wrapping up at that time. I had intended to go to the hospital for the Spirometry results and then head on over to help out with the camp preparations at Asia ACTs. But I ended up with time for only one task – I had to choose the follow up check up.
At the Medicard clinic in St. Luke’s, I didn’t have to wait long to get the results or to be seen by a physician. The test results didn’t show any blockage, and my lungs were normal. So what the heck is wrong? The residen ENT was on duty and was just next door so my case was referred to her. I wonder why that wasn’t done earlier?
Anyway, Dr. Que was the ENT and she’s nice. She went through my records and asked me a couple of questions. Then she told me that she wanted to look inside my nose, using a nasal endoscopy. Man, it was long! I asked if it was going to be painful and she said it usually isn’t. I was relieved that she didn’t really probe too far in. Phew. It took just probably 10 seconds to look into both nostrils. She said that it was narrow up there, which is probably why I also have shortness of breath sometimes. Then she said that she wanted to see if it’s the anatomy that’s causing the non-stop colds, instead of an infection. If it was an infection, the antibiotics should have killed it, but it’s still around. So she ordered a nasal xray to be done on me. She further showed me illustrations of the nasal cavity, and what mine seems to look like at the moment. She also advised me to stay away from coffee and chocolates as it encourages build up of phleghm. Ugh. That is so hard to do.
From the doc, I decided to go ahead and have my xray taken, rather than go back on another day. If the three test I had were billed to me, I’d have spent over 5,000 Pesos already (more than a hundred US dollars), not including the medicine. Good thing that I have coverage. Anyway, the xray results were due for release the next day, but I’ll claim it next week when the doctor resumes work. It’s Holy Week and most people are on holidays (except us).
From the X-ray room, I paid my aunt a vist. She was rushed to the hospital the night before for extreme pain in her tummy. As it turns out, she has pancreatitis. She was discharged on Monday, but is continuing her medication so she can get even better. I hope it doesn’t progress to anything more serious.
I stayed there for about two hours, with two of my cousins. Ma called to say that she and Dad decided to eat out, so they picked me up from the hospital and we headed to Shakey’s. The mojos looked smaller than usual! I snapped a few photos, but I’m growing sleepy again. I’d leave the photos for another day.
So I noticed something weird on my EC widget today – the ads seemed to have changed twice (that I’ve noticed) since I logged online. What’s up with that? The ads run for an entire day don’t they? Then I hopped on over to one of the blogs on my widget and read his post about having 30 or more ad requests that seem to have been stuck on his dashboard. I finally logged on to EC and found I had a long list of Paid Ads request!
I didn’t read the comments on the blogger’s post so I don’t know what the explanation is, but good thing is that mine are not stuck and I can access my dash just find. I’ll find time to make sense of these paid ads later on tonight or tomorrow. I’ve been back in the city for about five hours already, and I’ve sat in front of my computer for the last three. I had a wonderfully long weekend, headaches and all. I had a taste of my old life (although I wasn’t too busy this time around, okay, I slacked off a lot of times!). Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that a lot of things are milling around in my mind, and I don’t want to read through the new system in EC to cloud it even more. I’ll get to that in time.
For now, here’s a much belated shout out to my top EC droppers for the past month:
The boyfriend’s here but I can’t peel my eyes off the PC just yet…
